Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

That was an alright Direct. Ending on Bethesda ports was... something I guess. Although I was FULLY expecting it to end on Call of Duty so I guess Oblivion Remastered is better.

Rebirth is coming much sooner than expected, and looks great.

There was quite a few 3rd party ports I thought might show up that didn't though - Blue Prince, Metaphor, E33, Death Stranding, Halo, etc. I'm sure we'll see them in due time though!

Overall though there's plenty of 3rd party titles launching over the next few months, and I'm absolutely ECSTATIC for RE Requiem and Pragmata.

Any Direct with a Falcom game is a good Direct, in my book.

No Fromsoft announcement is disappointing.

Duskbloods makes more sense on a first party direct because of the exclusivity but Elden Ring still not having a release date could point to a bigger issue

@Don from what I've heard being able to understand the text is pretty important in those games

I’m of the belief that a major 1st party game is coming this holiday, and that they’ll wanna reveal sooner than the former E3 timeframe so that it can have a hype cycle of longer than 4-5 months. My prediction is that they’ll do this by either:

A) a bigger than normal Mar10 day where the big game (something Mario related in this case) is announced, followed by a full general direct in June at the earliest. Or:

B) A general direct in April (perhaps setting a new precedent of 2 general directs a year in April/September?) which reveals most of the second half of 2026, including the big holiday exclusive.

I dunno if this will end up being notably great examples of them, but people actively unenthused for niche Japanese games are lame as heck. Especially after years of Unreal Engine Game Awards games that are all the same 3 games, the over the top soccer game series and the 2d game that randomly turns into 3d action combat for some reason and literally anything murder mystery focused are wildly interesting compared to at least 2/3 of the western AAA video game industry.

Admittedly I also think this Direct not choosing a ton of slop that sums up an increasing amount of AAA game companies means I might've been kinder to it then say, 5 years ago when the pre-release Ps5 events made me somewhat excited for this gen until I realized these companies preferred layoffs over video games.

Also helps that I have no attachment to Nintendo being at its most successful, since again, that is actually bad for us tbh, so if we get cooler games than AAA slop and Nintendo is forced to be less greedy by underwhelming general audiences...GREAT. Best case scenario tbh. (more realistically, bigger games are coming later)

Pragmata demo was a pleasant surprise, I have to admit. I'll probably get that because it does seem quite refreshing. Not sure what platform yet, but it does run and look nice enough on Switch 2.

@OmnitronVariant the demo was great. I initially had no interest in this game but the demo has really sold me in it - it’s just intriguing and feels great to play.

Also agree that the Monster Hunter Stories performance is disappointing. Hopefully not representative of the final product.

@Haruki_NLI If the Wii ever got a game day and date with another platform it'd be the PS2 or the PSP.

I'm a little overwhelmed, to be honest.

I didn’t mind the Direct. Am glad I watched in spite of not feeling any wow factor.

One of the big takeaways to me from this showcase is how wide Nintendo’s reach is for variety and content from partners. Ending with Todd Howard and the Bethesda games was actually quite smart. It may not have been what a lot of fans wanted, but it made for excellent marketing to indicate that some of their biggest projects will be playable on handheld and with a commitment to continue adding on their catalogue in the future. This is huge for a lot of other fans, and illustrates that Nintendo is trying to be even bigger than we might have suspected going into this gen. The third party support so far is bonkers, and we’re not even a full year in. So no, not exciting for many of us (Duskbloods? E33? RDR2?), but they know what they’re doing and it’s pretty compelling. I think the next Direct will be the one that satiates that gap some of us are feeling.