Pokemon Sword And Shield Direct Scheduled For June 5
What in the world is Nintendo going to show at E3? That's the question we're asking now that the company has announced a Pokemon-centered Nintendo Direct, which will take place six days before Nintendo's E3 Direct presentation.
According to a tweet from Nintendo, we can expect a Pokemon Sword and Shield Direct on Wednesday, June 5 at 6 a.m. PT. And the stream will be "roughly 15 minutes" long, in Nintendo's words. That's a fairly substantial amount of time to spend on these titles, which we already got a look at earlier this year. What's interesting, though, is that Nintendo is putting Pokemon news out ahead of E3.
It begs the question: what will Nintendo's E3 Direct focus on? Nintendo already partially cleared the table by holding a Direct for Super Mario Maker 2. If Pokemon Sword and Shield are also coming off the board, which basket will the company put all of its eggs in?
It's entirely possible that Nintendo's E3 Direct could be a wider look at other releases coming later in the year. The company has a slew of them, such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Astral Chain, Luigi's Mansion 3, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Town, and Animal Crossing. We haven't seen some of these games in quite a while, so E3 would be a great time to check back in and perhaps add some solid release dates to the calendar.
It also stands to reason that Nintendo might use E3 to show off games that are coming in the next year or two. So far this year, the company has used more general Directs to show off a range of games, later giving titles their own focused Directs as they get closer to release. The above-mentioned 2019 titles could follow that pattern and get their own special looks in the months ahead, leaving E3 as a showcase of what the Switch will have to offer further down the line.
As far as what Nintendo could bring to the show floor at E3, however, many have speculated that Animal Crossing would get the nod this year as the company's flagship Switch title. With Pokemon Sword and Shield getting time before E3, that's looking more and more likely.
In addition to the Pokemon Direct next week, Polygon is reporting that The Pokemon Company plans to hold a press conference on Tuesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. PT. That could touch on Sword and Shield, as well, but will more likely hit on the still-unnamed mobile title The Pokemon Company is creating in conjunction with DeNA.
We'll likely have more after The Pokemon Company's press conference wraps up tomorrow.