Nintendo (finally) reveals its E3 plans
Though it cut it a bit close to the wire, Nintendo has finally announced its plans for an E3 showcase. With less than two weeks to go before press conferences begin, the company finally confirmed it will hold a Nintendo Direct livestream on June 15th.
“Tune in at 9 a.m. PT for a Nintendo Direct presentation, featuring roughly 40 minutes of information focused exclusively on Nintendo Switch games mainly releasing in 2021,” Nintendo wrote in a press release.
While it’s tough to speculate what Nintendo will debut during this showcase, there is product that’s dominated the rumor mill: an upgraded Nintendo Switch console. Commonly (but unofficially) known as the Switch Pro, this model will reportedly output at 4K when docked to a television, with other hardware improvements in tow. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the console could launch as soon as September.
Mid-June would be a reasonable time frame for any announcement, offering a few months for retailers to stock up and customers to preorder. Still, the somewhat confusing pileup of adverbs in the announcement—”focused exclusively on… games mainly releasing in 2021″—does appear to rule out a major hardware announcement. If this Direct is “exclusively” about games, Nintendo may choose to debut the Switch revision in a different venue at another time.
Beyond any potential Switch Pro news, it’s likely we’ll finally see more about some previously announced games, like the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel. We may even get a look at Metroid Prime 4, which Nintendo announced way back in 2017. So far, we’ve only heard the title and the news that Retro Studios is handling development.
Be sure to check back later this month, when we’ll have coverage of all of Nintendo’s biggest E3 announcements.
