Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Dezzy I think Odyssey DLC was going to happen given the Isle Delfino teases but scale got too big so all ideas for the DLC got put into a sequel.

@Grumblevolcano

What teases were there? I only remember 1 very ambiguous picture.

I think when the Direct eventually aired, it will show more sequels and new IP in progress.
Imagine Super Mario Odyssey 2, ARMS 2, New Boxing game by Nintendo, HD remaster of Wii games, Nintendogs on Switch, Style Savvy on Switch, etc.

@Dezzy I don't know. The profit margins on DLC are usually way higher. Because let's be honest; you're paying 33-50% of the €60 base price of the game. But you're never getting that much worth of content. Additionally, they don't have to develop an engine, they can reuse most of the assets, and DLC is always digital, so they collect 100% of the profits. In terms of work versus profits, DLC is the most lucrative I think, and that's why nearly every single game gets DLC these days.

@Octane

At this point in time during the Switch's lifecycle, I don't think the point about reusing the engine and assets really applies though, because they're gonna do that anyway with the sequels to all of their most popular games.
We know they're reusing the same engine for BotW2. I would put good money on them doing the same for Odyssey 2, the next Fire Emblem, the next Pokemon, etc. (all of which I think we'll see on this console)

Also, even if the profit margins are higher on a per-sale basis, they could still make less profit overall if the absolute number of sales is significantly lower. I don't have reliable data on such things, but the numbers I've seen in the past suggest that DLC for single player games tends to only be bought by around 30% of people who bought the main game. (it no doubt varies a lot between games, but that was the average figure I saw)

The next direct could be an indie world.

@Octane But the lack of content works against the idea of doing DLC as well. Don't forget, Nintendo isn't just a developer and publisher, but a platform holder. Maintaining the health of their ecosystem with major releases pays off not just with the game itself, but with sales of hardware and the fees they collect on 3rd party titles purchased thanks to the increased hardware sales, not to mention the continuing faith making their next console being a success more likely.

If they were just a publisher, they could act like Rockstar and release a few games with tons of DLC. But it's critical to their overall business to maintain a flow of new titles, even if they are still bolstering that flow with DLC. And it's far faster, cheaper and easier to make same engine sequels than additional entirely new games.

personally speaking, at some point Nintendo HAS to publicly reveal what they have coming in fiscal year 2020-2021. This is the longest news drought from them in years. investors are especially fair-weather when it comes video game companies.

I honestly think that there will be a proper Nintendo Direct in March.
whether it's gonna be great or not remains to be seen. I hope its the former.

@Neoguardian86 It may be a general direct drought, but we've gotten plenty of news from them (MUA3 DLC, Fire Emblem DLC, Animal Crossing, Pokemon DLC, PMD Remake, Mario Kart Tour multiplayer, Indie World with several new exclusives), since December. Investors don't care about format after all.

@link3710 Yeah, the thing investors would be concerned about is no 1st party games after Animal Crossing with a release date. It will be interesting to see whether Nintendo considers Isle of Armor DLC big enough to not bother with a general Direct before Animal Crossing.

@Grumblevolcano As an investor, I would want Nintendo to make money which in turn makes me money. Animal Crossing New Leaf sold around 12 million units. I think it's a relatively safe assumption that the new Animal Crossing game will at least match that and probably surpass it looking at some of the sales figures of other games on the Switch. Nintendo is focusing on marketing that game right now and potentially distracting gamers' eyes with new, hip, games coming later this year is counterintuitive to selling the game coming out in two weeks. Maybe they'll have a general direct next week since it's so close to release for Animal Crossing, but it may not happen until after. It will happen at some point though. Animal Crossing will make boatloads of cash and they'll move on to the next game.

If they have a direct next Tuesday for Mario day, it will probably be to either announce a port of Super Mario 3D World or a new Mario mobile game

@Bucky No mobile game has ever been announced or even mentioned in a direct afaik. Those always get announced at investor briefings. 3D World port seems likely but... I'm honestly on the boat that we're going to find out their holiday title is Super Mario Odyssey 2.

Nintendo find this funny. We are talking about when the direct will come. and they know. They will announce it and take us al by shock.

This may mean we won’t be getting anything Direct related for a while and may cause bigger problems going forward, even with employees working from home.

@tzahn Animal Crossing is going to sell tons regardless. Having a Direct next week won't have an impact on that.

Has Nintendo ever had such an open slate on their schedule before? It's Animal Crossing and then nothing has been officially announced. Has that ever happened, where they don't have a set release date for a single upcoming game?

@IceClimbers Agreed. I was just giving a reason why we might not see one until after the game comes out.

@Cubs017 Last year, we got all the way until the week before NSMBU DX before we got a release date for a single game. But we do have a major DLC release dated so...

@link3710 Yoshi and Fire Emblem were given Spring release windows though. It's not a specific release date but it's less vague than we have regarding 2020's upcoming lineup now.