Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Grumblevolcano

They could just show more exploration of the underground and more battle maps though. No need to do story at all.
One of the main issues for me with any Fire Emblem game is how interesting the battle maps are. In terms of visuals, as well as in terms of structure and challenge.
The main game has like the biggest range of map quality in any Fire Emblem game ever made. Some are brilliant and some are dreadful.
What would make the DLC an instant buy for me would be if we could just see all of the new battle maps are they all looked really good.

@DannyBoi I used to think Nintendo are worryingly quiet but as @Grumblevolcano and others have started to get me thinking, it’s likely just because there’s nothing to announce to release first half of the year. Animal Crossing is what they’ll likely hope to keep hardware sales moving until second half of the year.

@FragRed Surely seems like the case. It's honestly getting kinda annoying getting nothing in the first half and then being drowned in games in the second, they really need to find a balance.

I would be fine with that, but I still want a Direct for them to just tease what's coming later in the year, even if it's just a serious of 2 minute trailers and then they tell us to just wait til E3 to hear more.

@Dezzy Even those kind of things could be main story spoilers in some sense like with battle maps the location, enemies or allies could reveal story info.

@FragRed I'd imagine either the first half of the year is pretty limited and the 2nd half is packed like in 2019 or the whole year is pretty limited. Either way, I'd guess Nintendo's decisions this year are at least somewhat a result of the next gen consoles.

I can't wait for the next direct I hope they announce Super mario 3d world, I would love to play that game on switch seeing how i never owned a wii u..

@Grumblevolcano My thoughts are Nintendo will take a more limited approach this year with 2 big games to bookmark either end, but as a whole are letting Microsoft and Sony fight each other out with their new systems rather than trying to compete for the spotlight.

Next year Nintendo could then come back full force with big titles while the other two are going through the typical year one drought. I know Nintendo says they’re not in competition and they don’t expect sales to be affected, but I kinda think they’re still going to take a step back this year and hold off.

@FragRed

That would be somewhat disappointing if having consolidated both their handheld and console developers behind a unified platform, Nintendo still can't manage to produce a full year's calendar of games.

I can forgive 2018 because it was very early into the lifecycle and they'd clearly gone all-out for the launch year. But that really shouldn't be happening again until maybe the last couple of years of the console. 2020 should frankly be the very height of the console's momentum.

@Dezzy Well Metroid was restarted so that’s one game they can’t rely on anytime soon, Bayonetta 3 is apparently on track and I assume has had little spotlight due to Astral Chain being the focus, though now with how Platinum Games are acting who knows how it’s progressing, but I hope it’s this year. But if this is to be the height of momentum then I gotta ask where it is because it’s looking more and more like a limited first half in terms of first party releases. Even ports to fill the gap would be something but they’re so very quiet I’m not sure.

@Rexenokid I forgot Tokyo Mirage Sessions was a thing but it’s a very niche audience hence the January launch. I also wonder if Nintendo will release Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition in December like they did with the sequel. Seemed to work well last time.

Only Animal Crossing counts as a big release out of those in my opinion.

@FragRed I don't think Nintendo would've announced Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition in the September Direct if it wasn't first half of 2020. They probably would've gone with Banjo out now and Terry in November as the Direct closer if Xenoblade was 2nd half, especially as the Banjo stream followed straight after the Direct.

Though I wouldn't rule one out next week, I'll admit it's looking more & more likely that we won't get one until March.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (and Animal Crossing soon after) are coming up soon enough that they'll be able to coast by on advertising those for the immediate future.

I still don't think they'll wait until after Animal Crossing (and certainly not until April) however. They're always going to need at least one dated game coming up with their name on it for retailers to advertise.

@RR529 That is the thing though, people thought there'd be a Direct on January 10th 2019 because January 11th was the last dated game (NSMBU Deluxe) but then on January 8th we got this Yoshi trailer in a random NoA tweet confirming Yoshi's release date for March 29th.

So Nintendo could do the same for Xenoblade, trailer on March 18th announcing release date for say May/June for example and then have an April Direct.

Well the Fire Emblem DLC is out and it didn't even get a launch trailer. There's definitely something weird going on.

My theory is that they had a Direct planned for either this week or last week but it got delayed because they're waiting for a trailer to be finished for one of their big releases. Possibly Breath of the Wild sequel.

Keep updating those theories guys maybe one day it’ll be true.

I'll be willing to wait any length of time, considering my massive backlog.

Anyway, copying NotTelevision's system, ranking predictions from most likely to least.

Likely: 3D World DX, NMH3 release date/window, Animal Crossing, Xenoblade DE news, Pikmin 3, No F-Zero (sorry guys), Fire Emblem DLC (because apparently Nintendo forgot to mention it today), anything 3rd-party, indies

Maybe: Smash DLC 6 (we just got Byleth so seems like an E3 thing), Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo's already dumped a boatload of information about it), SMM2 update, Prime Trilogy (seems Nintendo is more focused on bringing its Wii U collection to Switch atm), Pikmin 4, DOOM Eternal release date (I'm sure Panic Button wants to take its time with this one)

Unlikely: SMT V (while it's true we haven't seen anything from this, it seems that it's being put on the development backburner atm), Game & Wario (seems destined to stay on Wii U), Mario Kart 9 (might be the huge E3 thing, we'll see), BOTW 2 (everyone seems to forget that it just started development last year)

I feel like part of the feeling of frustration for so many is due to Nintendo not revealing anything at the Game Awards this year, like they had done previously. So now there’s seemingly also no Directs on the horizon it’s starting to worry people.

I'm confident the Direct will be here soon, next week on the same day the NES and SNES games release is my bet. It will be a blockbuster Direct, no doubt about it.

The direct could be today. If Nintendo really want to suprise us. They could announce one at 3pm for 10pm. The creative director for DMC said to watch out for february 13th. And there is sometimes a direct on 13th/14th. Nintendo could do an unusual direct.