Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@link3710

Why would they plan to keep having new 3DS games into 2019? Given that the Switch is also a handheld. Makes no sense.

@Dezzy While I agree it makes no sense, Nintendo officially stated they were cancelling their remaining 3DS plans so clearly they did have them. Not to mention several remakes recently released (PMD:RT DX and Link's Awakening) likely were originally planned for 3DS before development was moved to Switch. Don't forget, Link's Awakening remake rumors stated it as on the 3DS in 2017.

While I think they were hedging their bets far too much to avoid putting all their eggs in the Switch basket and it backfired, it's anyone's guess what the real reason is. But one thing for certain is that 2019 was the first year that saw a notable dropoff in titles released from the high 30s to the high 10s.

That fits the way they marketed the Switch, between unveiling it and until some time after release, @link3710 It was supposed to be a home console that was easily portable, rather than a handheld that could be docked to TV
If their teams were set up to continue 3DS games, it might well take some adjustment to Switch them
While the current situation has obviously not helped the plans

@BruceCM Those teams are now busy on games for the 3DS successor 😉

Yeah, the Switch Lite, @gcunit.... I think they have realised it makes sense to do it that way, going forwards

Are you speculating about a Zelda port? I don't remember seeing any articles about it.

February 21st 2021 is the 35th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda being released...possible BOTW2 release date?

@MarioBrickLayer I think they planned to release BOTW2 this holiday but they weren't confident if they could make that date. So they made sure they had a Zelda port from the WIIU (twilight princess or wind waker) ready so they at least had a Zelda and a Mario game for this holiday.

@troy258 despite still having my Gamecube, embarrassingly I haven't played Twilight Princess or Wind Waker (I wasn't into Zelda in the early 2000's) so if we ended the year with one of those being ported plus Mario Galaxy 1 or 2 + 3D world and the Metroid Prime trilogy, that would be a 10/10 year for me! That's potentially 5 classic games I haven't played, plus a couple I have and loved!

Just think, if Nintendo are struggling to create games in HD on current hardware, how bad is it going to be when the Switch successor launches and they have to once again up their game? Will be really interesting to see if Nintendo learn from their lessons in HD development moving forward.

@FragRed It may end up like XB1 era Microsoft where you get like 3 games per year, the past few full years for XB1 had:

2017
Halo Wars 2
Forza Motorsport 7
Super Lucky's Tale

2018
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Forza Horizon 4

2019
Crackdown 3
Gears 5
Halo Reach (Master Chief Collection)

Microsoft's situation was that they foolishly shut down a load of studios they owned in the late 360 era and early XB1 era along with cancelling projects like the XB1 Fable game. Nintendo's situation would be Nintendo doesn't have many studios in the first place.

Even in 2018 when Nintendo was heavily reliant on ports because some 3DS developers hadn't gotten a Switch game out, they put out significantly more than 3 new games. They put out more 2016 Wii U games, which is like intentionally putting out games to not actually sell well. And despite several games being clearly moved to Switch (or very obviously delayed to meet Switch's launch day, hi BOTW).

It seems like Nintendo took the Wii U's failures very seriously, I have my doubts they would make the same mistake twice.

I hope we get something new from Nintendo. They've put out a lot of sequels and Wii U ports, but very little new games. And I don't mean the small one-off projects. But something on the scale of a Mario or Zelda game. We got ARMS this gen, but that's mostly an online game, I'd really like to see some sort of action-adventure game.

Does Astral Chain count as a Nintendo game for this generation? I've not played it.

@MarioBrickLayer Kinda. But it obviously feels like a Platinum game. Just like when I think FromSoftware when I see BloodBorne, and not Sony.

I haven't played Astral Chain by the way, because most of their games don't really resonate with me.

@Octane If it helps, we know that there's a new medieval fantasy ARPG IP in development by MonolithSoft. Assuming there's no development woes, it was likely to launch inbetween late 2020 and early 2022 (development likely began in early 2018, ramping up to full later that year). So I'd say that's probably going to be the next big new Nintendo IP to launch.

On a slightly unrelated note, I really hope we see Dragalia Lost be adapted as a full console game. It's not technically a new IP, but it would basically serve the same purpose, and the IP itself has tons of potential.

@link3710 Can't get into Xenoblade unfortunately. So I don't have high hopes, but I'm keeping an open mind. The concept art looks neat at least.

@Octane

Which Xenoblades did you try and fail to get into? They are all slightly different.

@Dezzy The first one on the Wii. The one on the Wii U looked terribly boring (and kinda bad), so I never bothered with it.

@Octane

What was your issue with the first one though? Cos the Wii U one has a completely different style. It plays a lot more like a western RPG. It's kinda Mass Effect mixed with Skyrim.

@Dezzy Xenoblade Chronicles, Octane said he never even tried XCX.

@Octane It's not a JRPG at least, so it's a new genre from Monoltih. No one really has a clue what to expect from this.