Nintendo Talks Fortnite On Switch, E3 Online Presentation and More

Nintendo put on quite a show last week during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, wowing attendees with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and other great games for the Switch. It also surprised a lot of home gamers too, especially with a port of Fortnite for the system.

To get a little more insight behind that game, as well as E3 in general, GamesBeat recently conducted an interview with senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta, asking him about a number of topics.

First, Fortnite was discussed, as well as its major impact. “Epic was great to work with on this,” he explained. “They bought into the idea of announcing it and making it available on the same day. We were very appreciative that they were able and willing to work with us to make that happen. It was a nice perk for people, that they didn’t have to wait to play that game.

“That’s what we’re excited about with Fortnite. Obviously it’s a gaming phenomenon. People have been having a great time with it. But the ability to take that game outside the home on Nintendo Switch and play it with a robust control scheme that the Joy-Cons offer, it’s something that people are already enjoying today.”

He then talked about the idea of doing an online presentation instead of the usual press conference, which the company has done for years. “We decide each year what to show in the booth based on the content we have. We also do the same when it comes to what we want to do in Nintendo Direct or a presentation. In the past we’ve done presentations where we brought thousands of people together and demo’d live on stage. With the last four or five years, we’ve done more of the video approach. It’s really whatever we think is the best way to bring those games to life.

“We think that Nintendo Direct recently has been a nice way to do it, because we’re able to package interviews and gameplay and fine-tune it so it’s a nice tight presentation. It’s an efficient use of time. It’s a good way to bring these games to life in a video format. In the future we might go back to a presentation. We might stick with video. We might do something completely different. But it’ll all be based on what we have to show that year.”

But he also brought up the notion that Nintendo didn’t have any major surprises during its online presentation this year. “We certainly had some news break out of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the fact that you could play all these characters from the past, and new characters like Inkling and Ridley. All of your Amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. series and other Amiibo work with that game. If you have an Amiibo that matches to one of the fighting characters in the game, that’s going to bring functionality to the game. We think that’s a nice surprise. I don’t know if you can get much bigger for us than tapping into a phenomenon like Fortnite and having that available on the same day. We felt that was a nice surprise.

“Hopefully there’s something in our Nintendo Direct for everyone. We think we have a nice broad swath of games that are going to appeal to people all over the spectrum. They can find something to have a good time with on Nintendo Switch.”

The Nintendo Switch is available now.