Nintendo’s E3 press conference will be held on June 7, 2011 at 9am PST. We know the company will be debuting its new, much rumoured about, Project Café home console, but not much else.
I’ve decided to let a combination of educated guesses and wishful thinking overwhelm my senses, and have formulated the following list of predictions of what I expect the company to do, say, and announce.
You can read my Microsoft E3 2011 conference predictions here, and my Sony predictions here.
Very Likely
- Project Café system and controller physically shown
- Controller really does have a screen built into it
- Café games shown, playable on show floor
- Iwata flops his hands around while explaining the genius of Café
- Café’s hardware full generational leap over 360/PS3
- Café backwards compatible with Wii (and GameCube?)
- Super Mario 3DS shown, playable on show floor
- 3DS online functionality pimped like mad
- Netflix, 3D movies for 3DS discussed
- New NoA Executive VP of Sales and Marketing Scott Moffitt gets his debut
Likely
- Café has no hard drive, small amount of flash memory only
- Super Smash Bros. 4 announced for Project Café
- New mega-game for casual players announced for Café
- Animal Crossing 3DS dated, playable
- Paper Mario 3DS dated, playable
- Kid Icarus 3DS dated, playable
- Mario Kart 3DS dated, playable
- Wii/DS ignored except for quick mention of a few titles on the way
- Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword still for Wii
- New Kirby Wii game not shown, announced in PR afterward
Unlikely
- Project Café’s real name revealed (Stream?)
- Pikmin 3 announced for Café
- New Retro Studios game announced for Café
- Retro game is Donkey Kong Country Returns 2
- Ports of big-name 360/PS3 games announced for Café
- Project Café doesn’t play Blu-ray movies, does use similar tech
- Project Café titles from any of Ubisoft, Activision, EA revealed
- Wii downloads transferable to Café
- Facebook integration announced for 3DS
- Reggie performs standing back-flip
Nigh-impossible
- Project Café’s price revealed
- Star Fox announced for Café
- Wave Race announced for Café
- Café titles from any three of: Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, Konami, Namco revealed
- 3DS online store is brimming with cheap, quality downloadable content
- Pokémon “Grey” revealed for DS, 3DS enhanced
- Dragon Quest X for Wii debuted
- Pandora’s Tower and/or Xenoblade Chronicles announced for North America for Wii
- Another obscure, previously Japan-only first party Wii game announced for North America
- Vitality Sensor lives
Megaton-caliber fantasies
- Retro’s new game isn’t DKCR2, it’s Eternal Darkness 2
- Rockstar is prepping Grand Theft Auto V for Café (and it’s a timed exclusive?)
- Another mainline AAA third party exclusive announced for Café
- Firmware update “unlocks” data across Nintendo systems, allows you to link data to a single account
- Mario/Sonic platformer crossover announced for any system
- Virtual Boy games announced for 3DS Virtual Console
- Miyamoto live-demos anything (not happening after last year’s Skyward Sword fiasco)
- Sega and Namco merging with Nintendo stemming from work on “Triforce” arcade board
- Call of Duty mainline title exclusive to Café
- Nintendo announces creation of movie studio (a la Ubisoft)