For the fifth year in a row, Nintendo will not hold a traditional press conference at E3 in Los Angeles. Since 2013, the company has opted for a pre-recorded live stream over a staged event, and during a financial briefing this week, Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed that the trend would continue at this summer’s E3, where Nintendo will still have a presence on the show floor.
“Finally, the video game tradeshow E3 will be held in Los Angeles this June,” said Kimishima. “Again this year, we will not be hosting a large-scale press conference for institutional investors, analysts and the media. Nintendo of America will present further information on our plans at a later date.”
While this will surely disappoint Nintendo fans who prefer the pomp and circumstance of a press conference, the Nintendo Direct streams have proven to be far more focused than the company’s press conferences ever were. Nintendo saves money and we don’t have to listen to executives talk for hours.
Nintendo didn’t reveal exactly what it would be focusing on at this year’s E3, but we can take some educated guesses. ARMS, a fighting game for the Switch, launches the day after E3, so it should receive plenty of attention at the event. We also expect to learn more about Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — the three other major 2017 Switch releases.
We weren’t sure what kind of presence the 3DS would have at the trade show, but last night’s reveal of the New 2DS XL was Nintendo’s way of letting the world know that it’s still interested in dedicated portable gaming devices, despite the fact that the Switch doubles as a portable console.
E3 2017 will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 13th to June 15th.
