Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Positive news overall, because Nintendo keeping the one-game-a-month trend implies they have some big surprises for us later in the year. If they were truly desperate for schedule-filling games because of the rumoured Switch 2 delay, surely they would have skipped a month and moved one of these games until late summer or Fall.

With nothing announced for April, maybe something could get shadow dropped, in an April Direct per chance? What game would you like to see in April?

@GrailUK Metroid Prime 2+3 would be my guess, end the Direct with a big Metroid segment featuring Prime 2+3 shadow drop, Zero Mission on NSO and finish with a Prime 4 tease confirming release this year.

@FishyS no, they have nothing for April.

@Sigran102 I said this in the other thread, but they have 2 games in May, one on May 2nd. So it is still keeping the one game a month pace even if Endless Ocean is not technically in April.

Obviously if we get a direct in April we might get something else, but even with a June direct, Nintendo could keep averaging 1 game a month without any big gaps.

@FishyS fair enough. I honestly think it's going to be a big drought year if the switch 2 really was delayed, but I hope you're right.

@Grumblevolcano I like your guesses Grumble

@Sigran102 How can it be a drought year? It looks to me that they have games planned for throughout this year. You don't get to 140 million units sold then not sell them games lol. And if those games are remakes etc, then sounds quite lucrative for a final year. Sure, no AAA blockbuster games (and to be fair, the other consoles are kinda marking their territory with those now) but Endless Ocean, Princess Peach and TTYD are all ecclectic enough for such a broad player base. We still have a Switch swansong to look forward to I reckon. Metroid Prime 4 get's my money.

There are a lot of things that have been rumoured for a while, so I doubt it would be that hard for Nintendo to fill up the year even if it mostly ends up being ports:

• A new Mario sports game of some sort (sluggers?).
• Zelda port.
• Metroid 2 remastered.
• We normally expect Pokemon every year; it wasn't announced but it is still a possibility.
• Assume 1 month might be skipped just to talk tons about Switch 2.
• Kirby has a game/spinoff almost every year so is a possibility.
• Rumoured Donkey Kong platformer. If it's 3D it may be waiting for Switch 2, but if it's 2D conceivably this year.
• The rumoured F-zero remake/port? At least possible since new Mario Kart is definitely not this year.
• Another random backlog franchise like Endless Ocean.
• Mario Wonder DLC

So that is 10 plausible possibilities which have either been rumoured or are 'typical' (and don't rely on Switch 2 being out) to fill in the blank 6 months at the end of the year. And it's always possible something will come out of nowhere like an animal crossing spinoff game or who knows what else.

@FishyS DrTre81 found an unnanounced game on linkdin too.

@GrailUK I think @Sigran102's logic is that if Switch 2 was releasing in September but then got delayed to March for example then September - February's games would get delayed to March onwards leaving droughts.

It makes sense if everything from Switch 2 launch onwards was Switch 2 exclusive but that's not the case, we know for example that Metroid Prime 4 and Legends Z-A are coming to Switch 1. So you'll likely still see a strong 2nd half of the year consisting of Switch 1 games, just that it wouldn't be strong enough to be year 1 of a new console.

@GrailUK If there's so little coming out that endless ocean is in the top 3 of your list, then yes, it's 100% a drought year. Everything else you said is just hopes or predictions. Maybe it will come true, maybe it won't. I'm only saying what I think might happen.

@Grumblevolcano The crazy thing is, in a perverted kind of way, we should be hoping that Nintendo finds a draught season to navigate. It's times like that where they have to brek the emergency glass on something. Like a localisation of Mother 3 or something lol.

@Grumblevolcano exactly that, but imo anything that's cross platform, they'd want to debut with the switch 2. If they release the rumored 3d mario for example on the switch 1 in september, then no one will care when it comes out on the switch 2. Everyone who wanted it will have already bought it. Having a super strong switch 2 launch and a weak 2024 is way better than finishing 2024 strong and then having a terrible launch because their launch lineup is already out on the old system.

@Sigran102 Oh, I know, it's all just speculation and nothing to argue over lol. (Hope my words don't come accross as that!) I'm the first to say I am usually wrong lol. And don't be so harsh on Endless Ocean, it's really chill!

To be fair we had the exact same worries last year when it seemed like almost nothing was coming out the latter half of the year... and then a bucket load of games were dumped on us. I could imagine Switch 2 issues making the schedule a little lighter this year, but I suspect we will still get quite a few things. But yeah, all we have are predictions until an actual direct.

@GrailUK no, you don't come across that way. I'm just trying to be careful with my words. I came here after a long time on forums that were much less chill and brought some of that negative energy with me, so I'm trying to tone it down.

I'm not saying endless ocean is a bad game, just that it's not exactly a big release. It looks like a drought year to me because aside from Peach, all they've announced are a couple of remasters and that, and they skipped the annual february direct.

@Sigran102 I can still see them having a cracking holiday season. It's when they make most of their money and far too early for them to tell us what they have. So I'm not worried. Besides, there is a new Super Monkey Ballgame coming out. I'm drinking this year lol

@Sigran102 I don't see 3D Mario being crossgen. I think we'd see a situation where there's like 8 games planned for Fall/Holiday 2024 and 3 are Switch 2 exclusives (e.g. 3D Mario, some kind of tech demo game like Wii Sports/Nintendo Land/1-2-Switch, an open world game like XCX) so they get delayed leaving 5 Switch 1 games intact. So Fall/Holiday 2024 in the end looking something like:

• September - Metroid Prime 4
• October - DK, WWHD/TPHD double pack
• November - Pokemon Gen 6 remakes
• December - Tomodachi Life

Swap Pokemon Gen 6 with a different RPG franchise like Fire Emblem if there truly is a 2024 Pokemon break.

@Grumblevolcano maybe, but why would they do gen 6 remakes before gen 5 remakes?