Editor’s Note: Since this opinion’s piece has been written, Nintendo has confirmed to multiple outlets that it is not announcing new hardware at E3 2014.
So, a new report on VideoGamer has said that Nintendo will be unveiling a new piece of hardware at E3 2014. Great! Nintendo peripherals are always kind of cool, and what with the Wiimote and the GamePad and the Pro Controller, the Wii U is practically drowning in peripherals… except… it’s probably not going to be a peripheral if we can believe VideoGamer. They say that new games for the hardware will be playable at the show, which would seem to suggest that it would end up being the successor to the Wii U. However, Nintendo has said many times that it is not abandoning the Wii U anytime soon. So, what could the big N be talking about?
Well, it has to be something that can have games for it right? It could be a new sort of control peripheral. If you think about it, there were games for the Kinect and games for the PS Move even though the Kinect and the Move weren’t full consoles. Then again, could Nintendo honestly risk making the control scheme for the Wii U even more complicated? It’s already very difficult to make games for, especially traditional games. So what else can it be?
Well, it could be another handheld. After all, the 3DS and 2DS were incredibly successful. However, that’s also why it’s unlikely that Nintendo would be putting out another handheld so soon. The Vita is lagging behind the 3DS quite profoundly. Putting out another handheld at this point risks alienating the massive 3DS fanbase that has, essentially, been giving Nintendo the majority of their sales in the last few years. So that’s unlikely to be Nintendo’s new hardware announcement.
So what else can they be planning? Well, some have theorized that Nintendo will be giving us a brand new way to play 3DS games on a TV. There has been a lot of demand for big screen 3DS capability. Sony has come out with a similar peripheral for their PS Vita in the PS Vita TV. But then again, this doesn’t explain the statement that “new games” would be coming out for the hardware. If it was just a big screen 3DS adapter, the new games would be same as the old games.
These rumors aren’t only coming out of VideoGamer. IGN, MCV, Gamespot, several posters on NeoGAF and more have all supported the idea that Nintendo will be showing off new hardware at E3. In fact, just about the only one who isn’t saying that Nintendo has new hardware to show is Nintendo, who refuses to comment on rumor or speculation. Still, at this point it seems incredibly likely that this rumor is true, and we will have more information for you when we visit E3 this year in June.
Who knows… it might just be the grand return of the Wii Vitality Sensor. Everyone wants to see that come back, right?