Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I hope we get a main Nintendo Direct in early February.

I called that Prime 4 wouldn't be at TGA, or much in terms of Nintendo for that matter.

Decent chance since Nintendo had one in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 (Feb 2020 was an animal crossing direct instead).

I don't think anyone was shocked not to see Prime at TGA, but what is your opinion about next year? ( either February or later?)

So be it.

This is also the best idea. A later cutoff date would work wonders for TGA, especially since anything released after the date is usually left off.

@ElRoberico
I mean, it's fun to say "so be it," but in reality that would totally suck. There would be a very real chance that the event would altogether dwindle and die out.

There was never really a game award show for the majorty of my life. As a kid in the 80s and 90s, it was just the game magazines that would do their top 10s of the year and stuff like that. I'm sure G4 did something in the 2000s, but it would be nice to see this kind of show stick around.

@FishyS I personally feel like the game is going to be in development for a while. Wouldn't be surprised if its a Pikmin 4 situation, where we don't see anything on it until the end of the next console's life.

As for TGA, I don't like how little time the devs got this year, but I will say that I wouldn't have watched The Game Awards if they didn't have any new game reveals. The award show part is rigged and generally tends to be pointless, at least if you genuinely are rooting for specific outcomes. i think the speeches are nice, but it feels like its a popularity contest which ignores a ton of other developers and categories. The most fun I had watching the show were cases where my friends and I made fun of Geoff or where totally unexpected things happened like with that one kid who got up on stage last year.

I think a lot of people will stop watching the event if it only focuses on the rewards, given one of the primary draws of TGA are the announcements. My thinking is that TGA needs to start earlier, and they need an hour or two more in terms of time so that they can give the devs more than 30 seconds per speech. I feel like the speeches should be able to be around 3-4 minutes long.

This is probably the most accurate summary of the game awards 2023 I’ve seen. Far far too much focus on the games, most of which many didn’t even care for. Sure there was something for everyone that owns a PS5, PC or Xbox Series X, but a lot of the announcements were pretty underwhelming. And there was so many of them, at least in the context of this being an award show and not specifically a games showcase. It really felt like a lesser E3 that also suffered from identity crisis. GA2023 wanted to be a games showcase and an awards show simultaneously, but ended up overdoing the former and screwing over the latter. They need to strike a balance between the announcements, game premieres and trailers, and the actual award acceptance speeches. I was pretty ticked off seeing the likes of Eiji Aunoma getting a mere 30 seconds tops for the TOTK acceptance speech while Kojima got pretty close to 10 minutes. I like Kojima too Geoff, but giving him more time to the point everyone else is rushed is such a stupid move.
You can tell most of the viewers were waiting for Bill Clinton man to return like you said, and snap the audience back awake after the show dragged on for THREE HOURS loaded with half baked trailers and the most obvious and predictable award winners. Big surprise, BG3 won every category it was in, Mario won best family game, TOTK won best action adventure, etc. In summary, acceptance speeches needed to be 2-4 minutes longer, less filler trailers and the game awards might have been fairly decent.

@rallydefault Again, so be it. TGA should be about celebrating devs, voice actors, and everyone else that helps make games possible. If it's an industry-only event, let it be. People don't watch the Oscars for a bunch of new movie announcements.

Sucks that E3 is dead, given there isn't really a particularly good replacement for it yet. People can say SGF is good, but.. I disagree. Things are far too spread out, to the point where I don't think most of the events should even be considered a part of Summer's Game Fest. Most of the events are their own things, and it feels like its mostly disjointed instead of a massive event where the entire industry shows off their new products. Geoff hosting it also feels sickening, since it feels like the dude already has an over-inflated ego as is.

@ElRoberico
Yea, but even with video games becoming more acceptable and even borderline "popular" in the last decade, you're talking apples and oranges trying to compare them to Hollywood movies and the Oscars.

If The Game Awards didn't have reveals, viewership would dwindle, give it a few years, the show itself would run the risk of being canned, and then it would be up to places like IGN or whatever to try and fill the gap with awards and stuff. You'd kill off what want if you want mostly awards and recognizing people who make the games we love.

@ElRoberico Sadly, most of the audience that watches TGA stay for the reveals. A lot of people I've spoken to have the same mindset of "If it weren't for the reveals, I wouldn't bother watching."

Most of it has to do with how the Award show itself is conducted. Again, the awards feel as if personal choice of the audience is barely taken into account, as what determines the actual vote are the people who are actually in the gaming industry as a whole. The games that should be recognized never get recognition. Games like Dave the Diver are allowed to take indie game spots.

TGA should be like the Eisners for comics. They take an event that everyone's already at (San Diego Comic Con) and celebrate everyone there. It's not broadcasted, but everyone can find results.

Or if game devs could unionize and have one governing body. That could work too, but Games will never be art because they've been corrupted by greed.

The replacement for E3 is a good Nintendo Direct. E3 itself was little more than that anyway.

When was last direct. Maybe they'll ( nintendo ) will give us a Christmas special direct 😁🤞🙏

Idk but im starting to get the itch. Ya know, that direct itch 😏. Maybe a zelda port here, prime 2 there. Nothing too crazy.

@NintendoByNature Probably gotta live with that itch until early February. Too bad we can't make a poll to see how many people believe February direct will be Switch 2 versus a zelda port versus... buncha random indies and a highlight on Peach game and mario vs DK.

@FishyS yep. I'm thinking general direct in Feb focusing on some switch titles.

Yep, Feb. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the hardware announcement but I'm going to assume it isn't because I want to set lower expectations. It'll either be new hardware with heaps of stuff to go along with it or late generation breadcrumbs that'll be a bit mid I feel

I'd want it to be a Switch 1 general Direct but I'm leaning towards Switch 2 reveal. This holiday season's Switch promotion has been rather subdued despite the strong software lineup so it feels like get the holiday season refund period out of the way and then do the Switch 2 reveal. I brought up my timeline prediction in the lead up to launch in one of the other threads:

• Mid January - Princess Peach Showtime Direct (while Nintendo Live 2024 is cancelled, the game was going to playable there so I figure a Direct will show off the game before when Nintendo Live 2024 was going to be)
• Late January/Early February - General Direct which reveals Switch 2 where the structure is something like 1st half being Switch 1, 2nd half being Switch 2 reveal + Switch 2 only 3rd party games + end with something like 3D Mario
• Late February - Pokemon Direct for Pokemon Day reveals something like Gen 5 remakes for the current Switch, Gen 5 Legends game for Switch 2 and a Switch 2 patch for Scarlet/Violet alongside the usual mobile game stuff
• April - Indie World
• May/June - General Direct which reveals more about Switch 2 lineup
• Summer 2024 - A setup similar to Early 2017 where there are lots of events to check out the Switch 2 for yourself in person
• September 2024 - Switch 2 releases