Has there ever been, in the history of Directs, two Partner Directs in a row without a general one in between? I think this is very unlikely.
There has been, but also partner directs only started in 2020 and there haven't been many so we don't have much data.
2020 - 4 partner directs. The only thing close to a general in-between was a Mario 35 anniversary direct so it basically had two partners in a row twice.
2021 - no partner direct
2022 - 1 partner direct
2023 - no partner direct
2024 - 2 partner directs but there was a general in-between
@TrustMeNot Anything is possible since Nintendo often mixes things up, but personally I don't know why they would need another partner direct before a June general direct. Unless their general direct was so packed that it couldn't all fit.
@TrustMeNot@FishyS My thinking behind Partner Showcase prior to June is that there's more than enough already announced 1st party games to get through the summer, all you need is release dates. Meanwhile 3rd party support has a situation where all platforms (not just Switch 2) are very quiet after June including PS5 being quiet after May.
Generally the whole point of Partner Showcases is because they don't have enough first party games to show but they can't skip because of contractual obligations with third parties to show their games in an upcoming Direct. So if they wanted to wait until June to do the next Direct they would just... include enough third party announcements in the first one. The only situation where I could see two Partners in a row is if Nintendo goes on a LONG hiatus of first party announcements (or phases out Generals altogether in favor of things like Nintendo Today/social media drops) and they go closer to an entire year in between Generals. But I also consider that scenario unlikely, as Nintendo's second half of the year is wide open, they know that everyone is chomping at the bit for bigger games, and Furukawa has said that 2026 and 2027 are very important for the Switch 2 so they should have said bigger games coming. So I don't see Nintendo waiting until say, September or later for the next General.
I do also wonder if we will just see more Partner Showcases in general, given the larger than normal third party support for the system, and Nintendo's obvious (And perfectly reasonable) intent to keep them happy.
As the platform holder with historically no/weak support and sales for these parties, they'll want to do everything they can to keep them on side. Probably why they acquired Shiver Entertainment, a porting studio, to help out with other games coming over by offering internal expertise.
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Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?
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