Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I'd argue one of Nintendo's biggest mistakes of the late Wii and early Wii U era was that they waited too long. If there had been a mid-gen refresh of Wii somewhere a bit under the Wii U spec around 2010, no tablet just HDMI out and some games running at 720p. Then held out until say 2015 to drop something along the lines of Switch skipping the Wii U half step? I think they could've done better

There were a lot of people upgrading from Wii to 360/PS3 around 2009-2013, Nintendo never really capitalised on that. The Wii U was somewhat of an attempt but it was too late and the price was too high to grab that market

@skywake I remember the rumours at the time that Nintendo were going to release a Wii HD console and then Nintendo came out and denied it all.

@FragRed
It was less rumours and more just analysts speaking their mind on what should happen. One in particular. I think with hindsight it's fair to say they were probably right given the obvious fact that the transition from Wii wasn't exactly smooth

But yeah, the idea that the Wii U failed because it was too powerful is ludicrous. Bad value? Sure. Poorly explained? 100%. The fact that they stuck with PPC at a point when everyone was moving to x86 also didn't help. But too powerful? That ain't it

You know what? I know this is all kinda off topic but this is an interesting chain here. But talk is kinda meaningless without data. Lets get some data up in here:

The above shows sales for each platform by year as a percentage of total lifetime sales adjusted to have the launches align. In this context year "0" is the last year where the console didn't exist for the majority of the year and year "1" is the first full year of sales. It's like this so we can compare them. Same deal with adjusting to total lifetime sales, gives you an idea of when most of the sale occurred while ignoring sales numbers

The general point but, the shape of the graph and when it falls off. It's fair to say that the Switch is tracking fairly similarly to the DS. Note in this graph the 3DS launched around year 6/7. The Wii in comparison, sales were falling off a cliff well before the Wii U (year 6). And the Gameboy is obviously a different story entirely, Pokemon is what makes it an outlier

Actually, here's the Switch, the Gameboy and the median of EVERY console cycle Nintendo has had. Shows how unusual the Gameboy was a bit clearer and also where the Switch sits. Certainly a long lived console but clearly in decline

Usually on that graph new hardware would come out around the 5. With the Gameboy it had a revision on the 9 and a successor on the 12. What I'm suggesting is that we'll probably see new hardware for Switch on the 8. Late next year

@skywake Just to clarify, is that plot normal gameboy, or GB + GBC? For some reason a lot of ranking lists and such combine GB+GBC even though they're different generations and can't play all the same games.

Neat graph btw.

What if they release a Switch Pro this year and we are still a couple of years away from it's successor?

@GrailUK Please no. I can’t bare more Switch Pro rumours 😭 Haven’t we suffered enough?

@FishyS
The only data I could find didn't separate GB from GBC so they're combined. Also worth noting that I used NA sales for everything before DS/Wii and global sales after. In NA the uptick in GB(C) sales largely aligns with the release of the GBC, which is what this graph shows. But in Japan the uptick in sales suspiciously starts two years before the GBC released.....

I'm not sure the GBC is what did it

@FragRed sorry

I just want a new console at this point. New gimmick, new way to play. Switch is fine, but it's starting to show it's age immensely, and I miss things like the dual screen. I think the successor will probably be like how the DS was, where it got the 3DS down the road. Same console, but more powerful, and a new gimmick to play games with. That's assuming Nintendo's creativity didn't go down the toilet, which at that point I'm unsure if it did or not given the state of some of their games this gen.

@BobTheBunkerGuy Zelda is fine to me, but the online multiplayer offerings, the refusal to use miis, the update models to release games unfinished, and the way series like Animal Crossing became soulless makes me feel less happy about the current state of the company.

@BobTheBunkerGuy I feel like with AC, the ball was dropped when they decided to release it. The state that the updates ended with was the state I feel the game should've been in at launch, with more being added down the line or something.

@BobTheBunkerGuy I think an update model can work for Animal Crossing, but it just needs a full game's worth of content at launch. I was fine with the holidays being seasonal updates, although I have some slight gripes with the holidays themselves. Also yeah, the sims is getting kind of iffy now. Sims 4 started rough, and is sort of alright now, but the sims 5 is just doubling down from what it looks like, and it hurts seeing it. Thankfully, there's a few sims-like competitors being developed, so hopefully one of those will end up doing well. Wish there were more games with the same charm and feel as mainline Animal Crossing.

@VoidofLight New Horizons was an interesting situation because it was the first animal crossing game for zillions of people because of covid (myself included). For a lot of us newcomers it felt like it had a ton of stuff at the start and the big summer update with wetsuits and such seemed to come out at the perfect time. I feel like the game would have felt a bit overwhelming if it had everything from the very start. Of course many people played 100s of hours over the first half year and then started getting burnt out, so the fact that the updates trailed off wasn't as much of an issue.

I can understand how all that logic gets thrown out the door with returning players though. If I buy an AC game on Switch 2, I may be a bit annoyed if it is missing lots of features I'm used to even though I specifically preferred it that way starting my first game.

@FishyS Ehhh I doubt that the game itself would've been hard to get into or too complex. New Leaf has more content than New Horizons 2.0 had outside of the decorating, and a lot of people weren't that overwhelmed. As for the wetsuits, the update was nice for newer players who didn't play the series before, but for the people who played the previous games, it was just another scrapped feature that didn't really make them amused to see it return.

With New Horizons, I got burned out about a month after playing. I have around 200 hours in the game, but I have around 500 in other games, if not a bit more. A lot of my gripes outside of the cut content was mostly just due to the game focusing more on the decorating side of things than on the life sim elements or the charm. They prioritized quality of life over making the world feel more lived in, by replacing series staple characters with objects. The shops don't really have many upgrades, and there wasn't much to sink my bells into outside of my house (which had less upgrades than previous entries), or buying furniture. A lot of people feel like things like watering flowers or talking to villagers was a hassle, but I miss when villagers would randomly move away, or when flowers would die without watering them. It gave me a sense of wanting to engage with the game a bit more, and check up on the town.

@VoidofLight Decorating (and crafting) was definitely a huge part of New Horizons. That and the multiplayer aspect, half of which was showing off how you decorated your island.

Since 30 million more people bought New Horizons than New Leaf, it will be interesting to see where the series goes. On the one hand all those newer returning players will want decorating to continue to be a big thing, but on the other hand they'll want new stuff so maybe bringing things back from New Leaf will make sense.

Note that I played New Horizons for several hundred hours but I kind of doubt I will play the next game quite as much; I feel like it's hard to light that type of magic in people twice and I'm going to be biased towards my first animal crossing.

Since this is a thread about Directs... when do people predict the next Animal Crossing game will be announced? All the early games were 4-ish years apart but New Leaf and New Horizons were 8 years, with the gap filled in with various spinoffs. Presumably it will be on the next console, but on Switch it took a few years to get AC.

@FishyS Maybe around 2027, that being if the Switch 2 launches in late 2024.

That's not to say they couldn't do a spin off or two in the meantime, preferably not an Amiibo party game but still!

I think the criticism of New Horizon's is overblown. Sure there were some bits that could've been there earlier but it's also a game where you a little bit every day. Not having everything on day 1 is the entire premise. And lets not forget that New Leaf also had free updates that added content

In any case, as much as there were things even at the end that I wish New Horizons had revisited. I'm not entirely sure why they removed ore when crafting was such a huge addition to New Horizons. And obviously Street Pass is absent, which is a huge negative. I understand why, the Switch isn't pocketable, but if there's one thing I wish Nintendo could find a way to bring back its Street Pass. Also for me I was pretty hyped when they introduced vegetables..... but at the same time they were added at a point where I was already over the game....

On the other side of the equation, terraforming and outdoor furniture. It's kinda hard to think back to previous AC games now and wonder what we did without those two additions. Of course New Leaf had public works but New Horizons just lets you put any item anywhere. Also, didn't New Leaf not have ramps as a Public Works? I think you just started with a layout that had ramps..... really, people forget how much New Horizons actually added

@FishyS
I think we're a long ways off the next Animal Crossing. 2026 at the earliest

@skywake New Leaf had a singular free content update years after the game launched. The issue I have isn't with free content updates, but with the game launching in a state where even the series staple features like Gyroids aren't even in the game at all. I get the point of Animal Crossing isn't to have everything unlocked on the first day of playing, but with it all being in the game on day one, you have goals you can decide to work towards at your own pace. Having this content confined to updates is less giving the player the option to choose what they want to strive for, and handing them content when the company feels like they should be able to have it. It's like being put in a sandbox, but not being given specific tools until hours later, when the person who put you there decided you could have them, rather than getting to it when you want to. Of course, now that the updates are done it's not as bad, but back when the game first came out it was awful having to wait for series staples and content from previous entries to make a return. Things like the Dream Suite, which should've been in the game at launch, especially given that New Horizons takes the town customization to higher levels than before.

I like the customization additions they've added to the game, and I enjoy things like being able to place furniture outside, as well as being able to edit the terrain.. however I don't see much use out of them, since I'm not really a design-focused player. At least not outside of decorating rooms. For someone like me, who's more focused on the life sim elements, a lot of the game just feels like it falls flat. I'm hoping that it was only a side effect of them moving onto HD console development, given that other developers had issues with their games, like Level 5 with Yokai Watch 4. Maybe the next gen Animal Crossing game will reuse the assets they made for New Horizons, and try to deliver an experience that both sides of the fanbase will love, instead of leaning heavily on one of the two aspects of the series.

@Wolfleaf The villagers have been declining for a while, but I feel it moreso in New Horizons. In 2.0 they gave us back the villagers visiting our homes unannounced, but made it more annoying than it was in New Leaf, where it would just happen on occasion every now and then.

There are some qualities I like about New Horizons. I think the graphics look great, and the customization is a huge leap from New Leaf's customization. I hope the next game gets rid of either the crafting or breakable tools though, since Golden Tools feel worthless. I also hope they bring back the smaller holidays, even if that means they can't do world-wide releases for the game itself, because that's one of the biggest things that I thought brought a lot of charm to the series. Things like the Summer and Winter solstices.