Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

By this point, Halo news wouldn't feel anything special to me. They missed the boat on that for me during the Smash teases. I'd probably come back around to welcoming it at some point, but right now indifference is what I'm feeling.

First direct of the year in February I'm calling it

Halo would be cool, but I've been kind of over it since 3 and ODST. I played the heck out of that series, though. LAN parties on the original and 2 when I was in high school and college. Probably hundreds and hundreds of hours.

But then I got the Master Chief Collection back on my Xbox One and immediately hated everything lol

The one and only time I was excited about HALO was when I did a "Which Character Are You Quiz" (I am embarrassed to admit I went through that phase lol) and I got Master Chief.

That new Mario vs DK trailer seems to deconfirm a direct for the next few weeks, but one in February before that game’s release seems likely. Seems like the perfect time to either wrap up og switch’s lineup (detail announced games, maybe show off a new remake/port or two) or reveal some fairly heavy hitting new games that prove there’s still some time before the next console. I personally think the former is more likely but hopefully we’ll have our answer within a month or so!

@Noble_Haltmann Nintendo did do the Merry Magoland (a new mode) trailer for Return to Dream Land Deluxe the week before the February Direct last year so I don't think we can discount January entirely. That said, I don't think it'll be next week because of the Xbox Developer Direct.

I'm leaning towards a repeat of September where Nintendo Direct and State of Play happen on the same day. Either January 25th or February 1st given Sony likes doing State of Play on Thursdays and they are probably contractually obligated to promote Suicide Squad one final time before its launch on February 2nd.

@Grumblevolcano True, but the thing about Kirby RTDLDX is that they also saved the bigger reveal of Magolor Epilogue for the direct. They had to get both that and the Magoland trailer out several few weeks before the game released in late February, but didn’t want to give it a whole long spotlight segment in the direct which was why they dropped the standalone trailer shortly before. I doubt they’re saving a bigger reveal of content for Mario + DK that we’ll see in a direct this month, but I certainly wouldn’t be upset if this was the case!

mario party superstars 2, more n64 games, more gb/gbc games, more gba games, more genesis games, more nes games, more snes games, mario kart 9, super smash bros battle royale, gamecube switch online, game gear switch online and others.

How many Directs does everyone think there will be BEFORE the Switch 2 announcement? I'm going to say two, including a Partner Showcase or Indie.

@MarioBrickLayer Was going to answer just the one, but I also wasn’t thinking of the prospect of Nintendo doing an indie Direct as well. But definitely just the one general Direct.

@MarioBrickLayer Minimum of 0, maximum of 2 (General Direct/Direct Mini/Princess Peach Showtime Direct and Pokemon Presents). I don't think they'd do an Indie World until after the system's properly announced and the dust has settled for a bit, see how for example they did January 2017 Switch Presentation followed by February 2017 Nindies Showcase.

@FragRed @Grumblevolcano The timing is interesting, I believe the annual shareholders meeting is in June? If that's right, I think they do the first Switch 2 announcement before then, lets say in May?

General Direct in February plus something in April? (a "direct" about a specific game or an indie or Partner show case?)

I think they announce close to June so I wonder what happens to their normal summer Direct?

@MarioBrickLayer There's an earnings report on February 6th which'll reveal their October - December 2023 sales, if holiday sales are disappointing by Nintendo's standards they may want to reveal the new system around then to please shareholders.

Afterwards there's an earnings report in early May which'll reveal their January - March 2024 sales as well as reveal Nintendo's projections for hardware and software sales for the fiscal year that starts in April 2024. If Switch 2 is launching in 2024, Nintendo wouldn't be able to pass through early May without announcing it because of abnormally low Switch projections.

The next Direct would likely make it obvious which strategy Nintendo decides to use.

@MarioBrickLayer As @Grumblevolcano said, Nintendo’s financial year ends 31st March so they’ll have a full year report early May which will also set out the expectations for the year ahead.

Nintendo are going to want to get that announcement out before the shareholders meeting. If nothing else it’ll help ease expectations and boost stock price.

Also Nintendo need at least 6 months between reveal and release to properly market the Switch 2 and I think third party publishers will also want that decent lead time to announce and market their own games.

@Grumblevolcano @FragRed the timing here is really tight. I thought they would also want a gap between launch and the holiday period, launch with x million units so as many core fans who will buy it any time of year can get one and then replenish stocks in time for Christmas gift buying.

Add in a 6 month marketing window and there's not much time...

May and June are the key dates. May is when they outline their forecasts for the next year and June is their AGM. After June would be insanity unless there are no plans until deep in 2025 because they'll just be bombarded with questions about it. May if they don't have it out by then they'll be forced to just quietly announce it as a line item or leave a massive gap in their forecasts

I think we probably get an announcement before the next direct. Because without the announcement the next Direct is going to be fairly light on content

I really hope with this supposedly being switch last year that Nintendo tries to bring a few of their dormant franchises to verify the general interest in them. Especially with the large userbase the console has now.

Like bring back Rythm heaven (paradise for your European) and i'll be happy but i'd love to have a remaster of Wario land Shake it or like punch-out wii

@Duboiss They already are bringing back Mario vs DK so that's one dormant franchise. Wario isn't dormant since Nintendo just put out a new game and it seems very unlikely they will release another so soon. Honestly not a bad time to bring back rhythm heaven though... it would be a bit of a shocker but not crazy.

I want them to bring back Tomodachi.

@FishyS Wario land and Warioware are 2 completely different franchises. They don't even have the same developers with Intelligent System doing Warioware. The last one really was on wii and is pretty much the game that put Goodfeel on the map.