Am I the only one who thinks Nintendo could be on to something, think about it, if Nintendo did it the old fashion way (doing the traditional conference), none of the non-core gamer audience wouldn't watch E3 either way. The only way the mass public would know about these E3 announcements is if some media channels share the news like MSN or Today news etc. This is why Xbox E3 keynotes been lacking for the pass few years, because their talking to an audience (casual) who doesn't care about E3.

Nintendo Direct get way more attention and the best part are that its fully under Nintendo control. Sony have their event back in Feb. which got them alot of buzz and now Microsoft with the next Xbox announcement coming May 21th. knowing how crowded and big E3 is, why not have full control of your own event that get plenty of views and if this new approach succeed with high expectation, I hope to see Sony and Microsoft follow.

That's my take on it, what yours?

I don't know. On the one hand, they might as well since they haven't had a good E3 showing in years. If they don't care about it, they might as well quit doing it.

On the other, while I enjoy the Nintendo Directs I've watched and prefer this way of making a lot of showy announcements every month or two to saving up bombshells to "win" E3, they are mostly talking to people who are already Nintendo fans. I'm not sure that what Nintendo really needs right now is to become even more insular than they already are.

Since Nintendo Directs have been awesome mini-E3's within themselves, doesn't bother me that much.

Nintendo still needs to bring their A game on the game floor tho.

Well their going to hold other small events including one that will be behind doors/private. Those will be for the media and share holders. So we'll see, though I do like that us (the fans) will have an event that will cut down on filler and stuff. As fun these conference are, most of the time, we just want to see the games and Nintendo will be doing that.

Will they be at E3 at all? or what?

Personally, I think it is a good move for them. The presentation would be mostly about games for the Wii U since they have been showing off the 3DS big time lately, no one but the investors and analysts in the audience care about the sales numbers or marketing schemes, the press in the audience care about the games. Instead of trying to cram everything into an hour long presentation which never works, they are having several closed door events for the press/investors/distributors/etc for a more intimate look at the company and the games.

Meanwhile, I could very well see them broadcasting their direct at their booths in the morning before any booths open, and then allowing people to play the games they just showed immediately. The public that is there gets to hear the announcements first hand, and then gets to put their hands on the games right then and there. They are bypassing the droll parts of E3 while still giving the people that are interested at that stuff the attention they want, in a better space. A smaller class size is always better.

Iwata mentioned that they would be "continuing to investigate ways to deliver information about our games directly to our home audience around the time of E3." Obviously they will have Nintendo Directs....so why not just say that? It could mean that they are looking into providing game demos to download on the eShop after the Direct announces them, giving the home audience the E3 experience. The games they will be focusing on will be releasing by the time this fiscal year is over, so the demos should be solid enough to release. I'll admit that is some very wishful thinking, but it would be an incredible move by Nintendo.

E3 has become increasingly irrelevant over the years too. The conference itself hasn't puled in as much money as it has in the past and isn't nearly the big showcase it used to be in the late 90's/early 00's. Apple is having their WWDC thing the very same week, which will definitely steal away some of the E3 attendants. Sure it's a little bit of a bummer that there won't be a press conference with the big stage and everything, but it also means that we will get what we have always wanted out of E3. Games, games and more games.

Yeah. They will be there. 

Theyre holding behind closed door press events and will have games on the show floor... There just wont be the traditional press conference.

No this is not good. Yes it is important for MSFT, Sony, and nintendo to present casual events like Kinect, Move, etc but they also need to present stuff to the hardcore audience. Nintendo has been presenting hardcore stuff with Nintendo Directs but if they do nothing for E3 then a lot of thunder will be stolen because everybody will be talking about everything else and Nintendo will be criticized for a lackluster performance.

You are right the most important thing is to advertise to the mass market but ignoring hardcore gamers which are usually the early adopters is not smart either. There must be a balance in supporting both casual and hardcore gamers.

Don't forget how much hype E3 generates.  

Honestly, as long as they still have games being demoed in their area and announcements of new games, not having a large conference shouldn't be that big of a deal. From my understanding the only guys that may dislike this will be the smaller media guys that might not get a invite to Nintendo's first smaller media showings and not get to report the news or try out the behind close door demos at the same time.

But since the only thing they could possibly announce is more games, it does seem the more logical financial decision rather then trying to put on a big show just to show off a few trailers and live demonstrations of games they will have on the floor.

I think people get it wrong when they think that the mass media really care about E3. Thats not why e3 is important, its because the excitement it generates amongst to core and that slowly feeds down to the masses with social networks like facebook and twitter. I remember when watchdog got announced who I know didn't watch E3 were sharing the youtube trailer which they probably got from a friend who did. I Know I personally expose alot of my friends to new games through my fb feed.

As for whether its a good idea. for them, it could be if they still have a seperate, yet equally big press conference with media blowout. Nintendo directs are cool but having lots of mini announcements doesn't quite generate the same momentum as one big megaton. I also don't watch Nintendo directs, I normally hear about them later in the day when I see all the reports. From a personally perspective without a conference, things just aren't as exciting.