by Chris Selogy
Nintendo Direct – Tuesday, June 13 at 9 AM PT/12 PM ET
- Nintendo’s streaming plans include this Direct, various Treehouse Live streams during the week, and three tournaments for Arms, Pokken Tournament DX, and Splatoon 2, so they have plenty of places to make announcements during the week.
- What we know about Nintendo’s big Switch schedule for the rest of 2017 is that it includes Arms (6/16), Splatoon 2 (7/21), NBA 2K18, Pokken Tournament DX, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Super Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Project Mekuru, Steep, EA Sports FIFA, Payday 2, and a number of indie titles. We should see them featured in the Direct minus the two games that are already dated and have tournaments planned for that week, so they have more time to make appearances.
- This is also the place where we get confirmation that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is actually going to be out this year since most of their fans don’t believe that for a second with the last game releasing a year ago.
- It would certainly be nice to see new Nintendo games announced for this year, but I’d put my money down on Nintendo revealing one or two other Nintendo IP coming to Switch for 2018. Let’s say that I’d like to see it be Animal Crossing and Metroid because neither has had a proper new title in a while and both skipped the Wii U completely.
- Firmware updates might not sound like exciting news, but this seems like the best place to announce their plans for improving the Switch’s interface with internal video capture support, a much better eShop, and more features to improve what is a very basic dashboard for the Switch at launch.
- We could also see some new remasters on the level of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with the popular rumors being ports of Pokemon Sun & Moon called Pokemon Stars and that the most recent Super Smash Bros. is coming to Switch with some additional content. Pokemon Stars could certainly be a troll reveal as the next 3DS game, which would still be a funny announcement to see.
- Nintendo Switch Online just got a big reveal with a $20 per year price, a new Classic Games Lineup that doesn’t swap out monthly, and that it’s been delayed to 2018. That likely means we won’t hear much more about it during E3 as a result.
- While the main presentation is promised to just focus on Switch games for 2017, the Treehouse Live streams are where 3DS comes into play for what are hopefully its last few major games before most everything moves to Switch.
- The 3DS games we know about and can expect to see on the Treehouse stream: Ever Oasis (6/23), RPG Maker Fes (6/27), Hey! Pikmin (7/28), Miitopia (7/28), Culdcept Revolt (8/29), Kirby’s Blowout Blast, Kirby Multiplayer Game, Yo-Kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters, Monster Hunter XX, Monster Hunter Stories, Pokemon UltraSun/UltraMoon, and Dragon Quest XI. That’s certainly a lot of titles, but they could easily power through them during the streams when they don’t have Switch games to talk about.
Thanks for checking out our Pre-E3 content. Stay tuned for the many podcasts, recaps, and such from us during the week of E3.