PixlBit

The PixlBit Staff sounds off before this year's big show kicks off.

Jesse's Predictions

Nintendo

After last year’s confusing showing of the Wii U, Nintendo needs to come back and really impress upon people why the Wii U is the system of the future and not just a stop gap between now and the true next generation machine. With that in mind, I think Nintendo’s conference will be rather Wii U centric this year.

At this point it’s hard not to admit that the Wii U needs a name change and I think the events of the past year have led Nintendo to come to that realization. I’m betting that their conference starts off with the Wii U’s new identity, something that will appeal to both casual gamers and the core crowd that they’re trying to woo back with their new hi-def machine. With this rebranding Nintendo will then pull back the curtain on the machine, revealing the machine’s specs, the fact that it can use two controllers and that the machine will come in two colors: white and black.

With Nintendo’s recent revelation that they will be releasing games in both digital and physical form from day one, I suspect that they’ll be ready to display the newly rebranded Wii U’s online strategy – something that falls more in line with the industry standard (goodbye friend codes) as well as an achievement system (can you say Nintendo badges?). I’d be willing to bet that Club Nintendo is somehow tied into this new badge system.

Then the games come. New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Pikmin 3 should get a full reveal as launch titles for the system, but I bet that Nintendo gives the floor to 3rd party publishers (Ubisoft and EA) in an attempt to display greater support for this machine than they had for the Wii. The big surprise comes when they unveil what Retro has been working on. I’d love for this to be a brand new IP, but I have a feeling that it will be a new Metroid game – a series that has appealed to the core gamer.

The 3DS will get some love as well, and Nintendo will likely outline their online 3DS plans a bit better and show Luigi’s Mansion 2 in playable form, as well as a North American version of Fire Emblem. 

If Nintendo can deliver all this, and I think they can, then they should have a very successful E3 and drum up a reasonable amount of buzz for their next generation.