At the moment, the biggest thing that fans of the company are hungry for, besides new Nintendo games, is a new Nintendo Direct, and multiple rumors have pointed to a Nintendo Direct happening in February. So fans earlier today were quick to notice when a Twitter post from Nintendo of America emerged claiming that the new Direct would air tomorrow, February 12, and reveal new information on upcoming games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This came accompanied by an informational graphic that was identical in tone and quality to the previous times Nintendo announced an upcoming Direct. Naturally, the thought of it being only a day away left many fans more than excited.
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Which makes it all the more tragic that the tweet isn’t actually from Nintendo’s Twitter page. While it perfectly nails the look and feel of a real announcement, there’re a few telltale signs that prove it didn’t come from the real Nintendo of America. For one, clicking on the account’s main page only reveals the one post. Also, its username is misspelled “@NintwndoAmerica.”
With that one small typo, fans quickly realized they’d been tricked, and the response overall has been severe, if pretty amusing in the process. The fake Nintendo Direct announcement has over 1,600 comments attached to it as of this writing, and it’s a near-endless string of memes and comedic video clips expressing everything from amusement at the deception to disappointment over being misled (mostly the latter). In short, it’s a mess.
To understand why this is blowing up like it has, it’s worth reminding that Nintendo Directs have essentially become mini-holidays for fans, a major burst of official news and announcements for all sorts of Nintendo games every few months. However, it’s been five full months since the last full-on Nintendo Direct, and since then Nintendo has only released a Pokemon-centric Direct focused on DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Things haven’t been helped by the recent Direct-adjacent announcement of Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s latest DLC fighter, Byleth, whose addition fans weren’t too happy with. The general consensus is that Nintendo has yet to deliver a proper Nintendo Direct in 2020, and the hope is that that’ll change before February is over.
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