I know everyone is betting on a few years till release. So that begs the question if its years away why did Nintendo announce it at E3? I mean surely they have other games deeper in development that they could have announced?
Was Nintendo playing a Microsoft? Remember when Bill Gates announced Halo3 would be ready for the launch day of the PS3, yet Bungie hadn't even started work on a Halo3 , infact they were working on another project altogether. Was Nintendo jumping the gun like MS did and Sora is still working on Kid Icarus and this is news to them?
I would conclude no, Sora is not a Nintendo owned developer. Nintendo couldn't announce that they were bringing SmashBros to WiiU and 3DS unless Sora had already agreed to do so. Also Kid Icarus was in development a long time, chances are Sora has already finished pre-production. Nintendo has proven in the past that they start projects with very small teams and build from their. Sora probably set aside some staff like a year or so ago and began work on the SmashBros titles.
Now I think SmashBros is likely two years away. However I am interested in the fact that Nintendo lead their WiiU unvieling with the announcement of SmashBros. Also the fact that two versions are being developed both by Sora, so has Sora been working secretly on this project for awhile?
If Sora has been working secretly on SmashBros 3DS and WiiU for a year or more. Then could we see the title launch in 2013? Also the fact that Pikmin3 was confirmed is also interesting as Miyamoto confirmed a very small team had been working on that game for years. Could a small team have been working on SmashBros for years as well?