Nintendo Direct 2022 and its Social Media Hype: A Clear Picture or A Web of Lies?

Every video game fan remembers their very first console. It was our threshold into the world of gaming after all. For me, that console was the Gameboy Advance SP. While I couldn’t tell you what games I played on it all those years ago, I can tell you that Nintendo’s Gameboy brought me great joy in my developing years. Before I even started writing this post, I talked to my mom about the handheld device that thrust me into the world of gaming, and she told me about how the Gameboy was practically attached to my hand when I was a kid. However, this changed when it became obsolete. Like many others, I moved on to the next Nintendo technology I could get my hands on: the Nintendo DS Lite. Compatible with Gameboy cartridges, I was able to relive past journeys while forging new ones in brand new worlds. I definitely remember my time playing the games on this console and all subsequent Nintendo consoles after it. This may have been because I was a little older, but it is also the impact those games left on me by taking me to unexplored worlds, leading me to meeting other fans, and making me fall in love with video games as a

whole. What do my first two handheld consoles have in common? They were both creations of Nintendo, a gigantic company that has garnered such a large fanbase and such a mainstream appeal that many flock to watch a nearly hour-long stream of advertisements for their next releases. That’s right, I’m talking about the Nintendo Direct Livestream that dropped earlier this month.

While I am a fan of their games, I am not one to gather a group of friends around to see which games are coming out this year from the company. No shame to anyone who does, of course, it is cool to be able to interact with other fans and see the potential of the games that will be released that year. In fact, the reason I am making this post at all is because of people like this who watched the stream live and reacted excitedly to the announced titles. In particular, the two games that I noticed seemed to get the most hype were Nintendo Switch Sports and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, a DLC for the game. An honorary mention goes also to Kirby and the Forgotten Land as many fans loved to take the opportunity to meme on “Mouthful Mode” (go look it up if you have no idea what I’m talking about). Anyways, as I stated before, I didn’t watch the announcement live, but from what my social media was peddling to me, these two titles are the ones everyone is talking about. I knew that there were probably new franchises based off of familiar IPs and new installments from established franchises being announced as well and wondered, “Why is it that everyone is talking about this revamped game and a DLC to a long-running series instead of the fresh new titles? Why these specific series’ and not other equally well-known franchises?” These questions, in my mind, pointed to one answer: Nostalgia and Connection.

The Entertainment Sphere’s Impact During the Pandemic

Because we were all confined to our homes, entertainment has played a large role in passing the time ever since the pandemic began. This statement is especially true for the start of COVID’s spread in 2020. With many companies and schools scrambling to shift their work to an online format, people all around the world were left with more free time than they had ever had before, and since partaking in activities outside one’s house was out of the question, we had to do something to kill the time. The main contributors naturally become watching movies and television; playing video games’ reading books; taking up new and old hobbies; and participating in other forms of entertainment.

In particular, I noticed many people were watching, playing, reading, and listening to media that they first experienced in their past from way before the pandemic began. I am no exception. Just before the pandemic’s start, I was gifted the whole Avatar: The Last Airbender series, a fantastic show that I first watched in my childhood, for my birthday. When we were all quarantined, it was the first thing I turned to. Many of my friends did the same with their respective guilty pleasures from their early years and I came to ponder why we all unanimously began to relive our childhoods. Then, it hit me: Nostalgia.

With its comforting embrace, Nostalgia reminds us of our youth, a time before all the craziness and unexpectedness of the world began. It was an escape. While entertainment has always been a form of escape even before COVID started, its escapism is more critical now than ever: reminding us of simpler and less terrifying times while taking us on journeys and to places where COVID-19 doesn’t even exist. If there was no way to access these forms of entertainment during this time, our mentality would take a huge toll. However, video games have a very special ability that many forms of entertainment do not: a way to connect and meet with others in the virtual world.

Photo Credit: Nintendo

I don’t think any gamer could forget the impact that Animal Crossing had at the start of the pandemic. A place where you could meet up with your friends virtually to create a whole new place to live away from the realities of our world? Sounds like a perfect way to feel close to others and get away from the stressors of reality. And it was for many people, for those who played games on a regular basis and for those who hadn’t touched a controller in years. Animal Crossing: New Horizons released at the perfect time and allowed people to come together in a world that was free of COVID-19 to socialize with others. Of course, to some this doubled as both a way to connect and a way to experience nostalgia. The Animal Crossing series began in 2001 and has had many installments preceding this release of New Horizons. Just like this game, the announcement of Nintendo Switch Sports and the DLC for Mario Kart 8: Deluxe intertwine nostalgia and connection together during a time where we are still going through the motions of the pandemic.

Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe: A History

While both have treasured histories by fans all over the world, Mario Kart has a longer past. Releasing its first game in 1992, Mario Kart has brought family, friends, and soon-to-be enemies together for some good ol’ fashion kart racing as the characters in the Mario franchise. For me, the peak of Mario Kart was with the release of Mario Kart Wii in 2008, which was the best selling Mario Kart game until Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. I would play Mario Kart Wii at get-togethers with my group of friends, birthday parties (the best time to play this game, in my humble opinion), and with family on game nights.

Unlike the Mario Kart games before it, Mario Kart Wii brought more immersion by having the Wii Remote act as your steering wheel using the motion control if that was your playing style. If it was your method of playing Mario Kart Wii, Nintendo even released The Wii Steering Wheel that attached to the Wii remote to make it really feel like you are holding the kart’s wheel. This game’s popularity, however, is not restricted to my own experience. Mario Kart Wii is the second biggest Wii game, selling 37.38 million pcs total ("IR"). What game beat it out of the top spot? Wii Sports (82.90 million pcs) ("IR").

Photo Credit: Nintendo

Compared to its kart racing brethren, the Nintendo Sports series’ history is short and sweet. Wii Sports released in 2006 bundled with the Wii. Because of the bundle, it’s status as the best selling game for the console becomes clear. However, that does not hinder the impact it made on Wii users everywhere. This game still made its way into the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to know someone who had the Wii or who was able to get their hands on a Wii themselves. Wii Sports brought faux exercise into the homes of millions and it culminated in a sequel, also on the Wii console, called Wii Sports Resort. While less popular than its predecessor, Wii Sports Resort expanded upon the game with new sports and new locations. With this game not being bundled with the console, the true popularity of the Nintendo Sports series is revealed; Wii Sports Resort is the third best selling game for the Wii with 33.14 million pcs sold ("IR"). Despite its differences to the Mario Kart series, one thing remained the same: it brought together family and friends for some friendly competition.

Which game actually caused the most buzz? Hype vs Facts

While it is true that my social media wanted me to believe that Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe’s new DLC were the most notable announcements during the Nintendo Direct stream, I was unsure if this impression was skewed. After all, my social media is going to show me the content that I want to see. While I’m not an avid Nintendo Sports or Mario Kart fan, I definitely am part of the demographic of those who would get excited about more of these games (I’m not going to lie, the announcement for Nintendo Switch Sports has me gearing up to buy it once it’s released). All this doesn’t mean that these two announcements were indeed the most popular on the day of the livestream and following. To grasp the scope of their popularity compared to some of the other titles announced that day, I turned to Google Trends to find out if the hype is truly all it's cracked up to be.

Because I am pulling data from Google Trends only, it’s obvious that I won’t know which game is going to sell the most before it’s even on the market. Additionally, this isn’t a clear-cut way of displaying which is the most popular; it would be more likely to suggest that these statistics show how many people were curious about the releases and do not necessarily correlate to their perception of said game. The best way for me to do that is to go on all popular social media and somehow gather all the data based on the positive reception each game received. As much as this would be an interesting endeavor, I do not have the time to act on it so Google Trends will have to suffice for now. Keep this in mind as I discuss my findings. However, with these results, I may be able to surmise what the top selling game announced during the Nintendo Direct Livestream will be and see if my social media’s predictions are correct.

When I first pulled up the website, I decided to insert some of the titles of the games announced that I saw the most people talk about on my social media. This included “Nintendo Switch Sports,” “Mario Kart 8: Deluxe” (if you put “DLC” or “Booster Course Pass” at the end, there was little to no trend), “Mario Strikers” (if you put “Battle League” or “Battle League Football” at the end, there was little to no trend), “Xenoblade Chronicles,” and “Kirby and the Forgotten Land.” The

result was what you see to the left. Overall, on the day of the announcement, Nintendo Switch Sports was the highest but was closely tied with, surprisingly, Mario Strikers and Xenoblade Chronicles. This left Mario Kart 8: Deluxe in fourth place. This was astonishing to me considering all the TikToks and tweets I had seen about the DLC, but again, it is possible those who were excited about it also didn’t feel the need to look it up. Of the top contenders, Xenoblade Chronicles was the most surprising to me. Xenoblade Chronicles has an interesting evolution. It’s actually based on two previous series’, Xenogears and Xenosaga, that first began in 1998 so its nostalgia factor can be attributed to its rise in popularity during the livestream announcement ("Xeno (Series)"). The series, from what I can tell, has a niche fanbase that could be a cult classic that I had not heard of before. Regardless, Nintendo Switch Sports reigned supreme which corresponds with the response I had seen online.

Since word-for-word searches for some titles seemed to yield no results, I began to consider a different approach. I put myself in the mind of someone who had seen the announcement that day; what would I type into Google if I wanted to tell a friend about what game I was excited about from the livestream? That’s when it hit me. I would probably write something along the lines of “New *Insert Game Franchise Name Here* Game.” This opened up a whole new set of statistics. This time I put in “New Wii Sports Game,” “New Mario Kart Game,” “New Xenoblade Chronicles Game,” and “New Kirby Game” (2/26 Edit: I realize that I forgot to add “New Mario Strikers Game” to my Google Trends so I decided to insert it with the others but the results were the same).

As you can see on the right, the results were staggering.

“New Kirby Game” blew everything else out of the water! I gave it an honorable mention at the beginning of my post for it’s memability, but in the end, it was the most googled title out of all the titles I chose.

The Kirby series definitely has the nostalgia factor, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land seems to be marketed as a single-player game, severing a connection element. While having “nostalgia” or “connection” obviously does not make or break a game’s success during the pandemic (I actually play more single-player games than multiplayer, personally), they were just elements I noticed in the most popular games during this time seen in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Among Us. It is possible that this spike in interest comes from the combination of nostalgia, memability, and its likeness to a competitor game, Super Mario Odyssey. Super Mario Odyssey is also a game about taking control of something else in order to complete missions and objectives in different worlds. It is also the sixth best selling Nintendo Switch game, having sold 23.02 million pcs ("IR"). No matter the reason, Kirby and the Forgotten Land may end up being one of the most popular games from the Nintendo Direct livestream this year.

The Unpredictability of Video Game Popularity

While my research was minimal at best, it truly showed how unpredictable it can be to pin down what will go well with video game audiences. After watching the full announcement myself, I was personally the most excited about Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was my first introduction to the series and I fell in love with it (Golden Deer is the best house hands down, and I will fight anyone who disagrees). I was a little sad to see that it’s announcement came at the very beginning of the stream with very little fanfare from the announcer unlike some of the other titles. Regardless, I will be buying it when it releases. This just goes to show how diverse the video game sphere is and how difficult and stressful marketing must be at huge gaming companies like Nintendo.

On the other hand, good marketing does not automatically make a good game and the stakes are higher with big companies like Nintendo. For an example of this, look no further than the reactions to the Nintendo Switch Sports announcement. When the new Miis were introduced, many reactions I saw were those of displeasure, many stating that they liked the old Miis better. Lucky for them, only a moment later did the announcement show the new and older Miis together which gave relief to all those afraid of the change. If the old Miis were not available to use or were not shown in the trailer, I wonder how much that would have damaged sales. Basically, a chunk of how sales will be determined are not centralized on the marketing itself, but also its reaction and how it spreads through social media algorithms. So, next time your social media is showing you a lot of fans talking about something being released soon, you might want to do your own research and see if the hype is legit.

“IR Information : Financial Data - Top Selling Title Sales Units.” Nintendo Co., Ltd., https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/wii.html.

“Xeno (Series).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeno_(series).