April 1st has come and gone, which means it's officially NOT too early to make an E3 thread anymore! In just over two months, the biggest gaming conference of the year will be upon us! And as usual, I'll be sifting and sorting through coverage to find all the juiciest tidbits of info, rumors, and coverage for your reading and viewing pleasure!

Important Sites
Official Site > has a great photo album from last year and some cool videos about the event, as well as a list of exhibitors and links to Facebook and Twitter pages.
E3 Insider 2012 > Staring May 30th, provides coverage and news releases as well as an "Interactive Show Floor Map"
Gametrailers.com E3 All Access > Together with Spike TV, Gametrailers is providing complete coverage of the event.

Live Stream Coverage 
G4TV
Playstation Live Show
Nintendo Live Show
Microsoft Live Show

General Coverage
E3Coverage.com > Not sure how active it is, but looks ready for 2012.
Gamerevolution.com
NG4 > News and Rumors sorted by popularity/interest.
The Verge > News Updates
Gamesradar > Rumors and news articles organized by date/most recent.
Gamespot
IGN
GimmeGimmeGimmeGames > E3 News feed
G4TV.com > E3 2012 Headquarters 

Nintendo Coverage
TheNintendoChannel > Articles, live feed, and tons of Nintendo E3 coverage.
NintendoLife.com > Includes E3 countdown timer 
WiiUBlog

Other Information

NeoGAF Info Site > Basically a better and prettier version of this post.

IGN Preview Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6nga90xh48

Don't miss E3! Press conference dates breakdown by Time Zone (source: http://gamesanalyzer.com/?p=682)


 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't developers refusing to go to E3 this year due to the sponsors of E3 supporting SOPA?

I have heard about that, I believe it's true. The ESA, which hosts E3, was a supporter of SOPA...that is, until they saw all the backlash and dropped their support, supposedly. I personally am still going to be watching E3, simply because this is the only time I've disagreed with the ESA. I usually don't have a problem with them. We might see far fewer developers there though.

I think ESA supported SOPA w/o looking at the fine print. I would rather look at them as being incompetent than evil.

If BioWare has a booth they will announce DA3 while trying to do serious damage control over ME3. I honestly don't see them staying afloat much longer.

I look forward to the Nintendo booth to see if they are announcing the Wii U launch titles.

I hope people don't drop support for E3 because of politics.

E3 is fun to watch.

From a Nintendo fan standpoint, it's a win-win as far as big news is concerned. By that I mean that burst or bust, we're gonna find out just what the Wii U is going to be. If it's awesome, we get to enjoy the great news. If it sucks, we have a great topic to rant about for months. I just don't see it being anywhere in the middle. It sucks or it rocks.

Yeah I'm prepared to be angry at Nintendo's decisions.

Of particular note, has anyone noticed how you can never guess the name of a Nintendo game?

It's either horrid (Epic Yarn), awful (Donkey Kong Country Returns), embarrassing (Wii U), or a bizarre numbered game (SMG 2, MK7).

Notice how all awful names are in the past few years. There were a few bad names in the past, but man, they've really kicked it up a notch. My jaw literally dropped in disappointment when I saw the Wii U logo on the screen during E3.

Game and System titles mean nothing w/o the content. I haven't been disappointed by the content yet.

While I can't give you all the specific names of the new IPs coming to the Wii U -- I can tell what companies they're coming from.  Perhaps we can speculate on what they may be.

Ubisoft IP Wii U Exclusive
Oh, and the Ubisoft IP is not Killer Freaks from Outerspace.

Miyamoto explains why Pikmin 3 is on the Wii U

Dragon Quest X coming to Wii and Wii U

And, let's obviously not count out a new Smash Bros game.  Just don't expect it anytime soon.

Anyway, if anyone else wants to add to this small list feel free too.  Would appreciate it!

F-Zero WU 

And then I

Imagine this if you will:


Nintendo's Press conference starts. At first, nothing happens. No one comes on stage. The lights dim to black...

...and the intro to the Mute City theme starts to play.

Brief flashes on screen show a golden glove being tugged on. A boot pulled up. The top of a blue helmet, with the falcon symbol engraved on it. The music pauses...

F-Zero Wii U! Beautiful HD graphics show the vehicles shooting past the camera at over 300 km/h, the Mute City soundtrack blaring in the background! The environments look incredible! The gameplay is fast an intense!

What's this? Online play for up to 30 players on the Nintendo Network? Global tournaments? Realistic vehicle conditioning and damage, with performance guages displayed on the tablet controller? Custom vehicles with 100s of parts, and a decal designer that takes advantage of the tablet screen?

The music begins to fade, and the screen reveals the date: Winter 2012.


Please Nintendo, make this happen.

I feel like all the games I want are things they'll probably never make.

Like a remake of Virtual Boy Wario Land for 3DS. That'd be cool.

Okay I'll make it simple.

Smash Bros. on Wii U.

 



SWOON 

^Haha thought you'd appreciate that.

I did. Every single word.

and evry1 boos

And that's why you are in my black quadrant.

!!!!!

I'm liking the sound of a new Ubisoft IP. Should be interesting.