Nintendo will announce big 3rd Party Partnerships at E3

[fleischr]

Soundwave said:

fleischr said:
Considering how well Hyrule Warriors did with the notoriously mediocre Dynasty Warriors franchise, if I were a 3rd party publisher, I'd knock on the door for a spin-off or 2nd-party license too.

While some bigger publishers like Activision, EA, or Ubisoft won't care, some smaller ones are probably interested.

Example: Codemasters takes on ExciteBike, ExciteTruck, or even WaveRace. Same kind of game they're already making, just different and stronger branding.

Big difference between the Zelda franchise and Excitebike in sales potential. 

Sure, but if there was a commercial interest in a niche cross-over like SMT x FE, you could say really any of Ninty's other IPs are fair game.

It's more than just a fanbase for a particular series, but rather Nintendo's growing ability to target a very hardcore group of buyers. Codemasters was just one convenient example. It could just as well be another small 3rd party for another IP.