Nintendo really needed to "wow" people this year at E3. Show them why they needed to get the Wii U and 3DS, get the games and really ppush the boat out. The atmosphere at E3 would have been the perfect place to get the buzz going, and yet they squander that opportunity by "only" going for a Direct.

I must say I'm a little disappointed. But hopefully there will still be plenty of good game announcements which is the most important thing I guess/

That's debatable. There are two possibilities...

1. They don't have solid stuff to show in a proper press conference, so to avoid underwhelming people, they're going with a Direct, where they can more easily just show trailers, etc, to fill the time.

2. They have such a strong lineup that a press conference is unnecessary, they feel that the Direct reveals will drive hype so strongly that a press conference would just be overkill.

Basically, either they don't think what they have to show is sufficient for a press conference, or they are concerned that a press conference is an unnecessary expense for what they have to show. Personally, I'm hoping for the latter. And I strongly suspect that they have some big stuff to announce.

Why? Well, let's look at what we know of Nintendo's mid-2014 to mid-2015 lineup for 3DS: Fossil Fighters: Infinite Gear and a Pikachu-based detective game. Then you look at their Wii U lineup, and we have Smash Bros Wii U, X, and Yarn Yoshi (note: I'm not counting the crossover titles that are being developed by third parties - Bayonetta 2 by Platinum, Hyrule Warriors by Tecmo Koei, and SMTxFE by Atlus).

That's five titles. Six, if you add the new Zelda title that is likely to drop late 2015. That's the total of what we know of, that is coming to the Nintendo systems but isn't out yet.

Now consider the franchises that Nintendo typically has released a title on each system, but haven't yet on Wii U: Metroid, Mario Party, Paper Mario, Pokemon, Kirby, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing are some of the more notable ones. And there's a rumour of a new Mario Galaxy type game. And there's also the Miyamoto new IP. There's Kid Icarus, F-Zero, Star Fox, 1080, Wave Race, Battalion Wars, Excite, Endless Ocean, and Pilotwings, to name a few, that also have a chance to show up.

At this time last year, we knew of Game & Wario, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Wii Fit U, Bayonetta 2, Wind Waker HD, Smash Bros 4, Yarn Yoshi, Mario Kart, X, and SMTxFE. Nintendo's only early reveal so far this year is Hyrule Warriors - the rest of the games we know about were revealed last year. And yet, as the list I just provided above demonstrates, there are so many titles we can expect from Nintendo, that haven't been announced.

There's one other curio. Nintendo allowed Sonic Boom to be revealed early. Why? Revealed at that time, it wasn't going to drive any additional sales. And if they were lacking in content, holding back the reveal of a guaranteed third-party exclusive for E3 would have been an obvious choice. And yet, they revealed it early.

I'm not going to call it a certainty, but I see good reason to have hope that Nintendo's decisions for this E3 are due to the strength of their lineup, rather than the weakness of it.

Whatever the case, they're definitely promoting this year's E3 like no other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEhI4CJjAM

The Smash Bros. Tournament will be streamed live at the NOKIA Theatre...

So while Sony and Microsoft are having conferences with game reveals streamed live to peoples houses, Nintendo will be having 16 expert Smash Players in a tournament streamed live to peoples houses. And announcing games in a separate event. And the live Treehouse streaming event all day. And the stupid Best Buy thing I'll never degrade myself by going to.

Honestly, the big reason last year's E3 Direct was so lame was because the only things that were unexpected during the Direct were the disappointments. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze instead of Metroid and Super Mario 3D World instead of a standard 3D Mario game. And no Zelda. Everything else we were either told would be there or expected it to be there.

Nintendo told us basically everything ahead of time. We were told that we'd see Smash. (Though most didn't expect an epic Mega Man reveal) We were told that we'd see Mario Kart. We were told that we'd see 3D Mario. (disappointment) We were told that we'd see something from Retro. (disappointment) We were told that we'd see Wind Waker HD. We already knew about Bayonetta 2. We already knew about X. We already knew about Wonderful 101. People wanted a surprise, but all of that was spoiled during the months prior.

What do we know about this E3? We were told that we'd see Nintendo's new "Quality of Life" platform. We were told that we'd see Zelda Wii U. We were told that we'd see Super Smash Bros. We'll probably see Bayonetta 2. We'll probably see X. We might see Mario Kart. (which would be a fucking waste of time, but it's Nintendo) Everything else is a surprise, because they didn't tell us everything right off the bat.

Maybe we'll finally see Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem? Maybe the real 3D Mario? Maybe that HD Pokemon game that was teased last year? Maybe Metroid for Wii U? Maybe Metroid 3DS? Maybe Star Fox? Miyamoto's new IP? (don't have much confidence in that to be honest) Majora's Mask 3D? New IP altogether?

There will be a lot more surprises this E3 than last because Nintendo didn't front load this year with spoilers like last year. I want to learn more about this "Digital Event" before I get too disappointed.

Nintendo seriously needs to make sure their streaming is on point this year though. I think they will learn from last year though.

Awwww yeeeeaaah! Can not wait to play SSB4! Gonna be a blast!

Well considering that Nintendo Direct drew less than a 10th of what both major E3 pressers drew, I'd say this a big mistake and they'll lose a ton of exposure.

What portion of video game consumers pay attention to E3???
It's not my intention to be facetious...
I know how important E3 is to gamers who go on forums...
Are we sure we aren't overestimating the importance of E3 to the mainstream consumer???

No, it isn't.

Nintendo direct aside, not having the flashy presentation live is a message that they are beneath MS and Sony.

It's clear that the E3 followers do have a lot of purchasing power, just look at this generation's sales so far. Nintendo didn't do E3 last year and the Wii U has done terribly. I don't think having a presentation can hurt.