Nintendo E3 predictions from around the Net

E3, mini!Game|Life has a whack at some Nintendo predictions for the mini-E3 descending on Santa Monica next week:

I don’t think Nintendo will bother showing off a redesigned DS. They’ve already said that this E3 is going to be software-focused. Plus, they don’t need to do it: the DS Lite is selling like no other game system in history, and people don’t have any real complaints about it […] Considering that Wii Ware games won’t be hitting until next year, I doubt we’ll hear more than a few comments about the business side of things and a pitch to indie developers during the press conference. I do think we’ll hear some new Virtual Console announcements (Neo Geo games or Virtual Console on the DS). Other than that, it’s tough to tell what Nintendo will do. We know for a fact that several new Wii games aimed at the expanded audience will be shown, but what those will be has been kept under lock and key. I do predict that Nintendo will have the “best” showing, mostly because they’re already riding high on public opinion and just need to keep that going.

It’s important to keep things in perspective next week. This is not the E3 of old. Nintendo is in a relatively safe position right now, so the fact that “no huge announcements” could happen is not a bad thing. Those people who say it is, I imagine, are those people who have invested a substantial amount of money in a system not made by Nintendo. And the reason why it’s going to be so tough to tell what they’re going to do is because they’re sitting pretty right now. That means tons of options, as opposed to being in third where you really have to go all out just to reach second.

But the predictions above are pretty spot on, in my opinion, and anything above and beyond them would be gravy.

I recommend you just sit back and enjoy the show. Ignore the cries next week about “Nintendo is too casual; they let gamers down, etc.,” because there’s been no indication from Nintendo whatsoever that this will be a groundbreaking conference for them (now that I think about it, kind of like there was no indication from them that MP3 would have online). Those other guys (and those third parties!), however, well, they need a shot in the arm right now. That means lots and lots of rendered screenshots and FMV sequences.