Im guessing Wii Sports/Zelda will be the big holiday titles next year and Mario Univers will be Q2 2015

It may suit it well, but as I said, it belonged on Wii U. Better graphics, dual analog, bigger second screen, HD, and Wii U really could have used a "big" release like that in the first half of 2013. 3DS has had a glut of games over the last 12 months. It really didn't need Luigi's Mansion or Paper Mario.

So...Nintendo had more games it could have shown...but deliberately chose not to in order to keep other companies from "copying" their game style?

Am I the only one who doesn't buy this? E3 was the time for Nintendo to come out, guns blazing, and show it could compete with Microsoft and Sony. It was their chance to give people a reason to buy a Wii U. And yes, I realize it wasn't a big press conference like the other companies had, but nonetheless, it was still the most highly publicized and criticized Nintendo showing since...well...last E3.

Somehow, I have doubts that they would purposefully skip out on mentioning games that could convince people to buy a Wii U simply because they were concerned that someone might steal their ideas, or that people would have to wait.

But oh well. I guess time will tell if I'm right on that.

3DS needed those games, Paper Mario was the only big game last Holiday and while the early part of this year had Fire Emblem, Lego City and DKC Returns, none of those games are nearly as big as Luigis Mansion and without it 3DS sales in US/Eu would probably have been sluggish until Animal Crossing.

I agree Wii U needed some big games for the first half of this year and it did have some lined up like Pikmin 3, W101, Rayman, Wii Fit/Party but somhow all those games got delayed. By that time it was too late to do anything besides make sure the second half of the year was stacked.

considering a shit ton of stuff is copied off Nintendo, I believe them :P

You're probably the only  one.  If Nintendo is talking about a late 2014 release, especailly something special and unique, why show it now?  MS copying Wii with Kinect significantly ate into Wii's market dominance, and Sony also copied with Move.  The longer it takes their competitors to match their innovation, the better for Nintendo.

The guess here is that Nintendo is working on a Wii Sports-like product for release in Christmas 2014.  There is no point in showing it now since it's still a long way away.  They will save it to have a big reveal at next year's e3, or maybe at the Tokyo Game Show.  If the product uses the Gamepad in a fun and crowd-pleasing way, it could be a game-changer, the kind of product that makes the mass market ignore the PS4 and XBOne.  Since these products already have some quasi-gamepad options in Vita and Smartglass, we would see them look to copy the new Wii U innovation as quick as they could.  The longer Nintendo waits to reveal the new product - in particular until after PS4 and XBOne have launched and the marketing underway - the better in terms of making copying more difficult.

Besides, this year PS4 and XBOne will bascially be sold out to their rabid fans.  The real competition for the mass-market is next year.

I do disagree, the 3DS deseperately needed this, it hasn't been really setting the sales on fire especially in the West. The flux of games is very welcome and long may it continue.

Also last year it really didn't have many releases. NSMB, Paper Mario, Kid Icarus and Mario Tennis, that's pretty poor imo. It hasn't really kicked off till Fire Emblem released where the games started coming. Without these releases the 3DS would've sunken imo. Only Japan was holding it up!

That said Luigi does suit the Wii U very much and I hope to see it on the system!

Nintendo really have to stop releasing 1/2 Mario main series games a year. I do hope we see Mario Universe announced though, that would be spectacular, but 2015 sounds right to me.

Within that exists Nintendo's biggest weakness.... once their idea is "exposed", the competitors can copy and do that better and faster and reach the market with more oomph. While Nintendo spends eons integrating those ideas into existing franchise games keeping those classic franchises alive.

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First off, why show it now? Well, let's think about that for a second. Nintendo's currently competing with two full fledged console launches for attention, and trying to help get their own console back into the race. How would they get their console back into the race? By getting more people to buy it and having comparable sales to the other two consoles. How do they get people to buy it? They give people reasons to buy it; namely, games.

So when someone goes to buy a console, and looks at the Wii U, PS4, and X-Box One, they no longer have as many reasons to buy the Wii U. Why? Because there aren't as many games announced for it that they know of. Even if your game isn't going to come out for another 2 years or so, it's still an excellent way to convince people to buy your system. People are willing to invest in something if they know that down the line, their investment will pay off. Nintendo announced all of one new game at E3 this year, in essence, giving people all of one new reason to buy the Wii U. That's not going to cut it in a competition with two new consoles.

And secondly....no, just, no. The Kinect and "Wand" as it were didn't do crap to eat at the Wii's dominance. By the point both those were released (mid 2011), the Wii essentially had no games being developed for it whatsoever (the only major titles that came out in the second half of the year for Wii were Return to Dreamland and Skyward Sword), and Nintendo had essentially abandoned it to begin working on the Wii U. By that point in time, very few people wanted a Wii because the motion control fad had died down by then, and no games were being developed for it. 

Here's a chart of video game console sales, with the only real worthwhile part being the bit at the end. As you can see, the Kinect boosted the 360s sales by...maybe 250,000 units for one month? Right after June ended, the 360 went back to its regular trend of selling slightly more than the PS3 and Wii each month. The Wii's dominance had essentially died down by the time mid 2011 rolled around, so saying that other companies motion control fads ate into it is more than a little disingenious.

I don't believe copying eats into Nintendo sales nearly as much as anyone thinks, especially considering that all copying of Nintendo stuff comes after people get the chance to use it and play with it. No one is going to be copying stuff from a trailer they release and quickly designing a game to match it to compete for sales in that market. The fear of being copied off of a trailer they would release is more than a little paranoid, and nowhere near worth giving up reasons for people to buy their console.