The world let out a sigh of combined confusion and disappointment today, as the latest Nintendo Treehouse event left fans wondering why the bizarre presentation even took place.
Nintendo announced yesterday that a Treehouse event was coming and that it would feature gameplay footage from the upcoming Paper Mario: The Origami King, as well as an announcement for a new title from WayForward. Speculation instantly began about WayForward working on a Nintendo franchise, but Nintendo quickly clarified that it was going to be based on a third-party property.
The Treehouse event has come and gone, and the new game turned out to be Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia. This has left fans confused as to the point of the event. Paper Mario: The Origami King is due to be released next week, but the gameplay footage was cobbled together during a livestream, rather than being the slick presentation that fans have come to expect from Nintendo events. The Bakugan game is probably hype to fans of the series, but it’s the kind of thing that would have been glossed over during a proper Direct.
The disconnect between the two parts of the Treehouse event can possibly be explained by the recent Nintendo shareholders meeting that was held in Japan. President Shuntaro Furukawa received criticism from shareholders due to the lack of game announcements, especially as the Switch’s 2020 schedule is currently looking dry. Microsoft and Sony have had some massive events over the summer promoting their next systems, while Nintendo seemingly has nothing left for the year after Paper Mario: The Origami King. There are a couple of games with loose “2020” release dates (like Bravely Default II), but it’s not an exciting time to be a Switch owner.
It’s possible that the pushback from the shareholders is the reason for the cobbled-together Treehouse event. Nintendo really needs to start promoting the upcoming Switch games for the year, and the silence is frustrating people. The Nintendo Directs are some of the most exciting gaming events of the year, but COVID-19 has prevented the company from doing them, which means that we might be stuck with smaller events like this for the foreseeable future.
