Topic: Everything points out to Massively disappointing E3

Nintendo told us that Online will be delayed to 2018.

These kind of news are more often than not told prior to E3 and other events so that the press has already forgotten about them and the wave of criticism has mostly passed.

Nintendo holds Pokemon Direct and gives Wii U port, two REALLY rushed pseudo sequels of already existing games and Virtual Console ONLY for 3DS.

They didn't want to put these into E3 spotlight either, because of the backlash.

Now they tell us that E3 spotlight is only 30 minutes long and we already know it will focus on games launching this year.

So what do we get?

Some short footage of ARMS and Splatoon that we already know most of.
Lot's of Mario Odyssey
Probably something about Pokken too, because you need to fill out that massive presentation /sarcasm
Delayed Xenoblade (Because Xeno is 100% going to be delayed)
Zelda DLC
Rabbids + Mario Kingdom Battle (Which is pretty much only exciting thing besides Odyssey)
Probably some sort of indie reel of which might be good, but probably will be of games we already know.
Amiibo, but still no decent Amiibo-focused Game.
Online service and Subscription mode are going to come 2018 so they are not going to start pushing out VC at this time.

There is no hype train. It ran off tracks today. Sorry peeps. Maybe next year.

Maybe a wild theory but i think maybe, just maybe, your overthinking things.

Probably not overthinking.

I even forgot about them putting stuff there about new joy-cons.

That takes a good 4-6 minutes out of 30 minutes with slow pacing.

...You obviously don't know Nintendo. lol

Good.

@Joeynator3000

I own Nintendo.

...Mmmk you keep thinking that then.

No, I'm pretty sure you're just having a tantrum because you don't like the news we got today. There's no reason to think we won't get a few new reveals.

With that said, hyping yourself up for E3 is stupid in the first place, especially when so many of Nintendo's announcements happen outside that event.

We are going to get a days worth of Mario Odyssey. E3 is a win already and anything else is a bonus.

We're getting a new sandbox-style Mario this year. They could lead with that alone and it still would be hype as hell. I'm with @GrailUK and @Ralizah on this. They won't have the best showing, they never do, but if you're finding what they show disappointing, it's on you.

I'm all for letting your steam off somewhere people understand. Well done. Step 2, take a deeeeep breath and look at what you've said tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

Sure, I'm not too thrilled about Pokken either, not too sure what to make of USUM (though, if it's a continuation of SM and we'll get to see an older Lillie, Hau, Gladion etc. and a now reformed Lusamine, I'm in - I'll be in no matter, though) and completely cold regarding GS. The delay of the online serves probably means they wanna form Splatoon 2 and ARMS's online communities first and make them pay later when they're more established. 30 minutes of Nintendo Spotlight may be a bit few and we won't get as many reveals as any of us like but I'd rather see trailers and get info to games we'll definitely get this year and not MIGHT get till next E3 like a certain other company that starts with S and ends with ony.

@Joeynator3000

I mean I literally own a part of Nintendo.

@Timppis Yeah, I too took a pebble from their HQ in my last visit.

@MarcelRguez

I have never been to Nintendo HQ.

It all depends on your expectations. I'd say seeing more Odyssey, Xeno 2, FE Warriors is good enough for me. Maybe a surprise or two. But I think everyone learned today, if they hadn't already, not to buy into baseless, half-baked rumors on the internet. I wouldn't expect Metroid, F-Zero, Stars (obviously) Mother 3 or any of that this year. Nintendo's E3 2013 was pretty low-key. I see 2017 being similar. First E3 after a console launch, not much to show yet. People need to temper their expectations.

Sanctimony Inc.?

You're being too generous. Half the games they showed two years ago STILL aren't available. They don't even have release dates or even 2017 ETAs so far. I'd be amazed if we got a date for them next week.

They've had lots of amazing game releases, but their E3 shows are just an hour plus back patting session for their ambitions rather than the products they're actually bringing to market in the accessible future.

@Timppis So we got an unexpected direct, OUTSIDE the Spotlight announcing a WiiU Port and some 3DS games. Meaning the 30 minute Spotlight is NOT going to be wasting time on said WiiU port and the 3DS games. And that somehow means the Spotlight got worse?

Of course the Spotlight is focusing on games we already know about. We know about a heck of a lot of games we have very little information about still. But also keep in mind the last two times a Direct "focused" on something we got almost half of it that had entirely other stuff. Expecting more than 2 surprises is silly, they have a bunch of 2017 games that we know about and won't surprise us. Too much more and it's a cramped release schedule. Show us details we currently lack on the plethora of games we know about, give us 2-6 surprises (including 3rd party announcements like Ubi and Square), and that's a very successful E3.

Microsoft is going to take the stage and show everyone a bunch of ICs soldered to a breadboard. Maybe if we're lucky they remember those ICs are meant to play games. They probably won't though. Sony will give us a song and dance spectacular with talking moose and trapeze artists where they talk about games that may or may not arrive by 2037 guaranteed! Nintendo gave us a whole show in January where they told us about a ton of games and showed naught but a logo and/or teaser trailer. Now we get to see the games. Two of them they already gave us free access to play a few times. Getting to play free betas doesn't count as not being an exciting up-coming game!

@Monado_X

You have good points, but Xeno 2 will be shown very little if at all and will be delayed to 2018 or beyond.

FE Warriors I simply forgot. My mistake. Probably because I didn't care the Zelda one even though it wasn't a bad game. Just would have needed someone to play it with.

Metroid isn't in production.
F-Zero will never get a new installment.
Mother 3 will never be officially localized.

Stars has a lot of meat over the rumourbones. But it definitely isn't going to come 2017 or it would have been announced today.

We do know that Nintendo can't maintain a steady flow and enough IP's to fill out the need on it's own. We have seen that on Wii U. This is the problem if we are already going to start see the releases getting thinner and with more time between them.

This first year and 1 largish game or 1 Ninty IP a month is already looking too little to many people. With ARMS dwindling on the hit and miss fence Splatoon is the only real seller before Mario Odyssey.

Altough I do hope that Rabbids is a sleeper hit. I love those buggers and I like that Ubi is one of the big guys that still plays with Ninty.

After Odyssey? What are we going to get? 3-4 games next year? Indies?

@NEStalgia

The reason for this unexpected Direct is that Nintendo didn't want people to be upset that the new Pokemon game for Switch is Wii U port.

It will still be in the spotlight taking up that valuable time. You can bet on that.

We have seen very little to be excited after Mario Odyssey and even if people are liking the Focus on 2017 -approach, I am concerned what comes after, because there is life after Holidays 2017 too.

And we have seen those droughts. We have all seen them.

@Timppis

Xeno 2 will get at least a trailer, maybe some story details. I'm expecting a delay, but they just finished music recording. That's typically one of the last things done for a game. What will take time is localization. And we don't know if they've begun that or not. I'm expecting January-April 2018. I believe Xenoblade has become their big, hardcore RPG franchise, and they're giving it the spotlight it deserves. They wouldn't have shown it off in January if it wasn't.

FE Warriors is niche, but I think it'll do well financially.

I think this whole rumor culture around things like Metroid and Stars only causes disappointment. I'll look at rumors, but won't put any stock in them.

The people lamenting the lineup this year will never be satisfied. One first-party game per month? What more do they want? The Wii U had multiple months with no major games. And people are still complaining. Look at what Sony or Microsoft put out each year. Not even close to Nintendo's output. Yes, they've got third party to pad, but still. Each month has a big release, and a smaller release or two. That's perfect.

And why should we be concerned with 2018 right now? Nintendo doesn't need to be Sony, where they announce games 3-5, even literally ten years out. Look at Sony's E3 last year. What games that they announced are out yet? Horizon. That's it. KH III and FE VII Remake are stuck in development limbo. I like how Nintendo is doing it. We're not left waiting and waiting on a game. If people aren't satisfied, that's on them. But they've improved a lot since the Wii U, in my opinion.

@Timppis The reason it's in this unexpected direct is that it's new Pokemon content on two major platforms, which can now dominate the news cycle going into E3. It doesn't matter what EA does on Saturday. It doesn't matter what Microsoft does with Scorpio on Sunday. It doesn't matter what Bethsda does on Sunday/Monday, even if it includes Switch stuff (which it does), because Pokemon is the biggest thing there is.

They're not seeing Pokken as a bad release to ease people away from disappointment. They see Pokken as a big announcement that will draw interest in Switch. Because it is a big announcement that will draw interest in Switch. Maybe not among people who bought a WiiU. But among the many who did not, and particularly among those in Japan, it certainly is. Monster Hunter XX is a port from a more successful system with a bigger audience. Japan went crazy with that announcement, and investors bought up Nintendo stock as fast as they could. A big arcade game with a Pokemon logo on it on the new console IS major news, even if WiiU owners can be snarky about it. Two new 3DS mainline Pokemon games are still HUGE news, even they don't appeal to you. New 2DS XL probably moved 100k+ preorders today alone just on the heels of that announcement.

It may not be big to YOU. But it's very big to Nintendo and TPC and the mass market.

As for droughts. From now (June) to Jan 1 2018, what we know (or think we know about) is: Splatoon 2, Arms, Pokken port, Rabbids (we all know it's real), Odyssey, Xenoblade 2, Skyrim (you can laugh, but people WILL buy the Skyrim Toilet Edition), FE Warriors, Steep (supposedly though there are rumors it was cancelled in favor of Fractured But Whole), Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces, I think I'm forgetting a big one in there. Plus some ports like One Piece, Shantae, etc. That's a whole lot for the remainder of 2017. Rumor says maybe COD too. If you like all of them that's a huge backlog to play through even if there is a drought. Winter droughts are normal, nobody wants to release Jan-Feb games due to consumer spending habits. What we know about after Jan 1 so far is just FE Switch, and SMTV (which will be 2017 in Japan), and presumably DQ11. All major games. Just going off the January directs we know of 3 huge titles for 2018. There's a fair chance they will introduce more during the direct. But won't go past Feb/Mar too much as they tend to have a Winter direct they could introduce Spring games. What they'll tell us is everything they want us to know about before Nov/Dec where another direct is all but certain. And that list is a BIG list for going only up until then.