Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@dionysos283 That's not really hard. It just further shows how severe things are for Nintendo right now, and will continue to be until the pandemic is under control.

@rallydefault I mean, if there was something fun to speculate on maybe. But when it comes to rumors of remasters, really what is there to talk about in the first place? We know what the games are, and how they'll play.

Also, I get annoyed because it inevitably leads to all other speculation drying up as everyone assumes it's the truth regardless of the lack of evidence.

"Wild card" to me means he's not sure whether or not Nintendo has something in store this month, or what it could be if so..

That's interesting. Something to look forward to, anyway!

@FragRed It doesn't really explain how the rest of the industry manages to keep revealing and releasing new games, and Nintendo has been silent on their end. I mean, is there nothing coming for the remainder of the year? I find that hard to believe. Something is surely coming, but they don't want to show it for some reason.

@Octane last time Nintendo had nothing they released the NES and SNES classic. So Maybe the N64 classic is closer than we think.

Over a year since the Metroid Prime Trilogy Rumour. Since the Wii U that apparenly Pikman 4 is done.
The Mario 35th games rumour is growing older by the day.

If they can't manage to keep the switch in stock I'm going to bet they wont start manufacturing a classic system. But I can see 64 games being the carrot to get people to subscribe to NSO.

Mario Galaxy can't be too difficult to get on switch since its on the shield.

And I'll assume that 3D world is an easy port since so many Wii u games have already been ported

But I really think Nintendo was behind in their game development and covid just halted everything.

@Octane I agree, it’s odd to see how other developers, especially Japanese ones, are able to continue developing and announcing games yet Nintendo seem to just come to a stand still. I assume Paper Mario has already been completed prior to the pandemic so it was just a matter of announcing, releasing and releasing it. But as for the rest of the year, I do think if there was anything big coming out, we would have heard about it by now so Nintendo could spend the coming weeks going full out on marketing. Instead I do feel it may be little more than a port or two.

@sixrings ''We can't develop enough games for Switch, so please buy this useless retro console instead'' isn't going to fly well I think.

I personally not really interested in even more ports. We've had plenty of them I think. I mean, a remaster is fine, but when it's used to fill in the schedule that would otherwise have new games, then I'm not a big fan of it. I think they should make their older titles available on the digital store (applies to all companies, at least Microsoft is giving you a free digital copy if you own the (select) OG Xbox games). If that Mario collection is a €60 bundle with 64, Sunshine and Galaxy they can keep it. For that price they'd have to be completely remastered. But I'm not sure I'd want that. For that price I'd maybe prefer a €5 digital copy of Mario 64 on the eShop.

Same with the Prime Trilogy. They've sold that one so many times now, it should come with their consoles by default lol.

Start talking about Pikmin 4, Metroid Prime 4, BOTW 2, a new IP maybe? Then I'll listen.

Nintendo are usually silent. I don't get how folk think it's affected them hahahah! Seriously though, The pandemic has delayed and prolonged development time and logistics. So they will be silent for slightly longer than usual. Please understand

Yet they keep saying that, so far, all their games are on schedule, @GrailUK .... If they'd actually said what you're saying, people probably would understand

@FragRed I don't really know how the virus is doing in Japan (maybe @Heavyarms55 can enlighten us?). But even assuming they've been in lockdown for the last four months, and are somehow unable to work from home, that would only result in a 4-month delay to their whole schedule. Enough to push a holiday title to early 2021, but that's not severe enough that they have no games to talk about. I think that at this point people would be content if they showed a Direct and it contained only 2021 games with a message that said something along the lines of ''coronavirus, please understand''.

At this point I hope that a Direct will not happen before September 5, 2020. After that long time, Nintendo can also make the year full.

@Octane Hmmm. You have a point, and I’m not totally sure how the pandemic is being handled in Japan, I just assumed it was still on lockdown based on how other parts of the world are still seeing more new spikes. Maybe Nintendo really did think it would be a quiet year, and would lay low while the competition go head to head with the launching of new hardware or maybe despite all hands now on decks to develop games for the Switch, they are still struggling a lot with HD games. The thing with Nintendo is, we will never really know what’s happening behind their doors until they say something. The way I’m going to look at things is basically expect absolutely nothing until Nintendo speaks out otherwise.

I wonder if the non-Switch stuff was meant to Nintendo's big 2nd half of the year setup. So like:

• Olympics in Japan
• Super Nintendo World opening
• Lego collaboration
• Lots of SMB 35th anniversary merchandise like clothing, Monopoly, Jenga, etc. that would be purchasable at the Olympics and Super Nintendo World

Then the Olympics and Super Nintendo World would bring more people to buy a Switch and already existing games but with the pandemic cancelling both the Olympics and Super Nintendo World, all Nintendo were left with was hoping that the Animal Crossing hype train didn't burnout.

@Grumblevolcano I really don't see how LEGO sets, the Olympics, additional merchandise or Nintendo World opening benefit existing Switch users. Would've been poor planning regardless in that case.

@Octane the thing is Nintendo actually makes a profit of their consoles so that is a huge business incentive for them. While on the other hand xbox and PlayStation make all their money off the games. So xbox and PlayStation are incentivized to get more games out which makes back the money they lost on their system while for nintendo that would be great but system sales are a huge profit maker.

I agree. But I think they will be remastered or, I just wouldn’t see this as a big deal, except for core collectors.

There will be an announcement for the fall. The only question is how big the announcement will be. Does Nintendo essentially concede the holiday season to Sony and MSFT? If all we get is the remasters, then they essentially are. But I think the conditions for a big holiday season are favorable, given all of the new Switch owners and a 35 year anniversary should be favorable for a big cash in.

Exactly. That stuff is ancillary at best. Maybe long term it becomes a profit center. As I mentioned above, the conditions are ripe for a big cash in if they play their cards right.

@Octane It wouldn't but Nintendo's focus wouldn't be existing Switch owners, it would be new Switch owners that'll be buying the existing catalog like BotW, MK8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey, etc.

The existing Switch owners would be looking at the exciting 2021 lineup announced at E3.

@Grumblevolcano I wondered if Nintendo's plan was to synergize marketing campaigns with mario bros 35th anniversary. If universal mario world opened around when mario game remasters released, it could help bolster the nintendo & mario brand visibilty, hype. And I imagine Mario & Sonic mascots would be visible at olympic venues. I think nintendo planned on being very visible at the tokyo Olympics too.