In addition to silly press events, Nintendo hosted a financial briefing for investors and analysts at E3 today. According to one analyst in attendance, Nintendo plans on releasing its very first free-to-play game before the end of its fiscal year in March 2014.

"Nintendo free-to-play game will be released this FY but will not be Mario or Pokemon game," analyst David Gibson tweeted (via Gamespot).

"I have no intention of denying charged games, or the free-to-play model," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said earlier this year, pointing out that "the ways to obtain money through supporting entertainment have increased" due to digital distribution. Through the Nintendo Network, the publisher has recently started distributing DLC for many of its recent titles.

Iwata also stated that should the company move into free-to-play, it would want to do so with new IP, instead of sullying the brands it has already established. "For new titles with no established base, if, in the process of development, we found it to suit the free-to-play model, we might follow that route," he said.