Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@IceClimbers I included it because it was developed by a studio Nintendo owns (Monolith Soft).

I think we'll get a Pikmin Direct but a main one will probably be September. You don't spend 6 years developing a game then listen to folk wanting something else 2 weeks after it's released lol.

@cchhaasseerr these so called leakers didn’t say how far in the future. Like I said before, it’s a matter of “Prime 2 and 3 (or just prime 2) are getting remastered” “one or both of them are getting HD ports” or those games just aren’t coming to switch. If the two games are being “remastered” then they will take much longer, because working on a remaster takes longer. Prime Remastered took years to make, even with the when of smaller companies. HD ports are more realistic, and they probably do exist. I don’t know that though. And hell, who is to say those two games are even coming to the switch? WarioWare Get It Together is on the switch. Does that mean Game And Wario, Smooth Moves, and Twisted are coming too? No. F-Zero games are on the switch. Does that mean we are getting a new one? Those are just a few examples, there is no guarantee the other two prime games are coming to switch. People just wind themselves up. On the other hand, you said the same people that “leaked” prime 1 remastered said the other two games are coming as well. See, I just don’t trust these leakers. They never give any concrete rock solid information, it’s always useless throwaway information that’s either dead wrong or so safe and obvious that anyone could have guessed it. Metroid Prime for switch was a rumour since even before Prime 4’s announcement, but that’s about when the rumours started heating up. Back in 2018, there were all these “leakers” like that fool Grubb that kept going on about how Metroid Prime Trilogy HD would be arriving that year. When that didn’t happen, the leakers backtracked and said “oh actually, the Trilogy is coming to switch in 2019 instead. Yeah, that’s what we were saying!” You can check this yourself, Nintendo Life has articles in the archive that basically document the years of Prime Trilogy on switch rumours, like that supposed “the release date got leaked by an Indian retailer” or something like that. And basically the same thing year after year after year until 2021 when the Prime 1 remastered stuff caught ablaze. Sure there were still prevalent Trilogy rumours, but once that Emily whatever here name is person said that Prime 1 was being remastered for switch, every single living soul in the rumour and leaks community scrambled over themselves to say “yes this is true, I can “confirm” this for myself!” Trying to get their name out there for clout and credibility. Take Jeff Grubb, a known video game “insider” and “leaker” as people call him. Surely he knew from the Emily lady (the person who said Prime 1 was real first) that it was true that Prime 1 at least existed for the switch. He just got every single other thing wrong. He got the release date wrong. He was one of those people saying Prime Trilogy Hd was coming to switch every single year, until he switched up to the Prime 1 thing. Eventually the game did come out, but why are people saying the game exists when Nintendo haven’t announced it yet? What is the point? What if it never existed? People would still believe and cry at Nintendo for not releasing a game they never said would come to the Switch. If it happens, it happens, I always say.

Anyways, sorry for that college essay rant. I’m just so bloody tired of these stupid Prime remastered rumours I could hit my head off a brick wall. “Rumours” don’t mean anything. People just want their fame and clout. I’m not saying Prime 2 and 3 for switch don’t exist, I’m saying don’t say they exist based off some stupid unverified rumors. They give false hope. Trust me, I’ve been tricked before, a lot of people have.

Please don’t take a shot every time I say rumour. I just lacked a better word for it, haha

@GrailUK is Pikmin that big of a franchise to get its own direct? Seriously, I don’t think we need a Direct for every somewhat big first party switch release. We knew next to nothing about Tears Of The Kingdom for years. We never got a dedicated direct, we never needed one. A single overview trailer and a final trailer before launch got everybody invested, even the ones who kept saying TOTK was just reused assets and expensive DLC. Pikmin will probably get the same. One more trailer before release, and a few after, like an accolades trailer or something as promotion for the game.

@TheBigBlue It's a Miyamoto game. They tend to be a big deal in Nintendoland

@TheBigBlue A Pikmin 3 Direct happened in the Wii U era and most franchises that got a Direct to themselves back then also got it in the Switch era so there's a good chance of a Pikmin 4 Direct. Not guaranteed though as there are exceptions like Bayonetta (Bayonetta 2 got its own Direct meanwhile Bayonetta 3 and Origins didn't).

As for Metroid, my thinking all along has been that if Prime 4's story follows on from the Prime 3 100% ending they'll bring over Prime 1-3 before Prime 4 launches and at the moment I feel that Prime 4 will be an early 2024 release like February. I will say though, I'd be very surprised if the Prime 4 re-reveal happened outside a general Direct. It very much has that Direct closer aura to it much like TotK.

The January 2013 Direct is still god tier for Directs, even if in hindsight it was obviously just an attempt to drum up interest for the Wii U. A move that didn't really work out because the games they hyped in it were still a while away

Literally in that Direct they announce:

• Wii U Virtual Console
• GBA on VC
• 30c VC games promotion
• A New Zelda in the works for Wii U
• Wind Waker HD
• A new 3D Mario game in the works for Wii U
• New Fire Emblem
• Yoshi's Woolly World
• Xenoblade Chronicles X

@TheBigBlue I think there is some ambiguity about when work on Metroid Prime Remaster finished and when work on other titles could have began. Metroid Prime Remastered was rated by the German ratings agency in July 2021, so potentially the devs could have been working on MP2 and MP3 for almost two years...

@MarioBrickLayer hey, this is a fair point. However, if Metroid Prime did finish development in 2021, why didn’t they release it that year or the following one? My point is, the other two games could be near completion, far from completion, or even finished, we don’t know. But if they are finished, it is likely that Nintendo will hold the games off for a bit, if Metroid Prime 4 is to come this year, I wouldn’t expect either prime 2 or 3. If Prime 4 suffers another delay, releasing the other two games periodically to fill Prime 4’s void makes slightly more sense. But again, who’s to say those games exist for switch? We won’t know until we seem em.

Meh, I'm not impressed. A lot of old games and teasers and I wasn't actually impressed with the games we ended up getting from the teasers (except BotW, but that released a full 4 years later). When it comes to Direct, only 2 stick out in my mind as being top tier: E3 2014 and E3 2017. Both announced a slew of games that actually appealed to me. 2014 had Splatoon, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Super Mario Maker, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, a short glimpse of BotW, a teaser for Star Fox Zero, and new information for Smash, Hyrule Warriors, and Pokemon OmegaRuby/Alpha Sapphire. E3 2017 announced Metroid Prime 4, a new Yoshi game (later known as Yoshi's Crafted World), a new Kirby game (later known as Kirby Star Allies), a new Pokemon game (not sure if they were teasing LGPE or SwSh), DLC for BotW, and revealed capturing for Mario Odyssey. Also the Treehouse presentation announced Metroid: Samus Returns. Those are really the only Directs I can remember that actually announced a slew of heavy hitters (and even then, 2017 was still a lot of teasers, but they were at least teasers for major IPs), most of them are just updates on games we already knew about and 1 or 2 new games.

I'd say the best Directs in no particular order were E3 2013, E3 2014, September 2018, E3 2021 and February 2022.

• E3 2013 was basically Nintendo revealing the rest of 2013/2014 for Wii U was looking strong (Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD, 3D World, Tropical Freeze, MK8, Bayonetta 2, Smash), that Direct was what convinced me to get a Wii U.
• E3 2014 has already been discussed
• September 2018 was when Luigi's Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing got revealed but also was the point when a load of 3rd party franchises which you'd never expect on the Switch ended up coming to Switch. The most notable of which was Final Fantasy, breaking the exclusivity of yet another franchise that was very well known for its Playstation exclusivity for the PS1/PS2 games.
• E3 2021 was about the big combo of WarioWare, Metroid Dread, Mario Party Superstars and Advance Wars but there were also really cool 3rd party announcements like Super Monkey Ball. Metroid Dread was the most notable as Prime 4 was (and still is) MIA and Samus Returns releasing on the 3DS when interest in 3DS was low due to the Switch could've killed 2D Metroid but it didn't.
• February 2022 was just overall extremely strong both for 1st party and 3rd party. The biggest highlight for me was the Booster Course Pass because Mario Kart had kind of been on hiatus for awhile and by the end of the pass you'll have lost nothing but gained 48 tracks and some other stuff.

@Bolt_Strike
You can't really judge a direct in hindsight from how its promises turn out. The Jan 2013 most definitely falls short on that metric because how the Wii U panned out. Also how BotW ended up being delayed and ultimately not really being a reason to have a Wii U. But that's not how we consume them. You come into the Direct not knowing stuff, you come out of it hyped about new things

The Jan 2013 Direct we came into it wondering why on earth we brought this Wii U thing for just New SMB and Pikmin. We came out of it with Wind Waker HD and info that new Zelda, Mario and Kart were being worked on. Most of the promises here were elaborated on with trailers at E3 2013 but the Jan Direct was where it started

I don't think I remember a Direct that was as impactful. I do think it was a bad and, honestly, desperate move in hindsight and probably not something we'll see again. But it was still god tier at the time

Even by that standard it wasn't great. We knew that 3D Mario, Mario Kart, and Zelda were being worked on, but not what form they would take, so it was too soon to judge. 2017 did have a few teasers with Yoshi, Kirby, and Prime 4, but at least with Yoshi and Kirby we saw actual gameplay and just didn't have the title and gameplay gimmicks/details, we didn't see any gameplay on 3D World, MK8, or Zelda until 2013/2014 so there was little to get excited about.

Yeeaaah no. I was actually extremely disappointed by this one, mainly because of how it had been hyped up beforehand. They told us going in that we would see 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, and "a beloved IP by Retro Studios". Mario Kart and Smash, we pretty much got what we expected, but when I heard "3D Mario" and "a beloved IP by Retro Studios" I thought that meant a more open style of Mario (either full 64/Sunshine or some sort of hybrid like Galaxy) and Metroid Prime 4, not milquetoast sequels to 3D Land and DKCR. They really should not have made those teasers because it got people's hopes up too much.

And really this E3 was a microcosm of my issue with the Wii U lineup. The Wii U really felt like it needed more open adventure games to draw in people who grew up with games like Mario 64/Sunshine, OoT/MM, Banjo-Kazooie, Metroid Prime, etc. or players on other consoles who liked more modern open world games like Skyrim. And I count myself as part of this demographic and was waiting and waiting all generation for those types of experiences and... for the most part they never came. We got Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I've never gotten into Xenoblade and even after trying the first game didn't really enjoy it enough to finish, so that didn't help. We got BotW... but it was stuck in dev hell and eventually became a cross-gen title that saw far more success on the Switch. And other than that it was ports and remakes like WW/TP HD and the N64 and Wii ports. But in terms of new, original entries that would REALLY draw in players... very little. 3D Mario only got 3D World and nothing for people who enjoyed the sandbox style. And Metroid was MIA all generation (unless you count the cheap little Nintendo Land minigame). Nintendo really gave those open adventure fans the finger on the Wii U and went way too hard on linear platformers, and I actually think that was part of the reason why the Wii U failed (granted the confusing marketing and lack of games overall were probably bigger factors, but I think it could've at least reached GC/N64 numbers if it had more of those types of games and earlier in the lifespan).

These were okay, but I would've liked at least one more big announcement for a prominent IP to declare them one of the best Directs. As is, I'd put them in a tier below E3s 2014 and 2017.

Disagreed. Way too much focus on niche IPs like Xenoblade and Fire Emblem in this Direct and the Booster Course Pack was a slap in the face for everyone that actually wanted something new (which is you know, what Mario Kart actually needed since the last game from 5 years ago was a PORT). The Booster Course Pack is quantity over quality and Mario Kart felt overdue to experiment with actual new MECHANICS, not just an array of courses and later characters. Strikers Battle League was intriguing (although ended up being terrible) and I liked the details on Mouthful Mode on Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but I came out of this Direct feeling like it needed one more thing (something like an Odyssey 2 teaser, a DK announcement, and/or Mario Kart getting more than mediocre Tour ports and yes, I would've been all over this, but as is... ehh not an impressive lineup).

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/06/nintendo-announces-...

Nintendo shadowdropping an announcement for a 1-2 Switch sequel called Everybody 1-2 Switch. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

This is probably soft-confirmation of no mainline Direct this month. If there was a Direct coming, they would probably hold this announcement for then.

Bolt_Strike is probably right here, if Nintendo didn’t already make it painfully obvious. Since there is no E3 again, and Nintendo isn’t attending Geoff-Dances-On-E3’s-grave-summer fest, then there won’t be a full direct this month. I expect more of a partner direct or no direct at all, with random twitter drops here and there. Nintendo of Canada randomly said Mario Kart Wave 5 was coming soon, so that will be another twitter drop, so on so forth.

We have our June game. I believe Emily Rogers talked about this a few years back and said the game was basically sat on because they weren't happy with the product, that the game was just straight up bad. Hopefully they improved things since then...

On a side note, them pushing this out the door pretty much confirms that the Switch is winding down, or at least in my mind.

@IceClimbers
but pikmin 4 is the June game.

This too. If they were planning on continuing the Switch for another 2+ years it'd be downright unacceptable to not have a big June Direct that confirms multiple major titles for the holiday season. But if they're content to shadow drop a game now instead of have a June Direct, they're probably content to coast on little more than what we know already and for them to do that this late in the Switch's lifespan implies that they've probably shifted towards developing next gen games right now and there's little else left for the Switch.

That ship has likely sailed. If Odyssey 2 was a thing, it would've happened or at least been announced sooner. But to be sitting here a FULL 6 YEARS after Odyssey 1 and to still not have an Odyssey 2 implies that they've probably moved on to a completely new 3D Mario game for next gen. They seem to like having 3D Mario early in the console's lifespan (literally every console since Mario went 3D has had one either Year 1 or Year 2), so if they've decided to move on to next gen in the next few years (and it does look like they're gearing up for next year), they've probably prioritized next gen Mario over Odyssey 2.

At this point I don't even think Odyssey 2 would be a great game. Since we've had to wait so long for the next Mario, I sort of hope it isn't just a sequel to Odyssey, and it's something brand new.