Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@troy258 despite still having my Gamecube, embarrassingly I haven't played Twilight Princess or Wind Waker (I wasn't into Zelda in the early 2000's) so if we ended the year with one of those being ported plus Mario Galaxy 1 or 2 + 3D world and the Metroid Prime trilogy, that would be a 10/10 year for me! That's potentially 5 classic games I haven't played, plus a couple I have and loved!

Just think, if Nintendo are struggling to create games in HD on current hardware, how bad is it going to be when the Switch successor launches and they have to once again up their game? Will be really interesting to see if Nintendo learn from their lessons in HD development moving forward.

@FragRed It may end up like XB1 era Microsoft where you get like 3 games per year, the past few full years for XB1 had:

2017
Halo Wars 2
Forza Motorsport 7
Super Lucky's Tale

2018
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Forza Horizon 4

2019
Crackdown 3
Gears 5
Halo Reach (Master Chief Collection)

Microsoft's situation was that they foolishly shut down a load of studios they owned in the late 360 era and early XB1 era along with cancelling projects like the XB1 Fable game. Nintendo's situation would be Nintendo doesn't have many studios in the first place.

Even in 2018 when Nintendo was heavily reliant on ports because some 3DS developers hadn't gotten a Switch game out, they put out significantly more than 3 new games. They put out more 2016 Wii U games, which is like intentionally putting out games to not actually sell well. And despite several games being clearly moved to Switch (or very obviously delayed to meet Switch's launch day, hi BOTW).

It seems like Nintendo took the Wii U's failures very seriously, I have my doubts they would make the same mistake twice.

I hope we get something new from Nintendo. They've put out a lot of sequels and Wii U ports, but very little new games. And I don't mean the small one-off projects. But something on the scale of a Mario or Zelda game. We got ARMS this gen, but that's mostly an online game, I'd really like to see some sort of action-adventure game.

Does Astral Chain count as a Nintendo game for this generation? I've not played it.

@MarioBrickLayer Kinda. But it obviously feels like a Platinum game. Just like when I think FromSoftware when I see BloodBorne, and not Sony.

I haven't played Astral Chain by the way, because most of their games don't really resonate with me.

@Octane If it helps, we know that there's a new medieval fantasy ARPG IP in development by MonolithSoft. Assuming there's no development woes, it was likely to launch inbetween late 2020 and early 2022 (development likely began in early 2018, ramping up to full later that year). So I'd say that's probably going to be the next big new Nintendo IP to launch.

On a slightly unrelated note, I really hope we see Dragalia Lost be adapted as a full console game. It's not technically a new IP, but it would basically serve the same purpose, and the IP itself has tons of potential.

@link3710 Can't get into Xenoblade unfortunately. So I don't have high hopes, but I'm keeping an open mind. The concept art looks neat at least.

@Octane

Which Xenoblades did you try and fail to get into? They are all slightly different.

@Dezzy The first one on the Wii. The one on the Wii U looked terribly boring (and kinda bad), so I never bothered with it.

@Octane

What was your issue with the first one though? Cos the Wii U one has a completely different style. It plays a lot more like a western RPG. It's kinda Mass Effect mixed with Skyrim.

@Dezzy Xenoblade Chronicles, Octane said he never even tried XCX.

@Octane It's not a JRPG at least, so it's a new genre from Monoltih. No one really has a clue what to expect from this.

@link3710

Yes, but I'm saying whatever your reason for disliking XC1 probably wouldn't apply to XCX, because they're so different.

Unless you'd actually played them, you might not know that. Based on just trailers, they can seem like all 3 games are the same sorta thing. When the reality is that XC1 and XC2 are the same sorta thing, and XCX is a very different kinda thing.

Are you so sure about that? Like everything the studio has made has been a JRPG of some sort. I bet it ends up being kinda similar to Xenoblade but with a different setting.
Like how Fromsoft make "different" games that are pretty much the same.

Fwiw, Xenoblade Chronicles is a big pile of cack in my eyes... but that's not stopped be buying XCX, XC2 and Torna too. Boy am I a loser 💀

@Dezzy While they are all RPGs, have you played Project X Zone? It's about as far away from Xenoblade as you can get, playing closer to Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. Disaster: Day of Crisis wasn't even an RPG at all. Even Baten Kaitos, another JRPG, played more like PS1 era Final Fantasy than anything like the Xeno series. And then we know they have plenty of employees who've participated in projects like Splatoon and Zelda: BotW.

I get the worry, but Monolith has specifically stated they want to diversify their offerings more, and have never done reskinned games in the past. I'm going to believe this game will have a fresh taste until proven otherwise.

@link3710

I forgot about X-Zone actually. I only played it for like an hour and then left it.

Baten Kaitos is totally the same category as Xenoblade in my mind though. Xenoblade is fairly formulaic JRPG. It has some big differences in style, like the huge environments, but I still consider it to be the same genre.

Microsoft recently confirmed they're unveiling Halo Infinite in July, and the PS5 is surely going to be revealed at some point during the next few months. I'm guessing we're going to see something Direct-related between July and September. I think it wouldn't be a stretch to say we're getting an "E3-esque" one, too.

So I'm gonna make a prediction right now. Nintendo will not have a Direct in June in the traditional sense. Instead, they will have a Mario Direct to announce every Mario game they have in development (that they can show at least), and that will be the Direct. So just making a guess, the rumored 3D Mario collection to start, Paper Mario, a spinoff with a different Mario character (Wario game?), Mario sports title, some quick non gaming things like merchandise, and then end on Mario Odyssey 2. Maybe with more developer interviews like they tried for E3 Directs a few years ago. Sakurai will have one of his giant overviews for the Arms character and maybe announcing the one after, and it will be at most, a week before or after it. A handful of announcements for notable 3rd party ports will happen too within like a month, either from Nintendo directly or via different events elsewhere.

And then an indie Direct and regular Direct in late Summer when you'd kinda expect them to be.

With the Microsoft and Ubisoft events in July, I'm leaning towards:

June

• Pokemon Direct showcasing Isle of Armor DLC in more detail, some more info for Crown Tundra DLC and Pokemon HOME enhancements
• Smash video on the ARMS character and other things in the next update but unlike the usual stream for Hero to Byleth, it being more like the Joker video

July

• Direct on the 14th being heavily focused on 3rd party games (like E3 2019) with some 1st party stuff like 3D World, Pikmin 3, Smash character 7 DLC, a big Animal Crossing update and BotW 2 (the trailer ends with 2021 release). No mention of SMB 35th Anniversary celebrations (delayed to 2nd half of 2021).

August

• Normal Indie World when Gamescom would've been

September

• Normal Direct though a few weeks later such that new NSO console (GBA or N64) is a "shortly available after the presentation" announcement