Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Grumblevolcano @IceClimbers Was about to ask the same thing. COD being a focus for Nintendo Directs really doesn’t feel very Nintendo.

@IceClimbers @FragRed Nintendo were extremely quick to accept the 10 year CoD deal which gives the impression they value it a lot and there's been other 3rd party games that have been given big general Direct slots in the form of opening the Direct or a big segment later on in the Direct (e.g. Overwatch, Dragon Quest, Daemon X Machina, Monster Hunter, Octopath, Triangle Strategy). No 3rd party game has closed a general Direct so far so I'd imagine if one was to happen the closer would be something like Odyssey 2 or Prime 4.

So if the acquisition goes through in the timeline Microsoft expects, CoD would likely be in a July Direct if a Direct was to happen that month and Nintendo gives it a big slot.

@Grumblevolcano Except it already isn't going through in the timeline they expect after the CMA blocked the deal. The appeals process for that is going to take a few months.

I haven’t actively been following the activision Microsoft thing for a while, but I have hear the EU rejected the thing some time back, so there is absolutely no chance that activision is being purchased anytime soon. If COD were to appear on Switch, it would be by Activision’s hand alone. But I still don’t think we get a full direct. It could appear on a partner direct though, wink wink

@TheBigBlue Pretty sure the EU passed it but the UK blocked it and I think the US blocked it too.

@TeaCatherine I haven't seen anything about the US, but the EU passed it, and the UK blocked it. It's probably going ahead at this point.

JG is one of the better leakers, although none of them guesstimate with 100% accuracy.

I shall hype responsibly.

@Professor_Plumber My fault, I meant JG.

@Professor_Plumber Didn't they retire or something? I thought I saw something about it on Pushsquare.

@Professor_Plumber Ah, right.

@Grumblevolcano @FragRed @IceClimbers The only way COD is partnof the direct is if Activision decided to release it. They cannot take any direction from Microsoft until after the deal goes through. If they have continued as business as usual then, development on a Switch game will only start after the takeover.

@MarioBrickLayer Wasn’t there a news story earlier this year that Activision had already started setting up a development team to port COD games to the Switch?

Does anyone even care about CoD anymore? Not exactly the sort of game that ever comes up in my circle of influence.....

@skywake
It sells well every release. The games aren’t great, but you can’t deny they are a big money maker.

@Professor_Plumber 2013 really suffered from the expectations they set beforehand. Because they said ahead of time they would be discussing 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, and "a beloved IP from Retro". This led a lot of people to believe we would be getting a more sandbox style Mario (or at least something more of a hybrid like Galaxy) and Metroid Prime 4. But when we found out that they were relatively safe, DLC pack-feeling sequels to 3D Land and DKCR that really brought the hype down. There might've been less backlash if they hadn't made that tease ahead of time, but even then I'm not sure the fanbase would've been totally behind these games by their own merits. A 3D Land sequel probably wasn't the best choice for a flagship 3D Mario game (all console 3D Mario games up to this point had at least some level of nonlinearity, and the Wii U DESPERATELY needed something open and sandbox style), and TF doesn't really feel like it's much of a step forward for DK (really it feels like it's playing catch up with the classic trilogy mechanics and it STILL didn't quite get there).

@Professor_Plumber Ehh, I'm not really crazy about this lineup even by its own merits (I like Mario Kart 8 and I was excited for XY at the time but the final game ended up being pretty meh, and that's pretty much it). Wii U owners tend to gush about 3D World and TF, but I don't really see anything special about those games (I do think Bowser's Fury is great, but the main campaign of 3D World is incredibly mediocre). Again, both games feel largely by the numbers and do little to really make the gameplay feel fresh and interesting. A few interesting level ideas here and there, but the overall package just feels really dull and soulless. And really that's the story of pretty much all of the Wii U platformers, no real creativity or ideas. I don't blame Nintendo for putting 2D platformers on the back burner on the Switch, it doesn't feel like they have a clue how to evolve the genre.

Beyond those games though, people like to rave about games like Xenoblade and Bayonetta, but those are niche IPs that have never really sold super well, and I've tried those games but never really found them interesting enough to get into them. And then there's WWHD, which everyone acts like is a huge deal but it's just an HD copy/paste job (and a c/p job of a mediocre Zelda game at that, one which has little real exploration outside of empty looking aimless sea).

So yeah, these games don't really feel all that special to me. I'm not really feeling the ambition of a BotW or Mario Odyssey or the creativity of a Splatoon in most of these games. Feels more like a 6 or 7 for me, nowhere close to a 9.

@FragRed I don't remember that, it would be good if you're right though.

3D world is my favorite 3D Mario, so I'd say that direct was pretty decent.

I'm kinda in the middle on the 2013 E3. Yes it was overhyped due to the insanity of the February Direct of that year and it didn't really deliver on that. Well, it DID deliver it's just when you say Mario and Retro people thought Metroid Prime 4 and Super Mario Galaxy 3 not DK:TF and 3D World. So it was definitely a "let down" at the time in our little internet bubble

But, even so, the games it did show were solid. You can't really complain too much about a Direct that had Mario Kart, Smash and Mario. And Tropical Freeze, while it wasn't the mind blowing out of left field reveal that DKCR was, is still one of the biggest highlights of the Wii U library. Arguably one of the highlights of the Switch Library also

It wasn't the best E3 Direct but it certainly wasn't the worst. Above average I'd argue. I think even in terms of the gap between expectations and delivery, where that Direct was bellow par, there were worse offenders. You only need to go back to E3 2012 to see one of those. Remember that the E3 2012 Direct was the "sell us on this new hardware" Direct. I went into that expecting HD Mario or Zelda, maybe Mario Kart or something. I distinctly remember towards the end of the Direct they showed Pikmin 3 and thinking "yes! here we go!". But then they did a Nintendo Land bit and the stream just..... ended.......

I'm seeing news sites reporting on that Nintendo has updated their Direct page which suggests a new Direct is inbound soon.