Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@status-204 Well Ninty have promised Zelda BOTW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 in way off states too. In any case Ninty have always done the under hype strategy but even by their standards this gone to another level.

Is ACNH seasonal updates considered as next Direct ?
I wonder if the rumour about farming in ACNH was true.

@jump I think it's tactical planning, Nintendo knows that if they announce their holiday lineup and info on next year first then it'll get buried in the Cyberpunk 2077 and PS5 hype. But if they announce last then the attention stays on Nintendo, perfect example is E3 2016.

Sony had one of their best E3 shows ever that year with games like God of War, Spider-Man, Crash returning from a long hiatus, etc. but all the attention turned to BotW because Nintendo's E3 presence was last even though the actual content of Nintendo E3 2016 was a lot worse (no Direct, massive focus on 1 game, no NX news, etc.).

Not much point in comparing Nintendo's situation with Microsoft and Sony's at the moment. The latter two are about to release a new system so they have no choice but to reveal and show off as much software as possible as the best way to sell a system is to actually have games for it. Nintendo on the other hand are still focusing on an established system that's been flying off the shelves this year off the back of Animal Crossing. Their approach of only revealing games when they're getting close to release makes a lot of sense when they've been struggling to supply enough hardware to meet demand for a lot of the year so far as it is.

Covid 19 has had a profound affect on Nintendo's year / road map. We all know this year is Mario's anniversary. I don't see much talk about everything else Nintendo had planned for this year. It was going to be massive, however, it's affected the Theme Park progress, the Mario movie, his appearance at the Japan Olympics and who knows what else. Covid hasn't gone away. And understanding the situation whilst in lockdown, them moaning how quite they have been while it's being gradually lifted is bloody fickle lol. They would have planed this year well in advance, so their road map must have had to have taken some severe detours. Animal Crossing being so well received must have been a blessing to them.

I think Nintendo have been responsible. In an industry rife with bad working conditions, be it crunch, exploitation or harassment, I would don't want to think what it took for other companies to be able to carry on 'as normal'. I mean, carrying on regardless launching next gen must be either have been very attentive to health and safety...or reckless.

@HobbitGamer I thought the same thing. He reliable.
@Dezzy he doesn’t know Kevin bacon but he loves bacon

@status-204 That's the thing, coivd was unprecedented but now (and I hate this term) it's the new normal so at what point does "coivd" stop being a reasonable excuse? I wasn't thinking so much Sony and Microsoft but more complex companies from harder hit industries have adapted like DC pulling off an incredible online event to replace Comic Con, sports leagues finishing off their seasons, conveyor belt restaurants having to not use conveyor belts etc whilst people seem to be just making excuses for Nintendo.

@jump I think Nintendo has adapted just fine and if anything people are complaining because they have adapted. The shadow dropped trailers for individual games and presentations with a narrower focus are pretty appropriate ways to adapt to the current situation.

@Dezzy Well, they could always do another Wii U Direct and announce the remaining ports

@BenAV Getting your fanbase to expect less of you is a bit rubbish. I mean that's fine if it's just (for lack of a better word) lesser titles to avoid attention being drawn away but even then the online buzz isn't flattering to them.

What is this management briefing Nintendo are having on September 16th? I hear its an investor's meeting apparently.

@jump There could be games for late this year and next year that they might have announced under normal circumstances but just the change in approach this year means we don't know about them yet. If that's the case then it shouldn't make much difference at the end of the day, still ends with the game being released. Realistically I think we're one good announcement away from this being a really good year for first party games so we'll see what happens, if anything. I don't think the buzz online will matter too much. Most of those complaining about the lack of Direct, etc. are people who likely already own a Switch, will keep their Switch and buy the games once they do come out.

@BenAV I disagree we're one good announcement away from having a good first party line up this year. This year has been slow and port heavy, it would take something special to be announced to make up for it and those big game are normally hyped up far more than as a last minute release.

@jump For me while this year is obviously nowhere near as good as 2017, it's been much better than 2018 and about on par with 2019. Less in terms of quantity but better in terms of quality. I don't really care about the average games as if they don't exist there's 100s of other games that are just as good that I could be playing anyway.

@BenAV each to their own but nothing from 2020 has come close to touching 2019s line up for me.

First party wise Tokyo Mirage was ok, feels a little too flat for me and even then I had already played it on the Wii U and the other releases this year I don’t want to double dip on or I’m not overly excited for. Whilst 2019 had Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Cadence of Hyrule which are flat out two of my favourite Switch games, especially LM3 as I enjoyed it far more Odyssey. There was also Marvel 3 and Fire Emblem which were great time sinks for me plus Pokemon, Yoshi and Astral Chain which got my interest despite not loving them as much as I wanted to.

Luckily Bioshock, Saints Row and Catherine have kept me playing my Switch this year.

@jump The standouts for last year for me would be Mario Maker, Fire Emblem and Astral Chain (if that counts) but even all of those were just like solid 8/10s for me and didn't quite live up to what I would have liked. Cadence of Hyrule is probably the best of them, but in my mind that's just an indie release so I wasn't really factoring it in (plus Necrodancer is still a bit better and much more replayable). Luigi's Mansion 3 was enjoyable but felt more like a filler title, still got dozens of unplayed Switch games that are probably better. Yoshi (a bit easy and boring) and Link's Awakening (ugly blur effect ruined it) ended up feeling like a bit of a waste of money and Pokemon was just complete garbage and by far the worst game I played last year. It was a decent year overall with plenty to play but no real memorable standouts for me.

2020 just having Animal Crossing (600+ hour time sink) and Xenoblade Chronicles DE (one of my favourite games of all time and hadn't played it since 2011) alone probably make this year better than last for me. Not too much aside from that yet though which is why I think we need something decent for the holiday season for it to be a very good year. 51 Worldwide games is a decent time killer for a few minutes here and there but has too many flaws. Brain Training's poor handwriting recognition makes it almost unplayable. Can't comment on Paper Mario yet (sitting in my backlog) but expecting it to be another just okay filler game. Neither Wii U port (Tokyo Mirage Session, Pikmin 3) worth buying.

@BenAV I find calling Luigi’s Mansion 3 filler grossly unfair. The level design and variation was great, the multiplayer mode was surprisingly fun, the challenges were cleverly designed and satisfying as opposed to Odyssey’s approach of throwing moons into a sandbox, cool boss battles which is all encased in a very charming package.

To me saying it’s a filler title is more about it’s not got the perceived top tier billing of Zelda and Mario more than anything else. I’d even argue it’s more Nintendo blockbuster like than both of them due to the deviations they took this gen.

I would say at this point it os almost certain we Will have something this week and as it probably will be on friday it should not be a Direct...

It could be friday in Japan and thursday in the west but with Gamescom i find that very unlikely

@status-204 yeah, I’m the same. The wild area was really poor, I found the giant Pokemon was just another rubbish gimmick and the moment I stopped caring was when I got to a new city and it was literally just an alley way.

Normally I will get through the story just so I can build a team for the battling others which is my favourite part of Pokemon but after completing it I didn’t care anymore.I might have gone back to battling on the 3DS for my Poke-fix but Im too disconnected to that console now.

I imagine the next gen will be better and I will get into it again.

@jump I never really got that into Luigi's Mansion 3. Felt like I was mostly finishing it for the sake of finishing it rather than because I was having a really good time. One of those games where I'll just spend a couple of days playing through it once and have a moderate amount of fun but then never really think about it again. To me that's what I'd consider filler.

That was originally the only reason I bought Sword despite how bad it looked. Got used to playing VGC regularly throughout the 3DS era so figured I'd continue on the Switch but the game was so bad that I put it back in its box after finishing the story and never touched it again.