I get the distinct feeling that as E3 grows bigger, it is increasingly becoming a show aimed at the 'expanded audience'. Predictably, the 'hobbyists' are up in arms declaring e3 overall mediocre. But that is why E3 is full of multimedia capabilities, storybook and Nintendo Land and the likes. This is the chance that these companies have to get their products and ideas showcased outside the industry media.

I think Nintendo wants CNN to report on the tablet controller and Nintendo Land. I am guessing their strategy is that getting news of the next Call of Duty out to the 'hobbyists' doesn't require E3 stage time. Why they can't even be bothered to include the logo in a teaser trailer or even in the launch window title list they provided I can only see two reasons. Either there is so sort of deal struck that Microsoft gets first dibs at announcing the game, or more likely in my mind. A specific strategy to try to generate as much excitement as possible closer to launch.

I am guessing that is why there is no price announced or no hard launch date. Nintendo wants to drop some bombs when they do announce these things. So they can make a big splash before the holidays and destroy all.

"Meet the next evolution of gaming! The Nintendo Wii U will launch this November 12th world wide! Available from launch: CoD: Black Ops 2, Grand Theft Auto U, Every Three Letter Sports League 13, Retro Studio Presents: Star Fox vs Pokemon Revelations and Halo 5!"

I can definitely agree with your whole logic here, this general thought crossed my mind too. Nintendo knows that the core gamers who play Call of Duty will just flock to the system anyway, when they see the gamepad controlling drone strikes and missile launches, expanded map, off-screen HUD, multiplayer stats right on the controller. There's no question that those core gamers who love Call of Duty will RUN, not walk, they will RUN to the nearest place to get wii U on launch day. Nintendo doesn't need to bother telling them until right before the game comes out, then it's a done deal for those types of gamers. E3 is a big event where the news leaks to mainstream crap like CNN, so Nintendo focuses on more family-oriented stuff, and purposefully they leave out some important "core" titles.

That quote, plus your Pachter avatar you have, I find VERY disturbing.

Things are later in the life cycle of the current platforms to play games.  It is increasingly harder to do surprises.  The megatons are what people get excited about, if it be some new killer app, or some exclusive jumping, or a beloved franchise being exclusive.  You aren't going to get new IP revealed now on established platforms, because development would be for next generation.  Maybe you get a price cut, but even that ends up being expected.

And now, there has to be some knowledge how things work, so it is all a strategy game being played.  ANY reveals will get stolen, if they are any good, and a rival releases an alternative.  Look at what happened with the WiiU last year.  Is it any wonder than SmartGlass appeared by Microsoft?  NO ONE wants to get caught flatfooted like they did with the Wii when it came out.  People realize anything and everywhere, is game to compete.  So, Microsoft goes more TV content, and also uses SmartGlass to compete against Apple.  And Apple is the monster out there, changing the game, even if they aren't at E3.  

The cycle is very likely going to start over with more surprises, once the next generation kicks off formally with all three of the console makers coming out with new platforms, and new IPs, and things go exclusive, old IPs come back, and so on.  

With the 3DS and Vita, you got a taste of what was to come when the home consoles join in.  Heck, even OnLive generated some buzz.  I believe most of it now, the lack of excitement, is due to it being late in the lifecycle.  With Nintendo, they are trying things different.  You can't keep doing things the same way and expect it to generate excitement.  Nintendo needs to not have competitors jump onto what they are doing to try to block.  They need the WIiU to succeed.  So now it is leak news over time, and likely do a full reveal event later this year.  It is possible the Tokyo Game Show will be the reveal event.  Or they will use it to announce the reveal event, and show more Japanese stuff.  I am curious if Nintendo doing a reveal event on the Internet wouldn't manage to get everyone interested.  I am sure Spike TV would even bid to get exclusive televised coverage of Nintendo doing the full reveal event for launch info.

Nintendo cannot show what is not provided from the third parties. We are focusing on Nintendo, but maybe it was because EA and Activision were not ready and they did not provided footage for the reel that Nintendo presented in their conference. I know for sure (100% from a reliable source) that EA is working in more tittles for the Wii U than just ME3 and they are very happy that porting from 360 to Wii U is very easy.

This could be big

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/06/12/the-big-wii-u-game-wasnt-shown-at-e3/



GameTrailers: The Wii U game that prompted the "pretty damn good" launch lineup was never shown at E3

Gametrailers editor-in-chief Shane Satterfield has revealed that Wii U projects that he knew about prior to E3 2012 remain unannounced.

Just realized that a Wii U game I knew about well before E3 was never announced at the show,” Satterfield explained on social media site Twitter. “I’m guessing there are others to come as well.”

Satterfield previously shared back in April that the Wii U launch line-up was “going to surprise people.”

I think they are saving the big core push for closer to launch time frame. Maybe a large advertising push in september/october where WiiU will be front and center for all these core games and stuff showing why WiiU is the best device to play them on.

doesn't matter to me as I'm happy with what was already shown. But to convince people like badgey, they'll need to not only show COD like games are there but WHY it is superior on WiiU... and not just tablet related. Visuals, online bigger, etc.

^You got it.

Black ops is bound to be on Wii U.