Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Grumblevolcano To me it feels a lot more likely to be making separate announcements for now. I still think from Nintendo’s view it would’ve been best to do it all in one Direct/mini in early February, but that seems unlikely as we approach the Switch 2 Direct on April 2nd.

I could see there not being any Direct aside from series specific ones like the Pokemon Presents and potentially something Mario related for Mar10 Day. Maybe we’ll get a twitter direct where they just post several announcements within a week or two?

@VoidofLight I wouldn’t blame Nate for making people think there’s going to be a Direct, the supposed tease I saw had nothing to do with Directs. There’s no way they’d do that now anyways, it’s too late in the month for a Direct. An individual announcement still isn’t out of the question for this month, but they only have 2 days to do it at this point.

I’m sure whatever Nintendo’s planning, if anything, has already been communicated to the Pokemon team. They’re probably both aware of the schedule, and have agreed to it accordingly.

Z-A is late 2025, so I'm sticking with my guess of November release date and Gen 10 in 2026.

The game doesn't look promising, didn't seem like they were aware what starters made sense for Kalos. I was also hoping for a non-modern day setting, like past or future. This game also looks like it will be a lot less free walking around compared to Legends Arceus.

Well @VoidofLight are you happy? Z-A is releasing in the holiday. So now that question's been answered. Gen 10 is clearly being held off for 2026 on Switch 2, you can pretty much lock that in.

It's a relief that Legends Z-A is late 2025 (likely the usual November slot) and I'm liking the look of the initial gameplay.

As for what this means for Direct, it's an odd situation considering February general Directs cover February - July yet the only game in that timespan at the moment is XCX in March so to skip February Direct is odd.

@Novamii yeah, not that keen on the starter choices tbh. Although tbf I felt the same with PLA. I kinda wish that they just stuck with the Kalos starters as we haven't seen those in ages.

But the trailer was pretty neat I thought. I'm intrigued at least, after not being too enthused by the game in concept. It definitely looks more polished than the last couple of games.

@Bolt_Strike Yep! Pretty happy. Kinda glad Gen 10 isn't this year and Gamefreak isn't going to try to rush it. Z-A looks pretty good graphically (mostly texture-wise), so I feel like Gen 10 getting extra time will hopefully help it look better as well.

@PikminMarioKirby Honestly, I feel like the game is still going to be pretty free. Looks like there's going to be some sort of ranking situation for Wild Zones though, given the numbers on the gates to them. The city is open world like Scarlet and Violet as well. I also really like the fact that it's present day Kalos, given that X and Y needed some sort of sequel or side game to round out the legendary Trio a bit more. Especially given how the lore around the central three amounted to barely anything in the original games. I'm also glad because we get to see AZ and potentially the Looker again, along with seeing Zygarde's forms in the context they were intended for originally (instead of being shoehorned into an entirely different region where it doesn't make sense for it to exist within).

@VoidofLight I think this will be the modern way of making a Platinum/Crystal game and I think that's the best way to go about it.

It'd be kind of funny, since this game is all about being in the city, if you couldn't go in the buildings. Odd feature removed from Scarlet/Violet, otherwise I wouldn't be worried about this for this game

This Pokemon Presents actually makes me think Nintendo has something planned prior to April 2nd. 2 Switch games were at the Pokemon Presents, one of which is scheduled for late 2025, and the other didn't have a release timeframe (and was also a mobile game), which implies a release date not in the near future. So April to the end of Summer still have no Switch games. February, unless we get a shadowdrop on the last day of the month (unlikely!), also didn't get a game.

There has to be some sort of announcement, right? Can Mar10 Day and maybe 1-2 twitter drops really fill in April through summer for Switch?

I think this is the first time I've disliked all 3 starters.

@PikminMarioKirby Honestly, the Teraleak makes it clear that Gamefreak pretty much wants to do Legends in the place of Remakes. These are our remakes now I believe. BDSP was only made as a response to TPCi not knowing if an experimental title would bode well in the eyes of Diamond and Pearl fans, so they outsourced ILCA to make a traditional remake while Gamefreak worked on PLA. PLA was a success, and while BDSP was a financial success- it was a critical failure for the fans that it was made to please. Therefore it's why we're pretty much getting an X and Y Legends game instead of a remake, as PLA did super well and so they understand now that people want more experimental games in this series.

Someone for certain article with 2 polls thought that Triumphant Light Pack and Mega Cards reveals was part of same reveal aka TCG Pocket, but Triumphant Light was TCG Pocket reveal while Mega Cards was for Regular TCG reveal! xD
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/02/how-would-you-rate-...

With this and gold points being discontinued, what if Nintendo is doing it because they’re starting see there’s no need for incentives to get people to buy digital content anymore, especially with the changing economy around the world?

@MrCarlos46 I hope not. Nintendo's game revenue is close to 50/50 on digital versus physical but this suddenly seems like they are now actively discouraging digital. Which is odd because they were really pushing vouchers last year.

I'm not convinced they aren't simply transitioning to $70 physical/ $60 digital.

@FishyS Unlikely physical would cost more than digital. They’re usually priced the same.

They also didn’t outright say Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers were ending, just that the current ones won’t work for Switch 2 games. Maybe later down the line there will be Nintendo Switch 2 Game Vouchers but at a higher price point to accommodate the $70 price point for Switch 2 games.

Gold Points however are just straight up gone with no replacement. At that point just rename My Nintendo Platinum Points and make that the de-facto point currency going forward.

I meant in the sense that with vouchers Nintendo games are currently $60 physical, $50 digital. Maybe it will change to 70/60.

Although given that with physical there are costs associated to materials, transport, and the store taking a large cut of the profits, it would make sense if digital were cheaper than physical.

Since digital games have drawbacks (can't resell), it seems stingy of Nintendo to give no incentive at all given that they are making more money per game from digital even after incentives.

If Switch 2 games get the voucher treatment, expect them to be priced at $120 in a similar fashion to how Switch games cost $60 but vouchers cost $100.

Maybe with the discontinuation of gold points with no replacement in set they might do more eShop sales more often.

I hope so tbh - I've been quite vocal about Pokemon remakes being a bit of an unnecessary thing since ORAS and I'm happy they're coming up with creative, novel ways for us to revisit old regions rather than wasting resources to create remakes that (i) aren't necessarily better than the originals, (ii) will themselves also become outdated before we know it.

Now if only they'd just port the old games as well...

@PikminMarioKirby It makes me wonder about the structure of the April 2nd Switch 2 Direct. Maybe they have like:

• Start off with hardware details (10 - 15 minutes)
• With backwards compatibility covered in the hardware segment, that allows for a Switch 1 software segment to happen (10 - 15 minutes)
• Finish off with a Switch 2 only software segment (15 - 20 minutes)

3rd parties are probably very eager to support Switch 2 so that being why the Switch 2 only segment being longer than the Switch 1 segment.

@Dev-N If they also plan to show off the third party games coming to Switch 2, the Direct would have to go beyond an hour. If lucky maybe up to two.

@Grumblevolcano With the exception of Metroid Prime 4, I highly doubt they spend time on Switch 1 titles in their big Switch 2 blowout Direct. Wasting time talking about games for the old system does NOT send a good message.