Earlier today, a report suggested that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would all be skipping a physical presence at E3 this year, and now a follow-up suggests that the Switch publisher is dropping out because it simply doesn't have enough big games to show.
That's according to VGC, whose sources indicate that Nintendo is skipping E3 2023 "because it feels it has fewer major releases than usual ready to show and which would justify significant event space." As with that previous report, it's worth noting that Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo will likely still have big summer showcase events streamed online around E3 time - just don't expect them to actually be on the show floor if you attend E3 yourself.
But the suggestion that Nintendo's skipping E3 because it doesn't have enough major releases to show offers more concerning implications for the publisher's 2023 slate. Nintendo's biggest game this year is certainly The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but its May 12 release date will land well before the E3 2023 schedule kicks off a month later.
The only other major release Nintendo has officially announced for 2023 is Pikmin 4. It's likely that Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp will launch sometime this year, and rumors have long circulated that some kind of Metroid Prime remake or remaster is on the way. None of those games seem like they'd justify a big convention presence for Nintendo. The upcoming Metroid Prime 4 certainly could, though it's been four years since that game's development was rebooted and we have no idea if it's in a state to be shown to the public.
At this point we can't help but start asking what the next Nintendo console will look like.
