It feels like a long time since Nintendo had meaningful support from big third-party publishers. After the Wii U's launch in 2012, when Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Mass Effect 3 were all ported to the console, publishers have generally moved over to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One instead of the Wii U.

Now, however, it seems like that might change. According to the general manager of Nintendo of Canada Pierre-Paul Trepanier in an interview with Alphabeatic, Nintendo has some big partnerships to announce at the E3 conference next week. "We still have those great, big third-party partners like Ubisoft who continue to invest in our platforms," he stated. "In the next few weeks at E3 you'll be hearing about more big third-party partnerships."

Trepanier went on to explain that Nintendo has been making a concerted effort recently to create more deals with third-party companies: "We would love to have [third-party titles] and you'll hear in a few weeks about some interesting partnerships. We've already over the past year opened up and aggressively sought licensing deals in lots of different areas."

The Wii U has been propped up primarily by games coming out of Nintendo's first-party studios, such as Super Smash Bros., Splatoon, and Mario Kart 8. It would be good news for Wii U owners if Nintendo brought some third-party support back to the system, especially considering EA has said that it is not developing anything for the Wii U.

Keep an eye on GameSpot for all Nintendo news next week during E3.