Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Having only Pikmin 3 for the holidays would be unprecedented, but nintendo has just sold animal crossing to a third of the total switch possessors in less than 6 months so...investors must be happy i presume

An important thing to remember is with the pre-Switch approach the current big holiday title would be something like Pokemon Sharp Sword/Sturdy Shield where the Sword/Shield expansion pass doesn't exist but instead its contents are put into a physical "3rd version" with a slightly different name which proceeds to sell like 8 million copies.

So realistically the current big holiday title is the Crown Tundra DLC for Sword/Shield.

Sorry, what new Switch model, @Henmii ....? I haven't seen anything official about one! Lots of speculation about a Switch 'Pro', if that's what you mean? Nintendo aren't developing Bayonetta 3 themselves, you know! So, what other games have you somehow decided are actually ready to release? BotW2 makes more sense next year, for instance

@Grumblevolcano Pokemon haven’t done a third version for over 10 years. Z and Stars never came out for example.

Anyone leaking Bravely Default II's release date yet .... ? Hope that's still this year! That could end up being the 'big' holiday game, at this rate

@jump Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is a "3rd version".

@Grumblevolcano 2 + 2 = 4, not 3

It’s almost 6 AM US EST here. Given there’s no announcement of a Direct by now, is it safe to say it’s not happening today?

I think there has been zero chance of a direct since the partner showcase was dropped. Our only chance of something today has to be a shadow dropped announcement or mini?

@MarioBrickLayer
In that case, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a shadow drop announcement.

@Grumblevolcano @jump Ultra Sun/Moon is a third version, but split into two games. Because why not. People are buying them anyway

@Don prepare to get dissapointed. never listen to leakers
@Octane well at least they got rid of them and are selling DLC now which is much better imo since it's cheaper and they actually have to make new content, every other 3rd version (exept B2W2) were 95% the same game as the original. the dlcs just leave a bitter taste cause the main game had so little content

That definitely won't be the big holiday game. The genre is way too niche, and frankly the demo was a bit disappointing. Didn't really feel like they'd improved anything from the previous games. I would've preferred another Octopath Traveller game really.

@mariomaster96 Don't forget that the games are more expensive too. €60 + €30 DLC is the same as two games for €45. So I don't think it really matters. It's just the illusion that you're paying less for the DLC than you did for a sequel.

IMO they should only come out every 3-4 years. Make one game. Make it good, and make that the definitive version of that generation. But that's never going to happen.

@status-204 The most frustrating part of all is that Pokemon as a franchise generates more revenue than any other franchise. It's literally the highest-grossing franchise of all time. Above Star Wars, Mario, Spider-Man, etc. They could easily double or triple the budget of the games and not notice it, but they won't. The games just feel like a bare minimum effort. Enough to keep people buying them, but don't spend too much on it, our investors won't like it.

Do you think the next Pokemon game will be 2021 then? I'd assumed that they probably would extend the development period now its in HD.

That's only if you separate the different Mario subseries. I'm pretty sure if you combine them all, Mario still comes out on top.

I thought the in-battle and world map parts looked fine. But the hand-drawn town felt out of place in HD.

@Dezzy 2021 is probably a remake, either Gen 2 in the style of Let's Go or Gen 4 in the style of Sword/Shield. Then Gen 9 starts 2022.

@status-204 Yeah, true. And I'm not the first to point out that their previous games have flaws as well. But my main gripe is that there's so much potential, but they're not doing anything with it.

@Dezzy The whole franchise. That includes merchandise, spin-offs, etc. Anything that bears the name of the franchise essentially. Pokemon is estimated to be more than twice as big as Mario. If you choose to only compare games, then sure, but the point is, they make a crap ton of money, but their games still feel like they're on a budget.

@BruceCM I highly doubt it will come this year