Nintendo E3 2018: What to Expect

In a wild year of changes at the show, the Nintendo E3 2018 presentation and general setup seems to be the most traditional. This is rather refreshing as it's been crazy trying to keep up with all of the altering aspects of event. With that, Nintendo should be having the most regular business as usual presentation we'll see there. Things will start off with their Nintendo Direct that showcases an array of new titles and what to expect from the company in the near future. We'll probably hear more about their Nintendo Switch Online service including the remaining NES titles and the general functionality of their online.

We've been teased about what to expect and costs, but E3 is a good chance for them to really fully describe the service as well as their goals for it. After that we'll hear about the big games to come. The Nintendo Switch has been on fire for exclusive releases being a mix of brand new large scale games and some ports from the WiiU. They'll want to continue this high demand trend, but it's going to be difficult considering just how impressive the quantity has been. I don't think their direct will be as crazy as with Breath of the Wild or Odyssey from last year, but there will be some fun surprises because it's Nintendo.
The big games I believe we'll see are Super Smash Bros. which has been teased, Yoshi that we've been waiting for and Metroid that was lightly teased prior. It may not be a big focus, but we'll hear something more on the Metroid game. There will be more mentions for Mario Tennis Aces, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker and probably something Pokemon based. That's about all I really anticipate, but that's also quite a lot. I'd love to see an Animal Crossing, but honestly I'm never expecting it to arrive. It would be great to see as there are always mentions about it and hopefully it'll be a pleasant surprise at some point. When it comes to other releases I expect to see further support from the large publishers.

This will start with some exciting new indies that will be heading to the console. Bethesda will probably announce some ports for their latest batch of titles, we'll have to wait on what exactly gets showcased at their conference for that. There have been teases of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Battle Royale or multiplayer to be available so we'll see about that. I'm curious if EA will provide further support in terms of the sports titles or other general releases. It would be great to see Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 3 head to the Switch if that game gets revealed, would fit well. I would also anticipate a great number of releases coming from Square Enix which is set to have a massive show presence.

That's about all I have to guess for now, on the show floor things will feel similar. There will be a large floor space with a lavish setup mirroring their big release. You'll get a number of stations for it and some neat behind the scenes setups. Last year I was very happy with what they had setup back there so hopefully we see that again. Whatever happens, I have a booking with the group so that should be a blast.

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