Sony's First State Of Play Presentation Led To 'Nintendo Direct' Trending On Social Media

TheGamer

By Chris Littlechild

Published Mar 27, 2019

Sony has taken a page out of Nintendo's book by introducing its State of Play. However, it ended up causing Nintendo Direct to trend on Twitter.

Though it’s really not how things are supposed to work, Sony's take on Nintendo’s Directs just drew more attention to… Nintendo’s Directs.

For the past several years, fans have been all about those Nintendo Direct presentations. They’ll speculate about possible games that will be revealed in the next one, and they’ll get super antsy if there’s a long gap between presentations. For the faithful, the Nintendo Direct is a way of life.

Like E3 presentations proper, the smallest glimpse of something major during a Direct is an Earth-shattering event. Last March, the reflection of the Smash Bros. logo in an Inkling’s eye was shown at the end of a Direct, and… well, this happened. In short, these presentations are serious business and are huge landmarks on a Nintendo fan's calendar.

They’re a handy way to generate hype, and Sony and Microsoft have picked up on that fact. Recently, the other gaming giants have confirmed their intent to start a program of similar broadcasts, covering upcoming titles and other insider news.

Sony has dubbed its presentation State of Play, and the first of these shows was live-streamed on March 25 (you can watch it in full here). New trailers and gameplay for titles like Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fuelled were shown, as was another update from No Man’s Sky (yep, it’s still a thing).

While it’s early days for this sort of format, there’s no question that the first State of Play was totally underwhelming. As is the case with Nintendo Directs themselves, sometimes the expectation is just so high. Here, though, we have the added disappointment that Sony won’t be in attendance at E3 2019, and State of Play has to prove itself as a worthy alternative.

However, it seems like Nintendo doesn’t have anything to fear just yet, especially with this curious fact in mind: According to Nintendo Enthusiast, the first State of Play actually got Nintendo Direct trending on Twitter.

Take a look at this snarky screengrab:

Sony State Of Play Nintendo Direct Trend Header — Via: Nintendo Enthusiast

It’s just another example of the usual petty trolling. Some fans of rival gaming consoles and companies just can’t resist engaging in this sort of thing. There’s an important lesson here, though: If Sony plans to continue it's State of Play shows going forward, it has to get them right.