Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentations or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began in Japan and North America with the first edition on October 21, 2011, before expanding to Europe, Australia, and South Korea.

Format

Nintendo Direct presentations vary in format between different presentations and regions.

Regional differences

Nintendo Directs generally come in both regional and international formats.

International

For subjects of a general worldwide appeal, a single Nintendo Direct is often localized for a simultaneous international broadcast. Usually, these will be recorded in Japanese and presented by a Japanese presenter. Prior to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's death, he would host Directs in both English and Japanese, with other languages' presentations being subtitled.
Upon Iwata's death, Nintendo Directs did not receive a worldwide host until 2017, when Senior General Manager Yoshiaki Koizumi from Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development took over this role. From 2018 to mid-2023, Koizumi shared this responsibility with Shinya Takahashi, the Executive General Manager of Nintendo EPD. From late 2023 to early 2025, Takahashi became the sole host of the main Nintendo Directs, with Koizumi returning to host in late 2025. E3 Directs sometimes featured Reggie Fils-Aime as a host for a short period of time until his departure in 2019.
Since 2017, the Japanese presenter and any narrators' roles are dubbed or subtitled for international release, including into English.
Presentations scheduled for around the time of the Electronic Entertainment Expo were originally produced by Nintendo of America, presented in English and dubbed or subtitled into other languages for international broadcast. From 2019 until the last event in 2021, E3 Directs were produced by Nintendo in Japan, presented in Japanese and dubbed or subtitled into other languages for international broadcast.

Japan

In Japan, Nintendo Directs were most commonly presented by Nintendo's global president Satoru Iwata until his death in 2015. Yoshiaki Koizumi started serving as host in 2017. Shinya Takahashi started sharing the hosting duties with Koizumi in 2018. In From March 2018 to September 2019, Koizumi only hosted the Directs in the first half of the year, while Takahashi hosted the Directs in the second half of the year. From February 2021 to September 2022 and since March 2025, this format for Directs was switched with Takahashi hosting the Directs in the first half of the year and Koizumi hosting the Directs in the second half of the year. The E3 2021 and June 2023 Directs had both hosts appear at the same time.
Since 2017, Japan has hosted region-specific "Indie World" presentations, focusing on indie games published for Nintendo Switch.
Directs focused on Super Smash Bros. and Kirby Air Riders are typically hosted by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator and director of the Super Smash Bros series, the creator of the Kirby series, and the director of Kirby Air Ride and its sequel, Kirby Air Riders.

North America

In North America, the videos were often presented by Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, and Bill Trinen.
For international Directs produced in Japan since 2017, Nintendo of America airs the original Japanese audio with English narration; although two notable exceptions of having it subtitled instead of dubbed were the Mr. Sakurai Presents presentations starting with "Min Min" from Arms in 2020 and up until the final presentation with "Sora" from Kingdom Hearts in 2021, as well as the Super Nintendo World Directs hosted by Shigeru Miyamoto. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult to record the voice-overs. Despite pandemic restrictions easing since then, the Kirby Air Riders Directs hosted by Sakurai were also subtitled instead of dubbed.
Since 2017, Nintendo of America has aired presentations focusing on indie games published for Nintendo Switch. Between 2017 and 2019, these were branded as "Nindies Showcase" hosted by Trinen, before aligning their branding to the Japanese "Indie World" banner.

Europe and Australia

European Directs were presented by former Nintendo of Europe president, Satoru Shibata. These presentations were also broadcast in Australia.
Australia only aired the European output, but one Direct was created specifically for the region, broadcast on September 24, 2014. This Direct was hosted by Tom Enoki.
For international Directs produced in Japan since 2017, Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo Australia air the original Japanese audio for the presenters, but use an English dub for the narrated sections. These are then subtitled for broadcast in other languages. Since 2019, the "Pokémon Direct"/"Pokémon Presents" are the only Directs that are dubbed for Europe and Australia in English, however, they are subtitled in different languages with the English dub.
Since 2017, Nintendo of Europe has broadcast presentations focusing on indie games published for Nintendo Switch. From 2017 to 2018, Nintendo of Europe broadcast the American "Nindies Showcase" presentations. In 2018 and 2019, Nintendo of Europe hosted its own "Indie Highlights" videos. Since 2019, they returned to broadcasting Nintendo of America's presentations, now under the "Indie World" banner, with Nintendo Australia broadcasting later on.

South Korea

South Korea also aired exclusive Nintendo Directs hosted by Nintendo of Korea president, Hiroyuki Fukuda.

Hong Kong and Taiwan

A few Nintendo Direct presentations were produced specifically for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Types of Nintendo Direct presentations

Outside of the general Nintendo Direct presentations, which cover a range of titles, there are also Directs centred around specific titles or series. These are usually presented by the producer or director of the game or series, or employ a narrator.

Nintendo E3 Directs

From June 2013 to June 2021, in lieu of traditional large-scale Electronic Entertainment Expo press conferences, Nintendo opted to utilize the Nintendo Direct platform as an alternative method of conveying its news. Speaking at an annual March financial results briefing just two months prior, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata stated that the company's decision was determined by the fact that "different people demand different types of information", and that the Nintendo Direct platform had established itself to the point that Nintendo would "be able to deliver messages more appropriately and effectively … based on the various needs of different groups of people". Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz observed that the last press conference that Nintendo held at E3 in 2012 featured too much of a mix between Nintendo's new hardware for the Wii U and game announcements. Compared to other press conferences held that year, Nintendo's presentation left little for fans of the company to be excited for. By switching to Nintendo Directs, Dring opined that the company was able to better connect to fans using the Nintendo Direct presentations, made the faces of Nintendo's executives more visible, as well as having Directs outside of the E3 cycle to provide more frequent updates on game and hardware releases.
During the stream of the pre-recorded broadcast for E3 2013, Nintendo's website suffered from technical difficulties in the form of overloaded servers, rendering the live video unwatchable for many viewers, and prompting an official apology from Satoru Iwata. Despite these difficulties, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé noted that secondary viewership following the initial broadcast still worked to popularize product promotion.
The following year, in addition to the Direct, the company added "Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3" live streams to their presence at the trade event. Named after the Product Development department at Nintendo of America, these were daily streams from the show floor that featured NoA localization staff and game developers demoing and giving in-depth coverage of titles that were announced during that year's Direct. The year also began a trend of Nintendo hosting a game tournament sometime during the week, in which the participants competed in titles that had yet to be released.

Year	Title	Summary
2014	Super Smash Bros. Invitational	Sixteen professional Super Smash Bros. players get invited to play Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
2015	Nintendo World Championships 2015	Sixteen players, eight chosen from qualifying competitions throughout the United States and invited by Nintendo, compete in various Nintendo games, with the final game being Super Mario Maker.
2016		Nintendo lacked both an E3 tournament and an E3 presentation this year, only having Nintendo Treehouse Live streams that focused mainly on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Nintendo 3DS games.
2017	Splatoon 2 World Inkling Invitational	Professional Splatoon teams from the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia/New Zealand compete in a round-robin tournament with Splatoon 2s Turf War and Ranked Battle modes.
2017	Pokkén Tournament DX Invitational	Four two-player teams consisting of YouTube and Twitch personalities compete, with one member of each team using one of the new characters added for the Pokkén Tournament DXs Nintendo Switch release.
2017	Arms Open Invitational	Four convention attendees at E3 2017 compete against four professional fighting game players in a single elimination format with the various gameplay modes in Arms.
2018	Splatoon 2 World Championship Finals	Splatoon representatives from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Japan, compete in a series of ranked matches in Splatoon 2 for the grand prize at E3 2018.
2018	Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018	Professional Super Smash Bros. players and selected convention attendees at E3 2018 get to play the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate title for the Nintendo Switch.
2019	Super Mario Maker 2 Invitational 2019	Special guests invited by Nintendo get to play a wide variety of newly made courses in the upcoming Super Mario Maker 2.
2019	Splatoon 2 World Championship 2019	Splatoon teams from North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Japan, each the winners of their respective tournaments, battle in Splatoon 2 after a year of events to be given the world number one title at E3 2019.
2019	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate World Championship 2019 3v3	Qualified Super Smash Bros. teams of three from each of North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Japan compete against each other in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after each winning their regional tournaments.

After E3 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the video game industry. E3 2020 was cancelled in March 2020 due to the pandemic, E3 2021 was held online, with Nintendo only holding an E3 Direct and Treehouse Live streams, and E3 2022 was cancelled in March 2022. Nintendo also pulled out of E3 2023, which was cancelled in March 2023 due to the "lack of sustained interest". The Entertainment Software Association permanently discontinued E3 in December 2023, leading to more publisher-specific showcases, including main Nintendo Directs with headlines. Following E3's discontinuation, Summer Game Fest took over as the tentpole summer video game showcase, and while a Nintendo Direct is often still shown in June around the time of the event, Nintendo is not affiliated or a partner of Summer Game Fest as of 2025 and has mostly avoided the show, though Geoff Keighley had expressed interest in Nintendo becoming a bigger part of the event in the future.