Nintendo won't have an E3 press conference this year

Nintendo will not have a "large-scale presentation targeted at everyone" for E3 this year, the company has announced.

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Nintendo will not have a "large-scale presentation targeted at everyone" for E3 this year, the company has announced. With both Microsoft and Sony likely prepping bombastic presentations focusing on their next-gen efforts, the Wii U and 3DS manufacturer is opting to host "smaller events" that are more "focused" during the annual trade show.

"During the E3 period, we will utilize our direct communication tools, such as Nintendo Direct, to deliver information," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, adding that Western gaming media (like us) will have access to a "closed hands-on experience event."

"At E3 this year, we are not planning to launch new hardware, and our main activity at E3 will be to announce and have people experience our software," Iwata told investors. "Many people are certainly very interested in learning more about the Wii U titles that we are going to announce. We will use E3 as an ideal opportunity to talk in detail mainly about the Wii U titles that we are going to launch this year, and we also plan to make it possible for visitors to try the games immediately."

This strategy was recently employed during the last Nintendo Direct. Just hours after announcing a new Legend of Zelda game for 3DS, for example, we were able to get our hands on the game.

Although Nintendo's E3 plans may be pared down from previous years, the publisher promises lots of news during the event. "We have many titles whose release dates are yet to be announced. At E3, we will disclose more specific information about the titles for the rest of this year and early next year."

Update: Speaking to GameTrailers, a Nintendo of America representative clarified, noting that: "A media event and a partner presentation will both occur that morning. While the audiences will be different between the two events, both will occur on the Tuesday morning of E3 (June 11) which is the date and time period the public has come to expect for Nintendo to deliver E3 news."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    April 24, 2013 10:07 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Nintendo won't have an E3 press conference this year.

    Nintendo will not have a "large-scale presentation targeted at everyone" for E3 this year, the company has announced.

    • reply
      April 24, 2013 10:12 PM

      "We'll be there... you just won't notice us."

    • reply
      April 24, 2013 10:15 PM

      whoa. I would have said if anything they NEED a large scale presentation in order to get people on board with the WiiU, or at least showcase upcoming 1st and 3rd party games. This is crazy.

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        April 25, 2013 7:59 AM

        but all they have to present is software. with the other two pushing their new hardware, it's hard to compete presentation-wise. they need to focus more on announcing new games and possibly OS updates

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      April 24, 2013 10:19 PM

      damn it, they won't be revealing more Mario games this year

    • reply
      April 24, 2013 10:33 PM

      Probably because they don't have anything that wasn't already announced.

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      April 24, 2013 10:50 PM

      Makes good sense. With the PS4 and the next Xbox, they're going to fall off the front page. It's better to let Sony and Microsoft have their moment and do something later. The Nintendo Direct stuff is pretty decent and it's not like they won't have a presence at E3.

      Maybe this year they should do a Spaceworld sometime after E3.

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      April 25, 2013 6:47 AM

      MEGA-none

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      April 25, 2013 6:51 AM

      Disappointing, although I think I understand the reasoning behind it, this feels almost like the end of an era. While I enjoy their Nintendo Directs nothing pumps me up like an awesome E3 conference, at least we'll have MS and Sony pumping out new consoles, they can't really screw that up.

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      April 25, 2013 6:53 AM

      Just heard sad news on talk radio,..

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      April 25, 2013 6:58 AM

      Nintendo tried to dig into the casual well twice in a row and found it already tapped by phones and thinkpads. Poor guys, I still love my Nintendo games.

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      April 25, 2013 7:00 AM

      not a bad idea. it makes people have to seek out their game stories from E3, not just tune in to a press conference to crack jokes about how bad press conferences are.

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      April 25, 2013 7:06 AM

      The link to the hands-on with the new 3DS zelda is b0rken

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      April 25, 2013 7:36 AM

      And the long slow death march of Nintendo begins.

      • reply
        April 25, 2013 7:51 AM

        If Nintendo is dying then that began a long time ago, I could see this being the beginning of the end of E3 though.

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      April 25, 2013 7:45 AM

      so we wont know what retro is doing once again

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      April 25, 2013 7:56 AM

      Their pokemon collectable figure game like skylanders should sell quite a bit. I don't think they are that worried.

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      April 25, 2013 8:04 AM

      Sad but not surprising. I was hoping to see a huge E3 stage presence from Nintendo his year, but their decision does kind of make sense.

      E3's importance has been slowly declining, as seen by their frequent Nintendo Directs or even Sony's recent own press event to announce the PS4. No matter what they bring to the stage it will be overshadowed by two new consoles.

      They will still have new games playable and closed curtain game announcements for the media but just not a big stage event.

    • reply
      April 25, 2013 8:06 AM

      I kinda think this might be Nintendo's last home console...

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