In the past related to Nintendo’s game announcements is how Nintendo has moved towards a compressed schedule from announcement of a product to it being released; and this is (potentially) so that the "Hype" (for lack of a better word) and the marketing are as focused as possible for maximum effect. Now consider the structure of the release of the Nintendo DS and Wii; with the Nintendo DS and Wii there was an explanation/teaser of what the system was that was very light on details and got people interested, followed by the big showing of the system at an expo, followed a few months later by the system’s release. When you combine the two things together the announcement at the end of March may not seem so arbitrary.
We got the teaser this week, and while no one knows what it means everyone is talking about it. People are looking for explanations of the technology and soon enough there will be a flood of fake mark-ups, specifications and other rumours peaking everyone’s interest.
In a few months, after the initial wave of excitement has worn off, E3 will happen and people will be dying to try it out to see how well it works; and Nintendo’s E3 keynote will probably be the most anticipated event of the year. While Sony and Microsoft fans may not like to hear this, it is likely that there will be another 4 hour line-up to see the 3DS while Natal and Move are readily available to try; and a large portion of this will be that the 3DS will be an unknown commodity with unknown capabilities and (previously) unannounced games.
A couple of months later, as people get tired of dissecting the expos (E3, TGS, etc.) Nintendo will shift into full launch mode and people will begin to discuss launch line-ups and the advertising; and soon after the system will release to massive line-ups and shortages.
Basically, from what I can tell, their approach may very well be designed to do a focused blitz so that the most important gaming news story for the next 6 months is the 3DS.
