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This is going to be a weird one. As we head into E3 2016, the console games industry is undergoing seismic shifts that will change its course radically and forever. But there's a good chance the tip of this looming iceberg will barely break the glossy surface of the annual promotional whirligig in Los Angeles. If you'll forgive the mixed metaphors, that's one hell of an elephant in the room.Or three elephants: three new games consoles from the three major players, all of them coming years before you would expect this hardware generation to draw to a natural close, and none of them quite like anything that has gone before.
Nintendo has announced that its next console, codenamed NX and due for release as soon as March next year, won't be appearing in LA. Its attempt to fill this conspicuous hole with a single game (the next Legend of Zelda) and a lot of Smash and Splatoon tournaments will be the most visible symptom of change happening behind the scenes at E3 this year, but it may also be the least significant for everyone else. Nintendo is a law unto itself these days, and to some extent an industry to itself. Wii U has been a failure, turning Nintendo's home console play from disruption to irrelevance. 3DS has sold well, maintaining the firm's iron grip on the dedicated handheld console market, but the declining relevance of that market in the face of smartphone gaming is impossible to hide.
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