Nintendo World Championships return at E3 (update)

Nintendo detailed its latest plans for E3 in a video released on YouTube today, which includes the return of the Nintendo World Championships.

"For the first time in 25 years, some of Nintendo's biggest fans will get to go head-to-head in a gaming showdown for the ages," according to Nintendo's E3 site. "Join a worldwide audience by watching the live stream on Sunday, June 14."

"Whether you're tuning in online or joining us at the show, we want to include fans of all ages this E3 with an innovative and nostalgic focus on fun," Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's President and Chief Operating Officer, added in a prepared statement. "I'm especially eager to bring back the Nintendo World Championships and to crown the 2015 Nintendo World Champion."

Qualifying rounds for the Nintendo World Championships will begin on May 30 at Best Buy locations in major cities around the country.

The winners from each regional event, plus competitors invited by Nintendo, will meet on June 14, at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles for a multi-round Nintendo game competition. In the end, one player will be crowned the 2015 Nintendo World Champion. Fans in Los Angeles will have the opportunity to attend the tournament, while others can watch online. More details about the qualifying tournaments will be shared in the coming weeks.

On June 16 at 9 a.m. PT, Nintendo will stream an E3 Nintendo Direct, as they have over the past two years, to detail the company's offerings at the big show. There will also be game-specific livestreams featuring the localization Treehouse team throughout the week of E3.

On two days during the week of E3, participating Best Buy locations will open their doors to let fans try out the upcoming Mario Maker game for the Wii U console. The events will take place 4-9 p.m. local time on Wednesday, June 17, and noon-5 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 20. Attendees will receive a sweet 30th anniversary Super Mario Bros. pin while supplies last.

Nintendo started rethinking its approach to E3 in 2012, when the company decided to unveil the Wii U at a daylong event in New York, rather than the typical pre-E3 press conference. In 2013, Shigeruo Miyamoto talked to Polygon about that decision and how the company was reexamining how best to talk about games and hardware with its fans.

Later that year, Nintendo announced it would forego its annual E3 press conference and instead deliver news directly to fans through a Nintendo Direct video stream that week and a very short, informal presentation to select press on the show floor. Last year, Nintendo reworked its approach again, doing away with the press event and instead just hosting a Nintendo Direct the morning of E3's first day and then streams throughout the week from the show floor.

During an earning call earlier this month, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told analysts that the company would not be talking about its next gaming system, codenamed NX, at E3. Nor, he said, would the company discuss the recently announced plan to create games for smartphones or the company's decision to get into quality-of-life tech.

Update: Square Enix's press briefing was originally scheduled to run at the same time as Nintendo's, but Square Enix announced May 15 that it had pushed back its presentation by one hour to 10 a.m. PT on June 16.

The console needs to die and Nintendo should be the one to pull the trigger