NINTENDO
E3 2012 is Nintendo’s E3 even before it has begun. Debuting a brand new console tends to do that, you see. Nintendo is going to properly reveal the Wii U, their high powered HD console due later this year, and give full details on its capabilities, final form, controller, online network, first party games, third party games, and more. In addition to that, they will also probably focus a bit on the 3DS, announcing new 3DS games, both first and third party (Iwata talked about western third party games for the 3DS debuting this E3), as well as firmware updates to expand on its functionality a bit.
There is one very important thing you need to remember about Nintendo’s E3 2012: Nintendo’s conference is one hour long. This gives them sixty minutes to give us important details about an entirerly new console that debuts this year, and to maybe focus on some 3DS games as well. Expect no Wii or DS announcements; those will probably be relegated to the Software Showcase that they are holding (and broadcasting) later that day, along with most 3DS games, and most likely, quite a lot of Wii U games as well. The actual E3 keynote itself is going to be all Wii U with a touch of 3DS here and there.
Don’t expect a Wii U release date or price. Nintendo has already said that they won’t announce the price or date at E3 this year, that those will be announced later. Consequently, don’t expect a launch lineup at E3 either, since we don’t even know when the Wii U is launching yet. The release date and price is likely to be revealed at a later September conference that Nintendo holds every year. E3 2012 will be all about what the Wii U can do, and what games it will be getting.
Don’t expect a 3DS redesign. The current model 3DS is still not profitable, and it has only just now started selling properly. Nintendo is not a company that likes selling hardware at a loss, so introducing new hardware on the 3DS front wouldn’t make any sense to them at all. Moreover, Nintendo will not risk more R&D money and goodwill from early adopters by introducing a better 3DS just yet. The 3DS pricecut burned a lot of customers, and made them lose faith in Nintendo’s products, something which Nintendo has since worked very hard to reverse; early adopters is what they need right niw, with the WIi U’s launch approaching. They will not risk alienating them again by introducing a revision just yet. Moreover, with the Wii U launch coming up, they will likely want to focus on that entirely. A 3DS redesign is coming eventually, but not at this E3.
Don’t expect Wii U specs. Nintendo never give out specs for their consoles. The last console they did so for was the Gamecube. Instead, expect to see a lot of games and tech demos that show us what the Wii U really is about. You can probably expect to see some information on what powers the Wii U: information about the controller inputs, the video outputs, the name of the CPU and the GPU, maybe, but specific clockspeeds, RAM, and VRAM are likely to be kept hidden from us.
Expect details on third party support. Nintendo are almost certainly going to dedicate the entirety of their E3 to third party Wii U games; the Wii U is Nintendo’s attempt at reclaiming the core; the core market cares for third party support. So expect lots and lots of third party game announcements, maybe even a few high profile game debuts; Nintendo’s own first party Wii U software might be relegated to the Software Showcase.
Expect details on first party support. Regardless, they are still likely to show off some big name first party Wii U games themselves. A short CGI teaser for Super Smash Bros.? Don’t count it out yet. Maybe a new Retro developed game? What about Monolith Studios, what have they been working on? Miyamoto often talks about an F-Zero sequel, and a new Zelda game in the style of A Link to the Past. Are those coming? Nintendo has a lot of first party franchises, and it has two brand new systems to support, so there will probably be something on that front.
Expect details on how Nintendo plans on tackling online. E3 is where Nintendo outline their plans on Nintendo Network, the online network that will unify the 3DS and Wii U. We don’t know much abou it- we know it supports user accounts, and we know it’s a unified online identity. We know Nintendo are aiming for parity with Xbox Live, but we don’t know anything else. How good or bad will it be? Will Friend Codes be gone? Will it be free? We’ll find out this E3.
Expect Mario and expect Pikmin. There are only two Wii U games that are actually confirmed to make a showing at E3 this year, and those are New Super Mario Bros. Mii and Pikmin 3. Those will definitely be showed off in some capacity, as will New Super Mario Bros. 2, the 3DS game due in August later this year. One or more of them might slip into the Software Showcase, but I’d say that all three are relatively safe bets.
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