Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@IceClimbers
On the first point you may be right as a general rule of thumb. With that said I think there's too much they have to said about both online and the VC for them not to have it in a presentation. A direct of some kind would be the place to do it especially if it's some kind of "Switch in 2018" January Direct

The list of titles you've outlined? Sure, if it plays out that way that could be just about all we see for the first half of the year. And if that's the case there's not much reason for them to bring up anything new that soon. But I can imagine some of those titles coming out later in the year. It's not that I'm expecting them to fill out all the gaps in our knowledge of the lineup for 2018. I'm just pointing out that there are a lot of gaps and a January Direct would be good place for some of these reveals.

I will be very surprised if there's not at least 1 major reveal in the next Direct. Koizumi has said the release momentum of 2017 will continue next year and that we can expect "non-traditional IP",so there's a lot of stuff coming that we don't know of. Plus there's the games that will be he said will be built around the Joy-con /Switch's functionalities, these could be the "non-traditional IP" or maybe not. Just yesterday Kimishima basically said we can expect games likes this too. None of the games we already know of could fit these descriptions so surely we're going to find out about something about games that do.

I'm predicting we'll get a major title revealed which will be the May /June game and 2 or 3 middle tier titles,with at least 1 of these being a game Nintendo will be banking on being a monster hit with the masses ala Wii Sports.

Where does the next Direct date usually get announced?

If a January Direct is incoming, the second week is usually when it appears. Third week is also likely.

@OorWullie If non-traditional IP does means stuff like Wii Sports, I could see some double game months to avoid making the same mistakes as E3 2008. So like for example you could have Switch Fit appearing in the same month as Fire Emblem or Yoshi.

If Nintendo are expecting to sell 20 million over the next year, they must have some big unknown titles over the first half of the year. They won't hold them back to just the second half though the biggest will be during this time of the year. They will need to sell a lot of consoles every month of 2018 so the January Direct is going to have some big blowout surprises, otherwise they are going to see a big drop in sales. Kirby and Yoshi don't sell big numbers in systems, perhaps Fire Emblem can help with sales certainly.

Just reveal what Retro is doing and be done with it!! That game has to release next year right??

@FragRed Smash 4 port around April would be enough on that front. Could be something like:
February - Bayonetta 1+2
March - Kirby Star Allies
April - Smash 4
May - Fire Emblem + 3rd parties
June - Yoshi

To promote the new Fire Emblem, the Smash 4 port would have a main character from that game as 1 of the extra playable fighters.

@Grumblevolcano A Smash port though will sell systems again isn't enough to sell the kinds of numbers the Switch will need to on a month by month basis for the first half of the year. Obviously Nintendo are looking at fiscal year not calendar year for sales, but I still feel there is something more to announce for first half.

Man, axiom verge is such a beautiful game to play. Especially on handheld, the colors are so vibrant. Sometimes I forget the switch is also an HD handheld

@FragRed Well the only way I see other big games for the first half on the 1st party front is if some of the already announced games listed above are not coming out until the second half. So like if Yoshi was July and Fire Emblem was fall 2018.

@Grumblevolcano
It is worth remembering that the Switch is the first home console that's also a portable console. Nintendo has always had to support two systems, with the Switch doing well and the 3DS on its last legs those days are gone.

I think of 2013 when the Wii U was struggling to get a regular flow of games. That was the same year the 3DS got Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing and Zelda. If the 3DS didn't exist and the Wii U had got some of those games instead? It would have been a very, very different first year for the Wii U.

@Spoony_Tech
I truly hope we get news now! It has been a long time without news from them.

@skywake If the Wii U and 3DS were instead 1 console with the combined libraries, Nintendo would've moved around release dates (including delaying some to 2014) to reduce gaps rather than overcrowd certain months. I believe the Switch era will have more games overall but not to the point where months have like 3 big 1st party games releasing.

On another note, there's a rumoured Direct date being January 11th which sounds about right especially with the Amazon placeholders.

@Grumblevolcano Where is this rumoured Direct date coming from? Is it the same person who correctly rumoured the previous two?

There's a couple people saying January 11th.

Which, it seems about as reasonable a guess you could make. Unless Nintendo hears wind of it and then purposely set it back a week to throw people off. Companies love trying to discredit leaks.

Anyways, with steady sales and the fiscal year coming to an end, I think it's fair to assume we won't be seeing anything too big until FY2. They'll probably coast through to March. Give us Kirby, Lost Sphear, Bayonetta 1/2 ports, and let that be that. Close out the year out with 15 million sold and a gang of games ready to boost sales for Fiscal Year 2.

I am so excited for this direct. I am hoping for a date on Octopath and that its still scheduled for spring. Next Im hoping for an official Animal Crossing announcement for my gf... Third, I know its going to be more than 1 big surprise and Im just dying to see whats up.

I wasn't saying that there would have been three big games all in the one month. Obviously they will shuffle them around and fill in the gaps a bit more. But even so if the Switch is becoming effectively the sole focus of Nintendo? There will be months where we get more than one game. So I don't think it's as simple as saying "we know of X games therefore there are only 12 - X unknown games for this year".

To put it simply, I pointed to 2013 where the Wii U had huge gaps. In that same year Nintendo published ~16 fairly significant games in total. There was just under 1 game a month for the 3DS and about 1 every two months for Wii U. But if the Switch gets the full 16 or even 12-14? There will inevitably be months where we get more than one Nintendo published game. Especially if they leave spaces for third parties.

Just because we know that Kirby game probably fills that space in March/April doesn't mean that they won't have a January Direct where they surprise announce Super Mario Maker for the same month.

I love how everyone is super convinced that there will be a January Direct. It's basically considered fact at this point even though Nintendo has said nothing. I believe it too, of course, but I would laugh so hard if Nintendo announces a Direct for February 1st.

I don't think Nintendo would wait that long.

Unlike the Wii U era, Nintendo has a successful system that needs to keep selling, since all of their proverbial eggs are in this one basket. They brought a rapid fire onslaught for 2017, but as of yet, we really know nothing about 2018. Leaving fans in the dark the entire month of January, including the millions of people who just got a new system for the holiday... would be poor form indeed.

It's gotta be January. Anything less would be foolish.