Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

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There's a few factors. For one, there's a rumor about it. But even beyond that, Dread (AFAIK) is the highest selling game they've made so of course they'd be making another Metroid game.

And that does what to change the experience exactly? You're still doing the same thing, just playing it with 1% better graphics.

This is the part that's DEFINITELY not clear. Nintendo said that they couldn't run well on Switch 1, but does what you see with your eyes corroborate this? Is this something that really looks noticeably more ambitious than Switch 1 games? That's tough to argue, especially for MKW. Bananza maybe you could say the destruction mechanics are too ambitious for Switch 1, but there's nothing in MKW that appears markedly any better in the scope and ambition of MKW as opposed to Switch 1 open world games.

Again, third party games are not nearly as big a draw as first party games as first party games are the ones that dominate sales on Nintendo platforms. Those that want Playstation games will just buy a PS5 which is even stronger than Switch 2, they don't seem to care much about third party games on Nintendo platforms.

I'm certainly not interested, I have a few interesting third party games on PS4 and the PS5's lineup is bafflingly yawn-inducing despite being a 6 year old console (literally the only PS5 game I'd want is Astro Bot, and that's not enough to justify a console purchase) and this whole generation has felt like a waste of time and money.

WW certainly looks drastically improved, especially when you compare it side by side with SV, but it's unclear if the Switch 2 is really contributing to that, especially when they're also spending 1-2 more years on this game than usual. I am happy for those that wanted Game Freak to take their time and step things up (and I am looking out for the extra dev time to potentially improve the game in other areas), but I don't actually care that much about the graphics. They look nice, but they don't make the game for me.

I have tried that, I've branched out to a variety of different IPs and genres, but for the most part they feel like indistinguishable slop by comparison to Nintendo games, which tend to be much more distinctive. And with limits on time and money, I can't exactly play every game in the world, so it is in my best interests to stick to games I'm likely to enjoy.

Now I do have a backlog, so that may hold me off. For now. But if this becomes the new normal that's not going to work forever and any new game in the IPs I'm waiting for will likely instantly jump to the front of the line.

It's debatable if this strategy is very wise. Just because more people know about it does not mean they're necessarily more interested in it. Some of these niche games tend to be niche for good reason, there's usually something about the core gameplay that doesn't have a broad appeal. Metroid struggles because Japanese gamers don't like guns and isolation. Strategy games like Fire Emblem and Hyrule Warriors tend not to be as casual friendly. Kirby Air Riders... I'm not as sure about that one, it might have limits because it's a different kind of racer that seems like it has a learning curve, but that one might also have room to grow (but I don't think it'll sell 10+ million or anything, "growth" for Air Riders might mean more along the lines of 3-5 million).

Regardless, the Switch 1 sales tell a clear story in terms of what games drove success, it was the big new tentpole games for the most part. BotW. Mario Odyssey. ACNH. Smash Ultimate. Gens 8 and 9 Pokemon. Splatoon 2 and 3. Luigi's Mansion 3. And not only did they have these, they had them early. Many of these IPs had a new game within the first 3 years. That's most likely a major factor in why the Switch 1 had such insane momentum, it was getting these games left and right in its first few years. Compare that with the Switch 2 and you see the issue. There's very few comparable experiences in the same timeframe so far. We've got Mario Kart World, WW coming in 2027, and DK Bananza has the possibility of ascending to this tier of games (I would put the metric for this at 10 million in sales). But beyond that we're still waiting on many of these in a way that we didn't on the Switch 1. We don't have a new 3D Mario, we don't have a new 3D Zelda (not that it was reasonable to expect one but that doesn't make it any less painful), we don't have any kind of Smash game (and Kirby Air Riders seems like it's pushing Smash 6 back), Animal Crossing released a S2E instead of a new entry, we don't have a Luigi's Mansion game, Splatoon is going for a spinoff right now instead of a new entry (that might work out, but that's TBD until we see what the game is and how it sells), and at this point it's hard to imagine us getting more than 3 of these in the same timeframe (and that may even be optimistic). But those are the games that the Switch 2 needs. Whichever of those they have coming, they need to start showing them. Those are the games that are most likely to drive sales, so they deserve the most marketing.