There's a pattern going with these Nintendo Direct conferences we get every couple of months. It's complex, so try to keep up. First they do a Nintendo Direct about 3DS games in October 2012. Then they do one about Wii U games, the first Wii U-centric broadcast after the console's release, three months later in January. Next, now this is the tricky part, they do a Nintendo Direct about 3DS games in April. That's another three month interval. I wonder what's coming next.
E3 is just under two months away, but E3 is E3 so it gets to break the rules. For all the pre-launch announcements and events, the Wii U's life is more dependent on the upcoming E3 in June than at any other time, and Nintendo knows it. They're prepping to blow people away, even in the face of the PS4 and whatever Microsoft has planned, because it's finally time for the Wii U to get some damn games, starting with "Pikmin 3" in August.
While it's Nintendo's current running strategy with the Nintendo Direct conferences that makes me believe the publisher is going to focus almost entirely on the Wii U over the 3Ds during this year's show, simple logic tells us where the emphasis needs to be. The 3DS is getting to the point where it sells itself, launch-time marketing taking a back seat to simple word of mouth and running popularity. Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime told Games Industry International the 3DS has hit 8 million sold in the US over two years since launch, tracking 1 million ahead of its predecessor over the same period of time. It doesn't need E3, but the Wii U does, and the 3DS just got all the marketing push it's going to need into the holiday season from today's announcements ("Zelda" is really all they had to say). The timing of the Direct broadcasts matches up (kind of) perfectly. Sort of. The Wii U's day is coming. Shut up.
Other than my mind-blowingly scientific analysis and pattern recognition, Nintendo already confirmed during the January Direct three of the biggest possible franchises will be making an appearance at the show, two of them in playable form. E3 goers will get their hands on the next "Mario Kart" and the 3D follow-up to the absurdly good "Super Mario Galaxy" games. We're also getting our first look at the next "Super Smash Bros." It may be the Year of Luigi at Nintendo, but it's a world of "Super Smash Bros." players everywhere else.
And then there's the secret Retro Studios game, those minds behind the stellar "Metroid Prime" studio. There was a rumor that it would be a "Star Fox" and "Metroid" crossover title, but the paradox of pure nerdgasm-inducing godliness would likely produce a universe-destroying black hole. So, due to more science, we can probably predict that's going to happen. Or it already has and we're currently swimming around in a "Lost" kind of purgatory.
I'm cool with that.
Either way, Nintendo is going to use these games to tide people over until the "Legend of Zelda" Wii U unveiling, which isn't far enough along to get in by the end of this year. But the path is set and there are flying pikmin now. The Wii U lives or dies in the next two months.
