Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I don't really follow Sony and Microsoft as I don't own those systems, so I'm wondering, do they give a lot of information out frequently? I don't remember the last time I've seen a commercial for a video game from either of them, and I used to see them a lot. We've gotten enough information in the last few months to fill 3 general Directs, but since they didn't actually come in a general Direct everyone is going crazy saying we don't know anything. Maybe we don't know much about 1st party stuff, but Nintendo always plays things close to the chest as opposed to knowing about games 4 years in advance like the other guys do.

@Xyphon22 With Microsoft there's Inside Xbox, 2018's first episode was on March 10th meanwhile 2019's first episode was on February 5th. Usually there's episodes in March, April, June (E3), August (Gamescom), September and November (X0 event). Given the first big XB1 release of the year is on March 11th (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), next week is probably the most likely time if there's an episode in March.

Though after the Ori Switch surprise in August last year, I could see an Indie World happen next week revealing Ori and the Will of the Wisps for Switch and that being the source of promotion instead of Inside Xbox (Nintendo events seem to get more attention).

On the Sony front, there's State of Play which appears randomly throughout the year. The first Sony news of the year will almost certainly be the PS5 reveal of which the panic of no news so far is because the PS4 was revealed at Playstation Meeting 2013 in February 2013.

@DannyBoi A: They didn't remove the info from the site. The link went missing for not even a full hour while they were doing some adjustments, it's back in just a slightly different place.
B: There's 0 evidence of them stopping normal directs outside of the gap, while there's a significant amount of things pointing to them still existing, especially all the games that are rated (AKA likely out super soon) and not yet announced, and the utter lack of any Q2 release dates among 3rd party titles.
C: It's not like 2018. In 2018, we had for the entire first half, just Mario Tennis Aces (not announced til the first direct), Kirby Star Allies and 2 Wii U ports, with no notable 3rd party support. We have tons of games coming out Q1 both first party (TMS#FE, Animal Crossing, PMDR:DX, the big Fire Emblem DLC) and 3rd party even without a direct yet, Pokemon's first major DLC is Q2 and XC:DE is almost certainly out Q2. In terms of just what we already know, we're already looking at close to double the volume in 1st party first half. Meanwhile 3rd party the most notable title of first half 2018 was Celeste, an indie game, compared to a number of major releases this time.

If you want us to be honest, might want to start by looking at your points.

@Xyphon22

They're fairly quiet too!

But it's the last year of their consoles, so its expected. It's not expected on year 4, which is usually the very peak of your console's sales performance.

When does Nintendo financial year end?

@DannyBoi End of March with the investor meeting at the end of April.

I will say if Nintendo's plan is to make a massive splash at E3, they may be making a big mistake. GDC has already been taken out by coronavirus (postponed until later in the summer) so E3 could go the same way.

2018 First Half:

January - Nothing.
February - Bayonetta 1&2, Dragon Quest Builders (it was Nintendo published).
March - Kirby: Star Allies.
April - LABO Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit, LABO Toy-Con 02: Robot Kit.
May - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition.
June - Mario Tennis Aces, Sushi Striker: the Way of Sushido.

2020 First Half:

January - Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Brain Training (EU only. Previously released in JPN, no sign of NA release).
February - Nothing (unless Snack World was published by Nintendo?).
March - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, Animal Crossing: New Horizons
April - ?
May - ?
June - ?

So, they're currently slightly behind where they were this time in 2018, so they'll definitely have to announce something soon (even adding in Xenoblade by June, the number of boxed retail titles would still be lagging behind 2018 by quite a bit, in terms of first party releases).

@Grumblevolcano If they do that they could be in big trouble.

@RR529
Don't forget Ninjala due to Spring 2020.

@RR529 February had the Fire Emblem DLC as the big NIntendo thing, so no boxed titles. Also, May has Pokemon Isle of Armor, though again it's not a boxed retail title. Also for May, they're involved with TW101 to some extent at least, so they may be avoiding launching anything in direct competition with it (they do still own the IP after all).

Considering what we know though, Xenoblade certainly seems likely to be in, and I'm betting on a June or July release for Bravely Default 2. Plus, another title we don't know about yet seems likely... Regardless, the number of retail titles might not match 2018 in volume, but it's disingenuous to only count their retail releases, especially considering Isle of Armor is likely to outsell everything else save possibly Animal Crossing.

Unfoooortunately, two of the most likely titles to launch and fill out the schedule (Famicom Tantei Club I & II) are going to be Japan only so... there is that.

It's called Mystery Dungeon because the mystery is the release date of anything after it.

@RR529 Looking at the other 2 years you have:

2017:

March - BotW, 1-2-Switch, Snipperclips
April - MK8 Deluxe
May - Nothing
June - ARMS

Total - 5

2019:

January - NSMBU Deluxe, Fitness Boxing (NA only as the rest of the world got it in December 2018)
February - Nothing
March - Yoshi's Crafted World
April - Labo Toy-Con 04 VR Kit
May - Nothing
June - Super Mario Maker 2

Total - 5 (4 outside NA)

If you add in digital titles, you also have:

May 2018 - Pokemon Quest
February 2019 - Tetris 99
April 2019 - BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL!
June 2019 - Cadence of Hyrule

So overall there's:
2017 - 5 retail games
2018 - 9 retail games + 1 digital game
2019 - 5 (4 outside NA) retail games + 3 digital games
2020 so far - 4 (3 outside EU) retail games

So we're generally looking at 5 retail games for the first half of which Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is a likely candidate for the 5th of this year (announced in the September Direct, ESRB rating already done). So we could see something like:

April - No retail title but digital titles and DLC/updates make up for it (e.g. LM3 pack 1, Smash Ultimate Challenger pack 6, Mario Maker 2 3.0)
May - Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
June - 0 or 1 unannounced retail games but maybe Isle of Armor is big enough that one isn't necessary, also some more digital titles and other DLC/updates

Honestly the September Direct opening with Overwatch and there only being 3 unannounced 1st party game announcements (Super Kirby Clash, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition) made me think 1st half of 2020 would be light back when the Direct first aired.

Did somebody say... MAR10...?

@Grumblevolcano
There are some upcoming Switch games in physical have been announced from playasia but you haven't include them on the list.

Yeah but lets not forget, they'd announced pretty much the whole year's schedule in January 2017. So even thought he first half was fairly sparse, everyone knew at that point that Odyssey, Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade 2 were all coming in the second half of the year.

If we knew that 3 games of that size and quality were coming in 2020, I'd probably just shut up and tolerate the slow first half of the year.

@Dezzy Metroid Prime 4 would probably have hit around this time without the restart. Xenoblade Chronicles can come sooner than later for me lol, but things like BotW2 are notorious for taking their sweet time to perfect (a good thing). So, I'm sure we will be getting Nintendo games (Odyssey 2 is my bet in time for the Olympics - which will have impacted scheduling if they know what they are doing), but Animal Crossing I think will set a tone for this year with broader audience reaching titles (like Style Saavy or Nintendogs etc) Stuff that outright doesn't need to compete with teraflops. Man, they must have so many plan B's for this virus outbreak too. It's clear we are entering a 'phase 2' type period of software but there does seem to have been some hiccups along the way.

@GrailUK plans such as?

@DannyBoi I don't work for Nintendo lol. But if a game is going to get delayed, or manufacturing slows down, then there is no point in them announcing something ahead of the new deadline if it's beyond their usual timeframe. Nintendo are transparent enough if anything does get delayed so we will know

@Dezzy They've announced pretty much the full 1st party lineup early on in the year every Switch year so far.

• 2017 - January Switch presentation (January 12th) - Only unknown afterwards was Mario + Rabbids
• 2018 - January Direct Mini (January 11th) and March Direct (March 8th) - Only unknowns afterwards were Pokemon Let's Go (Game Freak reveals Pokemon games on their own terms) and Super Mario Party
• 2019 - February Direct (February 13th)