Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Snatcher problaby is, Alanah Pearche never specified if the Nintendo Direct she mentioned was a game specific one or a general Nintendo Direct, and also with E3 canceled, Nintendo felt they have no obligation to do a E3 Direct.

@RR529
Both of those are the big holiday titles. Summer releases on Switch seem fairly barren and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I’ve no interest in Xenoblade. The major releases I need to know are Metroid, Zelda, Advance Wars Bayonetta and Persona. Especially Persona .

...that's normal. It's been a running gag since I got into gaming forums in the early 2000s that Summer is usually a wasteland of major titles.

I actually agree (or used to), there’s no need to kill off the Switch while it’s doing so well. It would be wasteful even, because some bestselling evergreens would see a steep drop in sales once the upcoming system was unveiled. But the current drought or silence + Zelda delay made me uncertain. Normally if they really meant it they’d have to give an outlook, including some big mainline games for the next 2 years or so.

@kkslider5552000
It’s barren of releases but not announcements, usually.

@GameOtaku, there are two exclusives a month in both June (Mario Strikers & FE:TH) & July (Live A Live & XC3). Even if they don't have anything in August, their output seems about normal for this time a year. As for big 3rd party releases, I can't think of anything particularly notable coming out on any of the systems in the next couple months.

Prime 4 is next year at the earliest, so nothing they could show off now that couldn't wait until September. Same for BotW 2 at this point, as well as the Persona games (given the earliest one is releasing in October), and likely even Bayo 3 (unless it releases in August, a September Direct would still precede it's release date). Really only Advance Wars is the only wild card in this scenario, and given how they've treated it this far, it wouldn't surprise me if they quietly release it with a standalone Twitter announcement.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a June Direct, but based on what we know so far of their lineup, there's nothing they could reveal now that couldn't wait until September (unless they have a surprise August game).

An interesting thing about the timing of the XC3 Direct is it airs during 13 hours of eshop maintenance.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/netinfo/en_GB/index.html

The times are in 24 hour clock so it's 12:00 (midday) Wednesday to 1:00 (1am) Thursday UK time.

Hmm, you may be onto something 🤔

@Giancarlothomaz This is true.

If this is all we are getting from Nintendo for this E3 season, then it pretty underwhelming ngl, but at least Nintendo has games coming out throughout the year.

@RR529
Again that is games we know about and even then it’s not that many. Live a Live is the next big release I care about but it’s also a budget release of a 20 plus year old game. Whereas I was hoping Persona may come sooner to Switch (digital drop after the direct with physical releases in late July early August.

Splatoon 3 is coming this year, as are Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. That's about as E ticket as it gets, they don't need to show the 2023 games at this point (though we probably see Zelda at some point before then). When E3 2020 was cancelled, they skipped out on all the fake E3s in summer 2020 (though that year, their release schedule really was sparse). I'd love to see a big direct, but I don't think anything is suspect if there isn't one for a while.

Not sure that’s how it works. Xeno and Splatoon are quite specific - if they’re not for you they just aren’t, meaning everybody else is left waiting. And September would be too late to announce much (if anything at all) for these holidays.

If you're not into Xenoblade, this Direct announcement might be frustrating, I totally get that.
But to get angry like some are on social media is way out of line. Plenty of other franchises have gotten specific directs in the past and Xenoblade is Nintendo's primary RPG series. I think it deserves to be in the spotlight as much as other franchises.

We'll get a general Direct again in the near future, and we'll get other game-specific Directs as well, probably even this year for Splatoon 3 and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Heck, February or March might give us a BotW2 specific Direct as well and nobody will complain.

@NintendoWife The game specific directs aren't what I was talking about. Also... Their holiday schedule is already basically full. We were never going to get much announced, whether the direct happened now or September. Instead, they'll do a September one with some big announcements for early 2023, and probably one big 2021 drop we weren't expecting. (It's not like Super Mario 3D All-Stars wasn't announced in a September direct and released the same year, it's quite possible).

The point is, whether there's that much new for 2021 or not, what really matters is the holiday sales more than anything else as a game company.

@link3710 Yeah I agree that any big Direct is going to be mostly about titles for the following year. Plus 1-2 nice new things for this year, I would expect. But I’m less concerned about these holidays - it’s a weak year as far as I am concerned, but not unprecedentedly so (and it’s kinda my problem if what Nintendo releases is not to my taste). What’s more urgent is the missing outlook, the big ones to look forward to, the surprises. That’s what you’d typically get once a year at E3, and why imo they can’t go without a Direct for much longer.

Yes, there is something off-kilter right now about Nintendo's medium-term outlook. I still don't think that means we're getting a "Switch Pro" in the next two years, but you are absolutely correct that we have a lot of latitude to speculate meaningfully now, as we so rarely have. Unless they really do release a Direct in a week's time, we will be going through a period unlike any other in the Switch's lifetime. It may simply mean that their promotion strategy has changed, but I think there is more to this. They've been staffing up in Kyoto and in Austin, and they've been keeping up a fairly good pace since late 2017. I feel certain that there's more than one factor at play here...

@NintendoWife Though the past 2 E3 Directs (2019 and 2021) that was only BotW 2 and we already got an update on that game in March (delayed to Spring 2023) so I wouldn't expect more info until September.

There were other Nintendo releases that were outside that year but the nature of the these releases doesn't seem to be what you're talking about:

• Animal Crossing New Horizons (was scheduled for 2019 but the E3 2019 Direct confirmed a delay to March 2020)
• Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp (was scheduled for December 2021 in the E3 2021 Direct but got delayed twice, the 2nd one being delayed indefinitely)
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (was announced at Ubisoft's E3 2021 showcase, the Direct presence was just repeating what was announced then)

So while what you describe was accurate of E3 before 2019, it's much less so for 2019 and 2021. BotW 2 feels like the whole carrot on a stick thing as Nintendo prepares for new hardware.

Recently, I didn't really look for upcoming 1st party Nintendo games as I only like certain Nintendo franchises and I don't even care for the Nintendo franchises I have no interest at all.
So I like to wait any kiddie cartoonish games from the trailer and mostly from 3rd party games since I prefer 3rd party games with more diversity in genre, gameplay ideas and character design.