I meant to do this earlier, but I didn't get around to it. Nintendo's E3 press conference is in a few hours, so probably no one will have a chance to read this until after everything is finalized. But it is being written before E3, so I'm still allowed to predict stuff.
It is clear that Nintendo will focus the bulk, if not all, of their presentation on Wii U. If they intend to get it out by this holiday season, then now is about the time to announce games. While lately Nintendo has been pushing for more third-party support, and you can expect a portion of their presentation to discuss those projects, the major hype will revolve around new announcements for Nintendo's major franchises. New Mario and Zelda games are pretty much guaranteed, and I'm hopeful for a new Mario Kart, Pikmin, DK and Kirby. Metroid, Star Fox and Animal Crossing are expected as well. Whether or not any of these make the release window though, I can't say. They've been pretty hit and miss as far as release lineups go. As for Pokemon, it's never had a strong presence on home consoles, but maybe with the Wii U's pseudo-portable functionality we can have something cool.
Actually Pokemon battles on the TV screen, controlled by two Wii U GamePads would be awesome. Also, the controller was recently announced to have an RFC reader, similar to the technology used in Skylanders, which can be used to scan chips in cards and toys. If they applied the Skylanders concept to Pokemon...not enough dollars in my bank account. But I'm getting off track.
I also expect an official price and release date to be announced, or at least a narrower release window. Based on experience, I can tell you that it will be Sunday, November 18. Prove me wrong, Nintendo!
I mentioned a new Mario game. This will probably not be New Super Mario Bros. Mii. The game shown at the announcement of Wii U last year will likely remain in demo form. The new Mario game, aside from perhaps some mini-games as in New Super Mario Bros., will primarily be a single-player affair. 2D is likely, but I'm hopeful for a new 3D adventure.
The new Zelda game won't be out for another two or three years. But they'll probably mention it anyway.
Expect a lot of their presentation to be about the new social elements of the device. This is the stuff I don't really care about, but they will be heavily touting their "Miiverse" that was announced recently. The use of the controller as a webcam, browsing the Internet on your TV, playing a game on the small screen while the big screen is in use...all that crap that I don't care about but of which Nintendo is really proud. Expect them not to shut up about it.
The device will also launch with a pack-in game of some sort. Something silly like Wii Sports, that demonstrates the basic function of the Wii U GamePad, and how it interacts with Wii Remotes. Hopefully something less obvious than Wii U Sports, please?
It's already pretty much guaranteed that the Wii U will support Wii games, but I think the GameCube support is gone for good. There's a chance that they will introduce downloadable GameCube games to the virtual console, but the chances aren't good, at least for now.
And 3DS...well they already stated that they won't talk much about it. There's going to be a later presentation devoted to it. Lots of people are predicting a new 3DS model. I do expect them to release one, but I believe it will not happen now. At this time when they are trying to sell people on the Wii U, getting those same people to upgrade to a new 3DS model seems like a bad move. They'll probably talk about their holiday lineup, like Luigi's Mansion 2 and (hopefully) Paper Mario. Some new games too, but I can't predict those.
The big elephant in the room is Smash Bros. Sakurai discussed, on a theoretical level, releasing Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS and having them interact somehow. At that point I don't think he even knew how; it was more of a brainstorm than anything else. Nintendo knows that Smash Bros. is a hype machine, so I wouldn't be surprised if they mentioned that development has started. But if you're expecting any actual info on the game, you will be disappointed.
That's all I can think of to say about that. I know I didn't make any startling predictions, but I'm not betting. This is just my expectation based on analysis of their last few E3 presentations. So let's see how close I am.
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