I don't understand why they wouldn't showcase this
I know right? Its not as if anyone there wanted to watch Just Dance 4 or stuff Ubisoft showed the day before.
I think they wanted to focus on third parties since this is the biggest event, previous years it has all been about Nintendo only at their conferences, spending just a few minutes with third party content.
They want third parties to get the publicity that E3 gets and at the same time have some key Nintendo games, games that will be available at launch like Pikmin and Mario.
I'm expecting much more from the tokyo game show, a new direct, gdc etc.
Last years nintendo E3 focused so much on Nintendo, that's why it was shock full off surprises, Nintendo are one of the few devs able to hold their projects secret.
We know Miyamoto has been working on new IP's for some time now and that retro is working on a project everyone wants them to do. What they've shown is just a fraction of what they have planned.
It's good to see them embracing third parties but the lack of first time revealed first party titles made this event pretty lackluster compared to the E3 we got Skyward Sword DKCR or Kid Icarus.
Nintendo games have great sales no matter what so I see why they would choose to present their own games at any date.