Nintendo did not appear at Gamescom, and this was the official explanation:

Whilst Gamescom is a fantastic show, Nintendo has taken the decision not to attend this year’s event. Instead Nintendo is planning a number of sampling events later this year inline with the European Marketing-, PR- and Event-activities in which Nintendo´s fans will have the opportunity to play upcoming games. Further details will be announced soon.

But I don’t think this is an “oh, we just didn’t have anything to show” sort of moment. A similar thing happened with E3, since Nintendo chose to announce the 3DS XL only a couple of weeks after what is usually the venue to make big announcements. When the 3DS XL was announced outside of an assumption, and with Nintendo not making an appearance at GamesCom, that assumption has only grown stronger:

Nintendo is distancing themselves from events they can’t completely control.

That’s not to say they’ll avoid Gamescom forever, or that they plan to leave E3. But the signs point to them wanting much more control over their announcements. Like I’ve mentioned before, they want to “train” us to expect the big announcements from their Nintendo Direct broadcasts, rather than other venues. It’s an Apple-ish approach that they’re adopting, and I think it’ll become much more obvious over the coming months.

What do you think?

(via mcvnordic.com)