Usually, E3 shows follow a relatively standard schedule: press conferences kick things off on Monday, the show floor is open from Tuesday through Thursday, and Friday is spent trying to catch up on the ridiculous amount of news from days prior. For the most part, E3 2016 looks like it'll follow this same formula ... except, that is, for one of the biggest publishers in the industry.
Nintendo's E3 2016 plans have come under a lot of fire lately. Not only is the company holding off on unveiling its next console, but Nintendo previously stated that it would only be showing one game on the show floor. Granted, having The Legend of Zelda for Wii U in the booth is a big deal, but it's still just one game — how could Nintendo possibly compete with the other major publishers at the show?
Turns out that Nintendo will actually have more than just Zelda at this year's E3: in a press release published earlier today, the company promised that a number of its upcoming games would make an appearance during E3 2016. There's still no press conference planned, and it doesn't sound like any of the new games will be playable on the show floor, but ... at least it's more than one game, right?
Instead of its traditional live-streamed press conference, Nintendo will instead broadcast all of its E3 news and reveals over the course of two days. The Nintendo Treehouse event begins on Tuesday, June 14 and will continue on through Wednesday:
"Nintendo heads to E3 once again and brings the coverage directly to you with a two-day program from Nintendo Treehouse: Live at E3! Tune in starting at 9 a.m. PT on June 14 for a day of live-streaming gameplay focused on The Legend of Zelda for Wii U and first live gameplay of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon that kicks off the program!
Day 2 of Nintendo Treehouse: Live at E3 will showcase upcoming releases for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, including Monster Hunter Generations, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE! Day 2 will start with a special Pokémon GO developer Q&A at 10 a.m. PT on June 15."
It's a big improvement over the publisher's previous plans: The Legend of Zelda is great, but there's no way that a single Nintendo game can compete with the entirety of E3. There's just too much news coming off the show floor for one title to dominate everyone's attention for three straight days — regardless of which series it belongs to.
Even so, it's looking like Nintendo's showing is still on the weaker side: sure, Pokemon and Zelda are great, but Dragon Quest and Tokyo Mirage Sessions won't pull in as many viewers as something like Gears of War or Final Fantasy. Hopefully, Nintendo's got something up its sleeve — otherwise, this could end up being one of the publisher's weakest E3 showings in a long time.
E3 2016 is set to kick off on Tuesday, June 14.
