Topic: Switch 2020 unannounced game release speculation.

@rallydefault Honestly, you're probably going to hate this game no matter what then. Majora's Mask introduced new items, transformations into fully new characters, proper sidequests, one of the best stories in the whole series, unique locales (Hyrule didn't have Swamps or snow or oceans), all new bosses, plenty of new enemies, new minigames, and all new music. If that wasn't enough to distinguish it for you, I can't imagine BotW2 will be.

@link3710
You're probably right. I wouldn't say I "hated" BotW. I still put over 100 hours into it. But I would take literally any other Zelda any day.

@rallydefault Prime 4 restarted development at the beginning of this year. It's a late 2021 game at the very earliest, most likely a 2022 game.

@Octane Probably Pokemon 2020 either way, @Heavyarms55 is pretty much spot on about how Sword/Shield's sales performance pretty much guarantees main series Pokemon 2020. My guess is Let's Go remakes of Gen 2 but the 3 common predictions are Let's Go remakes of Gen 2, normal remakes of Gen 4 and enhanced versions of Sword/Shield (either way we'll probably find out around June 2020).

@rallydefault The Prime 4 restart was at the end of January 2019.

@Grumblevolcano Pokemon 2020 is most likely not going to happen. Keep in mind, we usually get a gap year without a release either directly before or after every new generation title, and we got the Let's Go games last year. I think only XY had games on either side of it, and that was the generation they jumped from spring releases to worldwide in fall so it did have a year and a half gap still. The past four years are also the first time we've ever had four years in a row of main series titles, and that's contributing to the general burnout of the community. They've got SS and Let's Go selling, they can afford to take a year off from releases.

EDIT: Also, the Prime 4 restart was announced in January 2019, but we know they already had a working prototype, and enough time had passed that they were comfortable announcing that development was going with Retro. It's entirely possible (though not likely) that it restarted as early as the beginning of 2018. Most likely, I'd wager it restarted around June-July of 2018, when the Star Fox Racing cancellation rumors were occurring.

@link3710 It's only been the first time in Japan to have 4 consecutive years of main titles, for outside Japan you had no gap between Platinum and ORAS:
2007 - Diamond and Pearl
2008 - Nothing
2009 - Platinum
2010 - Heart Gold and Soul Silver
2011 - Black and White
2012 - Black 2 and White 2
2013 - X and Y
2014 - Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
2015 - Nothing
2016 - Sun and Moon
2017 - Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
2018 - Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee
2019 - Sword and Shield

I'd like 2020 to be a break year but I think all TPC sees is the money.

@Grumblevolcano But they can't rely on Pokemon every year, right?

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, but JP years are what matters. After all, they don't handle localization internally, so the JP release date shows when development ended. The lack of a gap before was due to improved localization speeds letting them get the games to the west faster.

And even still that's a run of 6 years, which is by far the longest. There's no reason to think they are going to necessarily match that again. After all, don't forget that TPC makes hardly anything off the games compared to what they make on the merchandise.

@IceClimbers
True, that was the announcement, but like @link3710 said, a couple things are likely: they already had bits and pieces that they can use even from scrapped version; the reboot likely went into effect some time before they made the public announcement, quite possibly significantly before they made the public announcement. Wasn't the original intention for it to launch this holiday? Tack on another year for change of direction... I can see it.

I don't know. Everyone keeps calling me crazy, but I think Metroid 4 Holiday 2020 is gonna be the big game. We'll know soon enough what the big holiday 2020 game is gonna be, maybe even Jan/Feb with the next Direct.

@rallydefault Didn't they completely reboot Prime 4, like, last year?

@Octane @rallydefault Yeah, it was rebooted sometime in 2018. So for it to manage to come out holiday 2020, it'd need to be done in 2.75 years at best, and 2 years at worst. Chances are, it's 2021, maybe 2022. Can't rule out holiday 2020 for sure however.

@Octane
Yea, but that's what I'm saying about BotW2. If they didn't really begin deving that until the DLC was nearly finished for BotW, that would put it sometime in 2018. Not much better.

I don't know. Holiday 2020 is really up in the air right now.

@Octane On years that there's a main Pokemon game Nintendo probably do rely on it like last year was heavily reliant on the Super Mario Party, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, Smash Ultimate combo. Sword/Shield being a rigid November 2019 probably allowed holiday 2019 to be light too.

@link3710 The games do lead to new merch though and the new anime season features other regions, not just Galar.

@rallydefault The DLC ended in December 2017 or are you talking about the free VR update?

I think 2020 is going to be either port/remaster heavy (e.g. if a year was like the first half of 2018) or something like if a year consisted of the first half of 2019 and the second half of 2018. After the super limited Nintendo presence at the Game Awards I'm now slightly leaning towards the latter.

They really went all out in 2019, so I wouldn't be shocked if things are quieter in 2020. Especially early on, since fair or not, it feels like Nintendo is willing to somewhat give up on the first half of the year nowadays. Related to that, I still feel bad for how much Daemon X Machina was almost certainly hurt by tough competition all around. Would the developer had died or something if it got delayed until like February? Because it just seems like that would've given them a better chance.

I do feel like there's a (somewhat) big new game that's gonna somehow release in the first 4 months though.

@Grumblevolcano While usually I'd say you're right, I expect us to get Detective Pikachu 2 (the game) and a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon instead of a main series title. Between those two, the anime slowly rotating regions, Gen VI in Pokemon Go, and more Pokemon Masters, not to mention having barely tapped into Galar merch still, they won't have any issue with having enough merch. Not to mention Detective Pikachu 2 (the movie) is probably fairly early 2021, so that will also take up some of the merch.

@rallydefault True, but for Zelda they have at an extra year, and they already have the engine, the world map, and a ton of assets. And they already had ideas about what they wanted to do too.

Prime 4 sounded more like "we're going to start from scratch", and I think we're lucky if it even comes to the Switch at all. Sounds more like a "Switch 2" game at this point.

-Gameboy through Gameboy Advance added to NSO (with Mother 3, Earthbound, and Earthbound Beginnings all added to the service)

• Yoshi's Island style added to Mario Maker 2
• More ports of Gamecube/Wii games following Xenoblade Chronicles (Prime Trilogy, Galaxy 1 & 2, Skyward Sword, Pikmin, Kirby's Epic Yarn)
• Super Mario 3D World
• Mario Kart Ultimate
• Mario sports title (Golf)
• Mario Odyssey 2
• BOTW 2
• Pikmin 4
• Bayonetta 3
• Pokemon Lets Go Gen 2
• Rogue Squadron collection
• Resident Evil 2 and 3
• TimeSplitters
• New Monster Hunter, or World port
• Early Final Fantasy games
• Chrono Trigger
• Kingdom Hearts
• The Sims (which EA will release in March, and then use the lack of sales to justify not supporting Switch)
• Halo
• Grand Theft Auto
• Fallout
• Persona 5

I hope at least one of these happens

@Bucky I'd eat my hat if not a single thing on that list came true. Notably, Bayonetta 3, Kingdom Hearts, GTA, Timesplitters and Mario Sports all seem incredibly likely.

Yoshi's Island style in Mario Maker 2 would be sooooo good.

I am waiting for Switch Pro. That's the biggest news waiting to hear.