This year's Electronics Entertainment Expo is to be held completely virtually, with each company involved holding its own livestream under the overall E3 banner. Nintendo is no stranger to this style of presentation. The company is well-known for its Nintendo Directs, virtual presentations that announce new games or projects. No Nintendo Direct was held in conjunction with E3 last year, with the company's planned announcement of Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary events delayed until September.
Now though, E3 back in full swing and Nintendo is joining in on the festivities. Nintendo's presentation will start at 12 p.m. EDT and run for 40 minutes, followed by a Nintendo Treehouse livestream. Treehouse livestreams focus more on gameplay instead of announcements, so expect follow-ups for projects featured during the Nintendo Direct. Both streams will be available on Nintendo's YouTube channel, with video-on-demand versions posted afterward. It's impossible to know what exactly will be on the slate for that Direct, but here are a few likely guesses.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2's Gameplay Reveal
Fans have been excited to see a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild since the game first released, largely due to its revitalization of the series. Breath of the Wild took everything great about Zelda but brought into an open-world environment, using a physics-based engine to let players exercise their imagination to its fullest extent. News on the sequel has been slow since it was announced in June 2019, almost two years ago. Nintendo confirmed in February after announcing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD that players would hear more about the sequel "later this year," but it's just as likelythat such an announcement could come at the end of 2021.
A New Smash DLC Character Announcement
Nintendo took time at the very beginning of its 2019 E3 presentation to announce Hero as one of the playable DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, released as a part of Fighters Pass Volume 1. Two years have passed since then, but Fighters Pass Volume 2 still has two characters who have yet to be announced. E3 2021 is a perfect time to unveil the game's next fighter, especially since it fits into the game's rough schedule of a new release every 3-4 months. The question as to which character deserves a slot in Ultimate is as hotly debated as ever, but current candidates include Waluigi, Scorpion, and even Shovel Knight.
A New Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Trailer
Nintendo announced three different Pokémon titles earlier in the year. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are remakes of Pokémon's fourth-generation games, set in the Sinnoh region. Unlike previous remakes such as Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl hew closer to their predecessors' top-down, 2D style.
The company also announced Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a radical departure from the traditional Pokémon formula set in Sinnoh's distant past. But any details released during Nintendo's E3 Direct will likely focus on Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, since the company indicated in its initial announcement that the Direct would be focusing on 2021 titles. The Sinnoh remakes are set to release in November of this year, while Legends isn't due until January 2022.
A Splatoon 3 Treehouse Segment
Nintendo announced Splatoon 3 during its February Nintendo Direct, showcasing a city called Splatsville located in a vast desert amid the post-apocalyptic remains of western Europe. The previous trailer didn't show off many new features beyond an expanded character customization system for Inklings, but it did announce the game would be releasing in 2022.
Nintendo's E3 Direct will focus mainly on 2021 titles, but Splatoon 3 in particular seems ripe for more in-depth gameplay footage during the Treehouse stream. The Splatoon series is bright, colorful and larger than life, filled with a lot more spectacle and moment-to-moment action than other Nintendo titles. It's unlikely to take up the entire Treehouse stream, but it'd be surprising if it didn't warrant at least a few minutes of gameplay.