The highlight for many at each year's E3 are the presentations by the big three. And the anticipation for this year's was pretty high; both Sony and Microsoft are both expected to evangelize their next generation system, and quite aggressively.
As for Nintendo, many have been wondering how they will react, along with how Wii U's disappoining performance across the board would be addressed. Though many saw E3 2013 as their chance to rally, to show everyone that they still mattered.
The question was how this message would be conveyed. What will their conference be like? Well, as it turns out, Nintendo isn't going to bother this year.
The following, which was highlighted over at NeoGAF, is from Satoru Iwata's financial briefing earlier today, and was apparently missed the first time around by most:
In the past, we have announced new titles at Investor's Meetings and then uploaded videos onto the internet, but with new methods like Nintendo Direct, that we have now, we believe that we are able to provide more appropriate and effective information separately to people from different standpoints and interests [gamer, investor, etc].
First, we have decided not to hold a large-scale presentation where new news is presented to a general audience from all over the world as in previous years. Instead, we are planning several smaller events for software targeted at the American market. One of these will be a closed event for distributors, and another will be a closed event for the Western press. I did not appear in last years presentation, and I do not intend to appear in these events either. Apart from these closed events, during E3, we are deliberating how to deliver game information to those at home using new methods, so we will announce further plans later.
Iwata also noted that there will be no new hardware at the show, so the focus will be on the software. And, since showing game footage on the big screen is not quite as effective as having people actually play the games, it somewhat makes sense to change gears.
It’s also worth noting how most of Nintendo’s traction is in the handheld arena, and those games especially don’t look so hot when blown up. Though the cynical also can’t help wonder if any Wii U title will be able to hold a candle, at least visually speaking, to something on the upcoming PS4 or Xbox 720.
