I only bring this up because I see it repeated, in one form or another, by various commenters in these forums and across certain youtube channels.
I think it's BS.
Nintendo didn't have a press conference or announcements of anything new at E3 last year. We knew in early Spring of 2016 that "NX would launch in March of 2017." So when nothing was announced at E3, of course, people freaked out with the belief Nintendo was doomed, that they would never have enough time to promote the Switch (then called NX). Certain sources began began making "Bold Predictions" that the Switch would be delayed.
Nintendo's plan: tease the Switch during the Holiday season, announce it in January shortly before launch. No delay required, the short time for promotion was highly successful, and three months later Switch has become one of the hottest launches in the history of videogaming. Nintendo's biggest outside of the Wii.
Would this situation have improved with an unveil at E3 instead?
The answer is clearly no. If anything, an E3 reveal may have been damaging.
The benefit to doing big announcement pressers outside of E3 is the flexibility of timing (placing it at a more strategic date than mid-June), greater control over the proceedings, and capturing the full focus of the media, rather than diluting it and muddying the message with a bunch of media coverage of other companies.
I do think Nintendo clearly sees this, and they're not alone, as other companies have dropped off to instead do their big press events and announcements at other dates.
The last time E3 made a significant difference was in 2006, 11 years ago. That is why the requirement for Nintendo to have big announcements (or any new announcements) and a live press conference at E3 is completely mythological. It's bad analysis to make the assumption that Nintendo is doomed if they don't do what this myth suggests they should do; luckily, they already know this.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
