What's in store?

Nintendo has already revealed some of its plans for E3 2014, but if a new rumour is to be believed, it could be showing off more than just new software at this year's show.

In the latest episode of Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN editor Jose Otero reveals that a rumour is doing the rounds that Nintendo is going to show new hardware at the expo:

We've heard rumors that Nintendo might be showing hardware at E3.

IGN co-founder Peer Schneider responded by saying that he has heard the same news:

They're absolutely going to show new hardware this year. No doubt in my mind that something... 'Cause I've heard from multiple people now. I've heard from someone who used to be at Nintendo; I've heard it from somebody on the third-party front.

Outlandish speculation? Perhaps — the calm before the E3 storm tends to bring wild guesses out of the woodwork — but this actually ties in with rumours we've been hearing ourselves behind the scenes.

With this much chatter, it would seem likely that Nintendo has something new to show at E3, but what could it be? It's arguably much too soon for the company to consider replacing either the 3DS or Wii U, but we could see a redesign of either machine. Perhaps the much-hyped Quality of Life platform will be revealed and its hardware component shown off to the masses?

Your guess is as good as ours at this stage, so why not let us know your prediction by leaving a comment below?

UPDATE: Both Otero and Schneider have responded to the publication of news stories — not entirely unlike the one you've just read — and you can view Otero's statement below:

I understand why someone would consider what we discussed newsworthy, but this story completely ignores an important piece of context: We didn't trust these sources enough to run a story on IGN. It's a conversation, and sometimes we get carried away. Peer did make the above argument, but we also framed the discussion around the context that we weren't sure. Unfortunately, the author made no effort to convey that in his news story. If we believed what we'd heard, you wouldn't have found out about it on another site. We would have run that story ourselves. Just food for thought. I don't blame anyone for running with it, but omitting that context from the story is pretty shady. Again, I get it. But I'm here to tell you the discussion wasn't as simple as "this is for real, guys!"

Schneider won't out-and-out deny the rumours, but instead insists that any hardware news won't steal the thunder of the 3DS and Wii U:

https://twitter.com/PeerIGN/statuses/461978173094125568

[source gamerevolution.com]