Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@toiletduck

Sure it matters. As I'd said earlier, I only buy a certain number of full priced retail games each year. If Nintendo don't end up announcing anything until E3, I'll end up buying The Last of Us 2 as one of my games in May. Whereas if they announce things earlier, I'll probably go with the Nintendo game ahead of TLOU2.

@Grumblevolcano There could be a direct on the 10th March. There is maintence on the 9th march for Eshop all on the same day. It could be for that.

@DannyBoi 10th March is a Tuesday. I’d be very surprised if Nintendo did a Direct on that day.

They are waiting until March 12 to have the direct on my birthday

@FragRed I mean they could announce the direct for wednesday on a tuesday. Its not likely.

@Dezzy ok and now imagine that you don't already own a Switch, Mk8, BOTW, SMO and a few other titles... these people are actually in the majority. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying there's more arguments to make. In this case, I'm inclined to believe it's not a bad idea to wait a bit. If it's because of Corona, Sony and MS should face comparable challenges.

But again, I'm just trying to exchange thoughts and have a mindful conversation about the topic

Lets be honest. Its 2018 again. Nintendo have nothing to show. There are a lot of games that have been rated, but not announced. Nintendo did remove information about nintendo directs from their american site. They are or were thinking of stopping doing normal directs. Maybe why we have had game specific directs this year.

Nintendo do need to say something. If they announce that games are getting delayed, then fine. If they just say something, we know what they were going to do with their plans for 2020.

I don't really follow Sony and Microsoft as I don't own those systems, so I'm wondering, do they give a lot of information out frequently? I don't remember the last time I've seen a commercial for a video game from either of them, and I used to see them a lot. We've gotten enough information in the last few months to fill 3 general Directs, but since they didn't actually come in a general Direct everyone is going crazy saying we don't know anything. Maybe we don't know much about 1st party stuff, but Nintendo always plays things close to the chest as opposed to knowing about games 4 years in advance like the other guys do.

@Xyphon22 With Microsoft there's Inside Xbox, 2018's first episode was on March 10th meanwhile 2019's first episode was on February 5th. Usually there's episodes in March, April, June (E3), August (Gamescom), September and November (X0 event). Given the first big XB1 release of the year is on March 11th (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), next week is probably the most likely time if there's an episode in March.

Though after the Ori Switch surprise in August last year, I could see an Indie World happen next week revealing Ori and the Will of the Wisps for Switch and that being the source of promotion instead of Inside Xbox (Nintendo events seem to get more attention).

On the Sony front, there's State of Play which appears randomly throughout the year. The first Sony news of the year will almost certainly be the PS5 reveal of which the panic of no news so far is because the PS4 was revealed at Playstation Meeting 2013 in February 2013.

@DannyBoi A: They didn't remove the info from the site. The link went missing for not even a full hour while they were doing some adjustments, it's back in just a slightly different place.
B: There's 0 evidence of them stopping normal directs outside of the gap, while there's a significant amount of things pointing to them still existing, especially all the games that are rated (AKA likely out super soon) and not yet announced, and the utter lack of any Q2 release dates among 3rd party titles.
C: It's not like 2018. In 2018, we had for the entire first half, just Mario Tennis Aces (not announced til the first direct), Kirby Star Allies and 2 Wii U ports, with no notable 3rd party support. We have tons of games coming out Q1 both first party (TMS#FE, Animal Crossing, PMDR:DX, the big Fire Emblem DLC) and 3rd party even without a direct yet, Pokemon's first major DLC is Q2 and XC:DE is almost certainly out Q2. In terms of just what we already know, we're already looking at close to double the volume in 1st party first half. Meanwhile 3rd party the most notable title of first half 2018 was Celeste, an indie game, compared to a number of major releases this time.

If you want us to be honest, might want to start by looking at your points.

@Xyphon22

They're fairly quiet too!

But it's the last year of their consoles, so its expected. It's not expected on year 4, which is usually the very peak of your console's sales performance.

When does Nintendo financial year end?

@DannyBoi End of March with the investor meeting at the end of April.

I will say if Nintendo's plan is to make a massive splash at E3, they may be making a big mistake. GDC has already been taken out by coronavirus (postponed until later in the summer) so E3 could go the same way.

2018 First Half:

January - Nothing.
February - Bayonetta 1&2, Dragon Quest Builders (it was Nintendo published).
March - Kirby: Star Allies.
April - LABO Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit, LABO Toy-Con 02: Robot Kit.
May - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition.
June - Mario Tennis Aces, Sushi Striker: the Way of Sushido.

2020 First Half:

January - Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Brain Training (EU only. Previously released in JPN, no sign of NA release).
February - Nothing (unless Snack World was published by Nintendo?).
March - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, Animal Crossing: New Horizons
April - ?
May - ?
June - ?

So, they're currently slightly behind where they were this time in 2018, so they'll definitely have to announce something soon (even adding in Xenoblade by June, the number of boxed retail titles would still be lagging behind 2018 by quite a bit, in terms of first party releases).

@Grumblevolcano If they do that they could be in big trouble.

@RR529
Don't forget Ninjala due to Spring 2020.

@RR529 February had the Fire Emblem DLC as the big NIntendo thing, so no boxed titles. Also, May has Pokemon Isle of Armor, though again it's not a boxed retail title. Also for May, they're involved with TW101 to some extent at least, so they may be avoiding launching anything in direct competition with it (they do still own the IP after all).

Considering what we know though, Xenoblade certainly seems likely to be in, and I'm betting on a June or July release for Bravely Default 2. Plus, another title we don't know about yet seems likely... Regardless, the number of retail titles might not match 2018 in volume, but it's disingenuous to only count their retail releases, especially considering Isle of Armor is likely to outsell everything else save possibly Animal Crossing.

Unfoooortunately, two of the most likely titles to launch and fill out the schedule (Famicom Tantei Club I & II) are going to be Japan only so... there is that.

It's called Mystery Dungeon because the mystery is the release date of anything after it.