Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@FragRed Yeah a bunch of their socials are saying it so it probably wasn't a slip up, but I don't think this means there won't be a Direct in February. I agree with @Nintoz where they want you to keep this in mind, essentially trying to really hype it up.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah about 20 minutes for the last chance of the Direct happening for this week. Feels pretty unlikely, but you never know with Nintendo. If it's not this week or next, I'll probably start doubting a Direct. Also depends what announcements we'd get between then.

so we got an april 2nd direct time! 9 am ET, rise and shine 🥳🥳🥳

At this point, I think we're going to see a repeat of September 2022 and September 2023 where Nintendo Direct and State of Play are the same day. Sony's upcoming 2025 lineup is looking barren (a PC port in April, MLB The Show in March and 2 games with vague 2025 release windows) and their earnings is on February 13th. So there's probably a State of Play on February 11th or 12th.

Tetris 99 event for DKCR HD confirmed for the 13th (next Thursday), not sure how this fits in with a Direct this week. Maybe a Direct will be on Wednesday, the day before the event?

@PikminMarioKirby do they ever happen on Wednesdays? I genuinely can't remember haha.

@AStupidID Yeah most Nintendo Directs air on Wednesdays or Thursdays (The upcoming Switch 2 Direct is on a Wednesday). Sometimes they can be on Tuesdays, but Friday-Monday are very rare.

@PikminMarioKirby ah my bad thank you. It's been so long I forget haha

@AStupidID Yes the Directs have been few and far between recently. Only one major one last year. Hopefully we do end up getting one next week!

Please start playing a game then. 😀

Wario Land 4 is coming to NSO Expansion Pack next week. I'm feeling Direct next week may be less likely now.

@Dev-N There's always NSO presence in a Direct since the Expansion Pack subscription was announced and they've already used up 2 of their 3 NSO Expansion Pack systems recently (Ridge Racer 64 for N64 on January 31st and now Wario Land 4 for GBA on February 14th). It doesn't discount Direct completely considering the form NSO support took in the June 2023 and September 2023 Directs were different:

• June 2023 - MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 5
• September 2023 - F-Zero 99 and MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 6

But it does seem to rule out the source of NSO support as being new additions to the N64 or GBA catalogs.

Yeah at this point if there's no Switch 1 Direct next week I don't think it's happening at all and we're simply waiting for April 2nd. If they want to get some Switch 1 filler title announcements out of the way, now is the time, March would be cutting it too close. It also probably won't be the next two weeks after because there's the inevitably Pokemon Day Presents on the 27th and they might want to give that some space, so this week feels like the last good opportunity for a Switch 1 Direct.

The fact Nintendo came out and said the times along with reaffirming the date for the Switch 2 Direct on 2nd April shows they are done with the Switch and are all focused on the next console outside of any marketing around DK Country Returns and Xenoblade Chronicles X.

@Bolt_Strike @FragRed I think 3rd party support after February is too quiet for complete silence until April, at the very least there'd be a February Partner Showcase like last year.

But I do think week beginning February 17th has a chance for general Direct if there's nothing next week. The midpoint between January 16th and March 20th is February 16th/17th so a Prime 2+3 shadow drop would be closer to that midpoint if there was a general Direct on the 18th/19th.

@Grumblevolcano The later the Direct is, the less third party support I feel we will be getting. Outside of indie games that won’t need anything powerful, I imagine most third parties are itching to just put their stuff on Switch 2 instead. Though rumours last year said Nintendo have been trying to persuade publishers to fill up the library for Switch and apparently Driver 1 & 2 were said to being remastered. But that’s all questionable.

@FragRed I don't believe that rumour to be honest due to the specific examples, particularly the Ubisoft stuff. As for general 3rd party support, I think it's just going to be normal for awhile with Switch 1. You just also get the bonus of 3rd parties porting stuff that wouldn't run on Switch 1 to Switch 2. So like Switch 2 gets RDR2 while Switch 1 gets GTA4.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah I was just incredibly hopeful because I really like the idea of remasters for both Driver games, though I don’t know how that would work in practice. I’m not sure we should expect GTA IV on any platform. Rockstar don’t port games to the Switch unless it’s also coming to other platforms. They aren’t porting GTA IV to other platforms because they got GTA VI coming out either this year or early next year.

@FragRed I see GTA4 as a similar situation to RDR1, a game that's not playable on PS4/PS5 because there's no PS3 backwards compatibility. Then as a result, the game gets ported to PS4/Switch 1.

It may not be this year because of GTA6 but I was trying to think of a good comparison.

@Grumblevolcano I see what you are saying. It’s one of those titles that was rumoured years back but nothing happened. I imagine it’s probably cancelled or indefinitely on hold due to the anger from the GTA trilogy.

@FishyS does the eShop weekly lineup thing happen today? I wonder if it’s less than last week since there’s potentially gonna be a Direct next week.