Well if Sony and Microsoft has conferences while Nintendo hasn't, editors and writers will naturally cover those two more on gaming sites and news sites alike, since they're actually in the room with Nintendo and covers it live. Last year I saw many more articles around Sony and MS at E3. But then Nintendo hadn't very many games to show either..

E3 Direct wasn't a bad idea because going into E3, E3 conferences felt like they were giving up on...feeling important. But then every conference was around the quality of Ubisoft's in 2012, sometimes better, and E3 immediately got back its relevance. Oops.

that and the boring presentation and absurdly obvious announcements are what hurt the Direct in reality

There's just something exciting about hearing the live reaction of a crowd. ND gets the job done, but it's not as much fun.

Kinda like last year, but I think they need to have a conference as well. Show us some games coming this year, not a random footage from SSB that has no set release date.

It's just not the same not having a big ass crowd cheering when a game gets announched.

It would be so great if Nintendo would  have a traditional E3 conference this year. Just imagine the reactions when Zelda U gets shown! There would  be many messed panties indeed.

No solid proof, based on my own experiences. IMHO Nintendo doesn't seem "present" this gen. Did any mainstream (non gaming) press cover anything Nintendo announced last year? Did we get hype, fancy reveal trailers, showfloor demos, any announcements whatsoever? Do the kind of people who bought a Wii know whatever the hell a direct is?

Very few people know what it is. Very few know that it exists. Yet even non gamers (way down here in southern Africa) knew when the PS4 and XB1 were launching, they know what those are. I've lost count of how many times I've had to tell people what my Wii U is. The Wii was known, the Wii had presence. The U is a recluse. Directs are like it hanging out with its hipster buddies in its mothers basement or something.

I like directs but I don't think they are effective marketing to the masses. Its good for the fans but Nintendo needs more customers than fans right now. This is my assumption, internet != real life. Directs have zero effect on the market in my opinion. And not everyone can physically go to E3 or wall-mart to play these games.

I personally wasn't really "let down" last year, but I definitely prefer a traditional conference because of the allure of such a thing. It's more prestigious and just gets more attention and Nintendo needs to be in the center spotlight this year.

Ideally they'll do something like in 2012, when they had a Direct as 'intro' to the E3 conference.

If the live, stage conference goes like the one 2 years ago, with 30' talking about a game like Nintendo Land they can get rid of it entirely. No one will give a sh!t about it.

That said, I think what they did 2 years ago was a good idea. They should have a Nintendo Direct on Sunday, prior to the conferences, talking about some non-essential stuff like MiiVerse and other services (basically the boring stuff that e don't care about) and then do a stage conference showing the games, even if it only lasts for 30-40 minutes.

I'd like to see a traditional E3 conference crammed with announcements, demos, teaser trailer’s etc. on the announcements side I’d like to see Zelda Wiiu, open world Pokémon RPG hopefully made by Monolith Soft with input from Game Freak with compatibility with the main series (trading, battling etc.), Battalion Wars 3 Wiiu, Capcom vs Nintendo Wiiu/3ds, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate HD Wiiu, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time sequel/spiritual successor 3ds/Wiiu, The World Ends With You 2 3ds, chrono Cross 3ds, Pokémon Conquest 2 3ds, Advance Wars 3ds and a new label for Wiiu like new play control but for Wii games in HD ( super Mario galaxy, Xenoblade etc.).