Are we doing hype wrong?

Published on 10 Jun 2026

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(This might be a weird post where I might go in all sorts of directions.)

I’ll be honest, the older I get, the more I think our relation to hype and marketing is weird.

I’ve been really wondering when I look at other people talking about wanting to be hyped, which you know, that sounds fine at first glance, but then either very directly or hinted, their explanations about how they want to be hyped is clearly about how they want the best marketing for themselves, how they want the marketing to sell them into it, and then complain about how they weren’t sold in the way they wanted, but also feeling like they’re putting their opinion in a way that sounds objective, in a way that makes the opinion sound more important than it actually is.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like hype, I love hype, but lately, I’ve been sort of slowing down on things, to a point where I think Nintendo Directs are no longer necessary to me. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them and I’ll still gladly watch them, but the slow pace nature of announcements since Nintendo Today is actually refreshing to me. Maybe it’s just me, but the way things get announced these days don’t really matter much to me anymore. I am just interested in the information in the first place, which is what hypes me. (Look at me I got hyped by the random announcements of Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper for Virtual Boy Nintendo Classics.)

The Star Fox Direct seems widely recognized as a bad example of marketing because of its sudden announcement right before going live, but honestly, by looking at the amount of views different regions got, it’s massively successful to be honest, and combined with Fox McCloud having actually a somewhat prominent role in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie helping the visibility, it seems like the game might have a way better success than any of the previous games in the series. Also, everyone understood what the game is. That seems like a dumb thing to consider but I feel that’s an evidence of how different we think of how marketing should be for ourselves VS what marketing should be for Nintendo to make sure it is understood and seen by the most amount of people in terms of effectiveness, and I think one of these things is more important than the other. Personally, I was not really annoyed by this, and I don’t think too much of it now, especially in retrospect.

Another argument I hear is “diluted hype,” in how a sort of ruined surprise, either through a leak, or through missing out the moment, makes you feel less hype when you see the announcement. I personally do not understand this. Games that I am excited for, I still am excited for them in general, and unless a game is taking too long to come out, or interest simply being different on a moment to moment basis, it feels more like passing to Nintendo a personal problem and blaming them for it… And sure, the initial reaction is definitely what gets us some adrenaline, it feels good, but at what point I should consider whether people prefer gaming, or that one shot of adrenaline and dopamine, as in an actual choice between either of them?

I’ve even seen a sort of review of the latest Nintendo Direct (2026-06-09) from a popular outlet where it complains about how many games were rumored as a negative point. Am I the only one who finds this extremely weird and unfair? You can complain all right about the rumors and how spoilers are annoying, but now I don’t even know who are we blaming for the rumors, it’s starting to sound like a caricature.

I think the only criticism that I do accept is how Nintendo doesn’t give enough information to see ahead in general, like we didn’t have any idea of first party games coming after Splatoon Raiders in July before the Direct, even though this doesn’t really hit me hard because I am not in huge financial trouble at the moment of typing this, there is also still importance in having a dedicated moment to watch live streamed announcements, the experience behind that shouldn’t be discounted either, but I fear how we might blame marketing too much over our way to live, especially if people yearn to live those moments as the most important thing, I tend to be a lonewolf, so I think I’m least likely to fully understand how it is like.

And one other aspect which I don’t think anyone has truly thought about, you can complain about remakes / ports as you want, many people think it prevents today’s games to shine in some way, which while I don’t fully disagree with, but in a world where Nintendo actually tries without fail to release games on an almost monthly basis, a feat that people clearly do not pay attention to because the next new 3D Mario or new 3D Zelda hasn’t been announced yet, and how many of those games are actually new games in general (anyone who says Kirby Air Riders is a remake like I’ve seen before needs to be corrected like at this point 99% of sequels are just remakes in that stupid logic), I think Nintendo is allowed a little bit of credit because I don’t know if you know but: Games take time to make. I will probably see many complaints about how Nintendo supposedly forgot Zelda if that Ocarina of Time Remake didn’t exist. This is the unfortunate truth.

I gotta admit in my case, I no longer really complain about when a game isn’t to my liking. I just complain when most games look too similar to each other, a general lack of originality that kind of started around the PS3 and Xbox 360 era. Personally I don’t believe anyone has any right to complain about a lack of games to play, because when there’s nothing, it’s only more opportunities to dive into the backlog. And I think people don’t really realize that very much because of a culture of the now, a general cultivated FOMO.