It's become fairly commonplace for Nintendo to buck trends at E3, beginning with its decision to drop live press conferences and culminating more recently when it dedicated nearly all of last year's show (and the entirety of its booth space) to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This year may not be quite so extreme, but we do have a better idea of what the company has planned thanks to its now-live E3 2017 website.
According to the site, Nintendo will again favor its own Direct-style video presentation instead of a live press conference, this year known as "Nintendo Spotlight." The video presentation is scheduled for June 13th at 9AM PT, and will feature "a closer look at the Super Mario Odyssey game and new details for Nintendo Switch games launching this year." In other words, we know Odyssey is on the table, but the rest will be left up to surprise.
Immediately following the presentation Nintendo intends to bring back its Treehouse Live show, which generally consists of guided demos and "let's plays" streamed via YouTube and Nintendo's E3 Twitch channels. This year Treehouse Live is confirmed to be featuring "upcoming games for Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems," as well as "behind-the-scenes info" and "surprises." Generally speaking, E3 is better when there are surprises.
Also notable is Nintendo's planned esports activities at the show, with tournaments on the books for both Splatoon 2 and ARMS. Splatoon 2's "World Inkling Invitational" will take place on the 13th, while ARMS' "Open Invitational" will be held the following day on the 14th.
That's about everything we know for now, and it may be all we need to know – all that's left is to keep an eye o Nintendo's E3 website, bookmark its Twitch channels, and settle in for what ought to be a great show. Let's just hope the the cow milking is kept to a minimum.
