Topic: Nintendo’s next announcement

When do you guys think Nintendo will announce its next first party game? So no E3, no Nintendo Direct I can understand. But by this time normally Nintendo would have announced some of its fall titles already. So why not just drop an announcement a week in June on par for what they originally planned to announce at E3? Did the high sales of the Switch and Animal Crossing cause Nintendo to get complacent and hold back on announcements?

I'm going to guess nothing until a normal early September Direct. July being Paper Mario, I think Bravely Default II will release in August and have Animal Crossing updates be the thing that keeps Switch alive over the coming months (one is happening next week, one is happening in early August and I'd guess one gets announced in the early September Direct for early September).

I was sure we would at least get an announce trailer for the 3D-Mario collection by the end of June with a release in August. But since June is almost over, I increasingly get the feeling that we won't see a new game announcement from Nintendo until the next Nintendo Direct drops (probably late August / early September).

@Grumblevolcano
I hope we get an announcement sooner than that. Nintendo needs to create some hype for its 4th quarter releases. They also should announce releases soon because if there will be gamers who are saving for a PS5 or XBSX may not be putting aside money for Nintendo games in time if they have no idea there will be releases from Nintendo they are interested in until it’s too late.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get more single game, out of the blue Twitter announcements. Nintendo is probably happy they got an excuse to not have an E3 presentation, since they seem to dislike having any standardized time for announcements. Would rather have the game 95% finished before confirming it exists.

Unless they need to hype a new console with a premature Metroid announcement, of course. I think you're right that they're feeling no pressure to win anyone over, or else they might have announced something like that. They've hit all their big sellers (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing) and gotten the Switch in our hands, so now they know we'll wait until they're good and ready.

My guesses are either monthly sudden single game twitter posts, or an October direct. September sounds right, so it'd have to be later than that.

@dionysos283
I do hope for a Mario collection announcement this month. Out of all the gaming companies Nintendo has been among the ones providing the least updates on its upcoming releases.

They've been pretty consistent this year about taking it one big release at a time. When they were focusing on Animal Crossing leading up to launch, everyone was clamoring for a Direct. It didn't come while they focused on AC. After that was out, we got a mini Direct with mostly 3rd party titles. Then they focused on Xenoblade. The Paper Mario trailer dropped about 2 weeks before that launched. Next came the focus on Pokémon DLC and the Smash fighter. Now it's all about Paper Mario. Maybe they drop a trailer just before that launches for the next game, but they could just wait until after. I really don't expect a Direct for the next few months as has been stated by multiple rumors.

@LArachelDisciple
This year Nintendo should feel some pressure with PS5 and XBSX coming out. Sure there is a huge Switch user base. However, a lot of people might end up selling the Switch to buy a Sony or Microsoft console if they continue to see a first party drought and change consoles.

Isn’t it obvious? Mario 3D Rumours, of course

September would be my assumption as well.

I'm ready for Pikmin 3 Deluxe.

@Don You're right, they should be feeling pressure. I'm just not sure if they do. I think they've said before that they feel that Sony and Microsoft aren't their competition, so I wonder if they'll think they're safe in their own little bubble and will wrongly not feel the need to compete or keep any attention on themselves.

I hope they prove me wrong with some July/August announcements, but when I try to understand their thought process it makes me wonder if they'd be willing to adjust their "one game at a time, announce it when we think its ready and not a second sooner even if it ends up on its own in a zero-fanfare Twitter post" strategy to be timely with what the competition is doing. Ignoring competition has always been one of their weaknesses.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and all that.

@Don The stock issues for Switch hardware and Animal Crossing is a much bigger problem for Switch than next gen consoles.

@Don Do that many people sell their still current consoles for the sake of a completely different console with very little available at launch? I can see people trading in their PS4 Pros and Xboxes for the latest one, especially as their games will run on their new machines, but not sure they’d trade in their handheld/hybrid for a home console. Sure, some will do - but it’s not like Nintendo will suddenly lose 20% of its install base.

Arguably, early adopters will always jump to the new thing, anyway. No point trying to hang on to them. Better off catering to a less flighty market.

@Don - Sony and MS have already warned consumers that PS5 and Xbox SX won't be as readily available at retail like the PS4 and XBone were at launch. PS5 and Xbox SX consoles will be hard to find come Christmas time. Nintendo will sell 10m+ Switches this Holiday season because parents and casual gamers won't find PS5 or Xbox SX in ample supply on store shelves until March.

@Don Of course Nintendo is going to announce something. But likely not until after Paper Mario comes out. I doubt they want to dump a bunch of announcements for new games, right before their next title comes out.

But they aren't going to just... not release anything. They've said that Switch production is getting back on track - which suggests the impact of COVID messing up the industry is fading, and we should be getting more consistent news from Nintendo going forward.

Nintendo president Furukawa said on Friday during the investor meeting, that all first party games scheduled for 2020 are still on track.
Source: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-says-switch...

So do you guys think we will still get around 7-8 big first party games this year in total (including Paper Mario and Animal Crossing)? 7-8 games seems to be the usual amount per year.

So XC DE doesn't count as big release? Or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon?
Sure these games won't sell as much as a Paper Mario or AC but still

@dionysos283 Define big. We also got Clubhouse Games, TMS#FE and Brain Training this year, all of which were full size releases. With the 2 above that already puts us at 7 full size releases, not mentioning small eShop titles.

In my book only AC and Paper Mario count as really big first party games. Look at the releases of past years: Nintendo publishes like 20+ games per year, but only 7-8 are really big hitters like Luigi's Mansion 3 or a new Smash Bros.

I feel like obviously Nintendo has to release at least 2-3 big games around the holiday season. They would be out of their minds not to have something for the Christmas shopping season.

Right now, the only thing we know that's coming in that time frame is the second Pokemon DLC.