As of today, we've got about 124 days until E3 2012 kicks off. In an effort to help us and you filter all the pre-E3 noise, we’re going to do a round-up going over what we learned in the past month, and what we still want to know. This will likely focus entirely on the Wii U, but if anything else pops up for 3DS or Wii, we’ll include it.

Back in October, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that the final form of the Wii U will be shown at E3 2012. Around that same time, Tecmo Koei confirmed that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge will be a launch title. There was also a whole kerfuffle over Wii U possibly using EA’s Origin or Valve’s Steam service to distribute games. Nintendo’s more recent announcements about Nintendo Network seem to nix that possibility, but who knows.

In early January, Nintendo showed Wii U at CES 2012, though it was nothing more than the E3 2011 demos. Around this same time, Nintendo continually reiterated that Wii U will be out between E3 2012 (June) and the end of the year.

We also learned more about the Wii U controller, and how it will contain NFC (Near field communcation), which is sort of like Skylanders but without a portal. This can be used to make payments without inputting information, or use cards or objects to get extra content. The best part of it is that the NFC technology is already used in different media, meaning this isn’t proprietary.

The system will also allow multiple online profiles, and make use of the Nintendo Network, which is part of the company’s new online initiative that is already seeing success on the 3DS. Judging by Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto’s positive remarks regarding Flipnote (DSi) and Swapnote (3DS), it’s safe to assume a Wii U messaging app is inevitable.

Iwata, Miyamoto, and the apparent system development lead Genyo Takeda (who led design on the Wii, and also directed Punch-Out and StarTropics) all talked vaguely about the system’s possibilities. Nearly everything they said came back around to "uh...sorry, dude. Just wait until E3."

Third parties may or may not have final development kits. We’ve heard rumors going both ways. Regardless, here’s a list of some of the studios we know of that have kits: FarSight Studios, Gaijin Games, Team Ninja, Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai, Sega, Ubisoft, THQ, Codemasters, Warner Bros, Gearbox, Retro Studios, Monolith Soft, Capcom, and more. Third parties have been happy with the system, especially Capcom's Yoshinori Ono, who said the system will feature "never before seen, exciting features for gamers."

Ubisoft is apparently making a Wii U card game, and Project CARS, from the developer of Need for Speed: Shift, is coming to Wii U.

Wii U might be getting a name change, which in this writer’s opinion, might not be a terrible idea.

Did we miss anything major? Let us know!