Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@VoidofLight That’s possible, but I don’t see why they didn’t post anything on Monday since that wasn’t the day of election. I don’t think it would’ve hurt to make some random Fortnite or Brothership post. It’d make more sense why Nintendo would want to be more quiet today, although we did just have the investors meeting earlier.

@PikminMarioKirby I do think so because of a larger gap between mainline entries this time. In the space of 3 months with Pokemon back with Legends Arceus:

• November 2021 - Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl released
• January 2022 - Legends Arceus released
• February 2022 - Scarlet/Violet announced for release in late 2022

Legends Z-A doesn't seem to have this problem so provided the game runs fine, I think it'll do better than Legends Arceus.

@Grumblevolcano That’s actually a really good point! With Scarlet/Violet it didn’t really have a Holiday season to itself and being right after BDSP could’ve affected the sales as well.

If we are getting Z-A November 2025, that would give the game it’s own Holiday slot and have a few months to sell before a supposed February 2026 Gen 10 reveal and about a year before a supposed November 2026 Gen 10 release.

The only way I see SMBW overtaking NSMBU is if it gets DLC and a big holiday push, which seems unlikely.

@VoidofLight @PikminMarioKirby I imagine the same will be true tomorrow and, depending on election results and what happens in the U.S. as an immediate aftermath, Nintendo could stay away from posting until things calm down.

@FragRed Yeah. I feel like they’re going to hold off for about a week or two to let things cool off.

@VoidofLight Similarly I don’t think Janis going to be much different, especially early on if they fear of a repeat from 4 years ago. They’ll likely wait till a good while.

Switch 2 is confirmed to have backwards compatibility and works with NSO.

@Grumblevolcano Finally confirmed!!! Let's go!!!

This was like 99% likely but it's still amazing news to have confirmed.

@Grumblevolcano LETS GO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY! My most wanted feature for Switch 2, so I am very excited!

For the games market as a whole, digital purchases made up 95% of the total spending last year. That's skewed a bit by PC and Mobile games, where practically all sales are digital and are the bulk of the market, but for consoles it's still around 83% overall.

This is all sourced from last year's GamesIndustry.biz summary:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/gamesindustrybiz-presents-the-y...

Switch - and maybe PlayStation to some extent - aside, I'd think that we're at the point where physical media is just for the collectors now. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as the boutique publishers are stepping in where the mainstream ones are leaving, and a lot more games are getting a physical release than previous generations did, even if it's only a limited edition one.

Absolutely amazing! Music to my ears. They should just announce the dang console at this point. What's the point in waiting? This was a big nugget that could've been saved for the reveal.

@Matt_Barber I hope physical continues to remain a thing. Unless I buy a game on PC, I usually get a physical copy because I don't trust companies with my games. They'll just rip them away from me.

I already assumed that was the case, but great to have confirmation.

I'll be waiting patiently to replay botw and totk on the successor now

@VoidofLight I don't particularly trust them either but, honestly, having a physical copy of a game isn't what it used to be now that we're in the era of day one patches, mandatory downloads and DLC.

The chances are that you'll have something that's at least somewhat playable if you have a cartridge, but certainly not always, and it'll be mostly down to digital preservation efforts if you want the full experience.

Anyway, now that backwards compatibility is confirmed, I suppose the devil is in the details. Will purchases roll over? Can it play games straight from a cartridge, or will an additional download be necessary? Will that download be the size of an entire game? What, if any, automatic enhancements will games get? Will owning a game on Switch offer a discount if a re-make is released for the Switch 2?

I could take a wild stab at most of those based on what's currently happening on other platforms, but it'd still be nice to hear it from official sources.

@Grumblevolcano Oh heck yeah. Can’t believe I missed that announcement!

@Matt_Barber
Not sure if this says anything to answer what you've put down here. But I think it's fair to say at the very least there won't be a charge for compatibility. Whether or not there will be paid enhancements is another question I guess

https://i.imgur.com/VEJBlDWl.png

Considering a lot of SEGA classics (Genesis and Dreamcast) are being delisted from Steam in December, I get the impression that the reason SEGA stopped adding Genesis games to NSO is that they've come to the conclusion (much like other 3rd parties) that releasing collections you can actually buy are more profitable than putting games on subscription services.

I think we'll see a new Genesis collection announced for PC and consoles later this year which actually runs well this time.