Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Or a Virtual Boy Mini with native support for 8K. Let’s let our imaginations run wild!

Nintendo could be planning their official closure announcement. I mean they've been doomed for at least a decade now. Probably more.

It's been a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. The quality is mixed, and the value for money is even more mixed.

The Breath of the Wild DLC for example is great value for money in terms of the sheer amount of content you get, but at the same time it's not very original, and heavily reuses assets from the main game.

Xenoblade 2 DLC on the other hand is completely original material, that's very high quality, but is significantly lower value for money than the main game is.

I still think the best DLC Nintendo have ever done by a long way was the DLC tracks for Mario Kart 8 when it was a Wii U game. That's way up there with the Witcher 3: Blood and Wine as being the absolute peak of value per dollar of DLC.

Either way though, I doubt they'll do more DLC for old games at this point. I've gotta imagine that it sells a lot less than the main retail releases do.

We could see a Direct next week. Apparently the Japanese youtube Direct site was updated yesterday, so we could see 1 next Thursday. Here's hoping anyway

Direct on MAR10 day is possibly happen.

The coronavirus may have affected Nintendo's plans for this year. May be why they are relying on DLC flr their games and promoting their old games. There was possibly going to be a direct in February but it was put for presentation in March. Because of game delays due to the coronavirus there wouldn't be as much in the direct so they are having to edit and cut back parts of the direct.

@Welshland

The entire last page of this thread was about that. Yes, it's probably happening next week.

I dunno if the 1-week before thing is necessary though. It could be on tuesday instead to coincide with MAR10 day.

I really don't mind the silence actually. The longer they wait, the more they can announce during a Direct.

@Heavyarms55 I think the situation for Nintendo nowadays is mostly a case of:

• If game has significant online multiplayer (e.g. Mario Kart, Smash, Splatoon) then DLC/updates so the online community isn't split between multiple games
• If game's focus is local competitive multiplayer (e.g. Mario Party) then sequels
• If game is single player only or has single player and local co-op only then DLC/expansions unless the scale becomes too big for a DLC/expansion of which a sequel happens

They clearly could have done DLC for Mario Odyssey though. Just 1 extra world wouldn't have been too hard for them. I would've personally liked to see them flesh out that medieval castle world properly.

My guess is that they didn't bother because they'd just rather put that time and energy into a sequel because a full retail release tends to sell more than DLC does.

@Dezzy I think Odyssey DLC was going to happen given the Isle Delfino teases but scale got too big so all ideas for the DLC got put into a sequel.

@Grumblevolcano

What teases were there? I only remember 1 very ambiguous picture.

I think when the Direct eventually aired, it will show more sequels and new IP in progress.
Imagine Super Mario Odyssey 2, ARMS 2, New Boxing game by Nintendo, HD remaster of Wii games, Nintendogs on Switch, Style Savvy on Switch, etc.

@Dezzy I don't know. The profit margins on DLC are usually way higher. Because let's be honest; you're paying 33-50% of the €60 base price of the game. But you're never getting that much worth of content. Additionally, they don't have to develop an engine, they can reuse most of the assets, and DLC is always digital, so they collect 100% of the profits. In terms of work versus profits, DLC is the most lucrative I think, and that's why nearly every single game gets DLC these days.

@Octane

At this point in time during the Switch's lifecycle, I don't think the point about reusing the engine and assets really applies though, because they're gonna do that anyway with the sequels to all of their most popular games.
We know they're reusing the same engine for BotW2. I would put good money on them doing the same for Odyssey 2, the next Fire Emblem, the next Pokemon, etc. (all of which I think we'll see on this console)

Also, even if the profit margins are higher on a per-sale basis, they could still make less profit overall if the absolute number of sales is significantly lower. I don't have reliable data on such things, but the numbers I've seen in the past suggest that DLC for single player games tends to only be bought by around 30% of people who bought the main game. (it no doubt varies a lot between games, but that was the average figure I saw)

The next direct could be an indie world.

@Octane But the lack of content works against the idea of doing DLC as well. Don't forget, Nintendo isn't just a developer and publisher, but a platform holder. Maintaining the health of their ecosystem with major releases pays off not just with the game itself, but with sales of hardware and the fees they collect on 3rd party titles purchased thanks to the increased hardware sales, not to mention the continuing faith making their next console being a success more likely.

If they were just a publisher, they could act like Rockstar and release a few games with tons of DLC. But it's critical to their overall business to maintain a flow of new titles, even if they are still bolstering that flow with DLC. And it's far faster, cheaper and easier to make same engine sequels than additional entirely new games.

personally speaking, at some point Nintendo HAS to publicly reveal what they have coming in fiscal year 2020-2021. This is the longest news drought from them in years. investors are especially fair-weather when it comes video game companies.

I honestly think that there will be a proper Nintendo Direct in March.
whether it's gonna be great or not remains to be seen. I hope its the former.

@Neoguardian86 It may be a general direct drought, but we've gotten plenty of news from them (MUA3 DLC, Fire Emblem DLC, Animal Crossing, Pokemon DLC, PMD Remake, Mario Kart Tour multiplayer, Indie World with several new exclusives), since December. Investors don't care about format after all.

@link3710 Yeah, the thing investors would be concerned about is no 1st party games after Animal Crossing with a release date. It will be interesting to see whether Nintendo considers Isle of Armor DLC big enough to not bother with a general Direct before Animal Crossing.