E3 is already half over, with tons of huge announcements already made. However, the annual convention seems to be saving the most hotly anticipated presentation to be the opener on its final day. Tuesday morning's Nintendo Direct has an absurd amount of hype swirling around it.
In February of this year, Nintendo hosted the first Direct in 530 days, which was shortly followed by a Pokémon Direct. Before these two twin Directs, Nintendo fans had no idea what major titles the developer had in store for 2021 and beyond. Now, it seems Nintendo may be prepping some huge announcements for its showcase at E3 this year.
Specifically, the hype around Tuesday's E3 Direct centers around four long-overdue, highly-rumored announcements Nintendo is expected to address. These include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's sequel, as well as other highly anticipated games.
When news outlets discuss the most-hyped potential announcements at E3, one game tends to supply the story's screenshot. The teaser for the as-of-yet unnamed sequel to the groundbreaking and beloved game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the biggest revelation of Nintendo's last E3 presentation in 2019. The announcement came as a huge surprise, considering direct sequels happen quite sparingly in Zelda, and none of them deal as directly with the story of the previous game as the BotW2 trailer implies.
During February's Direct, before discussing the upcoming remaster of Skyward Sword, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma essentially announced that he would have more to announce on BotW2 later this year. Four months later, fans are tantalized to see if Nintendo's E3 Direct could be this promised time. Audiences are eagerly awaiting an official title, more footage, and - most importantly of all - a release date.
For months now, rumors about a better-performing, higher-resolution Switch Pro have been swirling about the internet. Stories about when the announcement of a Switch Pro might be made, or when a Switch Pro might go on sale, have circulated with positively giddy abandon. The most recent strain of rumors postulated that the Switch Pro might be announced before the E3 Direct. Alas, that has not happened.
Unfortunately, there may be yet another twist of the knife for anyone hoping Nintendo might announce the Pro during E3. In its official announcement for E3, Nintendo states that the Direct will "focus exclusively on Nintendo Switch software," which is perhaps bad news for people hoping to see a hardware reveal during the presentation.
As eager as fans are for the BotW sequel teased at 2019's E3, another sequel has been teased from two E3 broadcasts prior: Metroid Prime 4. Although announced in 2017, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that the project was starting over from scratch with Retro Studios at the helm. Tantalizingly, these are the only two official pieces of news to come out about Metroid Prime 4.
Considering that 2019 do-over start date, it's reasonable to believe Metroid Prime 4 may not come out until 2023. However, it's equally reasonable to believe that Nintendo may use the stage supplied by E3 to provide a long-awaited update on the project.
Also announced during the 2017 Game Awards was Bayonetta 3. Platinum Games' subsequent silence on Bayonetta 3 was so intense many fans believed the project was cancelled. However, in December 2020, Platinum Games said development was "going great." In January, director Hideki Kamiya offered further enlightenment. At the very least, Kamiya's coy teasing about how there's "still a lot of the year left" makes one wonder if he was hinting at an E3 announcement.
Even these four giant potential announcements are just the tip of Nintendo's gaming iceberg. The company has already announced huge titles like Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Sinnoh remakes, and Splatoon 3, and it's reasonable to expect audiences will hear more about those titles tomorrow, which means - even at its lowest bar of expectation - Nintendo's E3 Direct is going to be big.
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