Okay, I'm a litle afraid. As of today, over the past three weeks, Nintendo has announced a new Wii U Zelda, a remake of Wind Waker, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, new 3D Mario, a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and Mario & Luigi for 3DS, among others, in addition to saying Animal Crossing releases in June, New Super Mario U will be getting DLC of a size that is equivalent to a full new game, and a whole bunch of great eShop games I haven't played are going on sale.

Now, what worries me is, besides the fact that I can't afford a quarter of all that: If they can afford to drop all these bombs on us on any given Thursday, what the hell are we in for at E3?? o.O

That´s a positive aspect of 'panic mode Nintendo'.

Dat panic is also what got the 3DS out of its slump.

I'm ok with this.

Either nothing at E3 or third party stuff, I guess.

actual gameplay of those tittles?

Final Fantasy VI remake.

Maybe they'll skip E3 this year? I mean, what exactly does E3 do that Nintendo Directs can't?

That said, there's always Retro's mystery game.

We have gotten a lot of "its coming" stuff from Directs.

E3 is where the footage / playable games come into play.

I guessed when they had the last E3 that they are not looking at E3 as a viable platform to release any new information, and that they will be using Nintendo Directs from now on. My guess looks about right. We can probably expect them to continue to show up, but they wouldn't even "win" one since all their announcements will be made before/after.

E3 still gets the single most mass-media coverage of any gaming event of the year.  Trust me, there will be surprises.

Edit: Oh, yeah--forgot about Retro!  Although I have a feeling they'll be having a hand in Zelda U, so they may be largely accounted for already.