Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Very rarely does Nintendo make a game scarce on purpose. The only exceptions being the Anniversary collections. They did it before with the Zelda Collection on GC and the Kirby and Mario Collections on Wii, and they're doing it again with the Mario Collection on Switch.

All other instances in which a Nintendo game became rare is because it didn't sell well. EarthBound is a perfect example of that. Of course Nintendo wanted to sell more copies of it, but it flopped. It was only years later because of Ness' inclusion in Smash Bros on N64 that people started to take notice of EarthBound and the price on eBay skyrocketed.

@Balta666 Wii U will be better because of Nintendo's decision to pretty much port the library over to Switch. That said Fatal Frame 5 will probably be Wii U's equivalent to Fire Emblem Path of Radiance being over £100.

Speaking of Fatal Frame, where the next game? I think this is the longest period between games.

Can't believe it's been nearly a year since the last general direcf.

@Grumblevolcano that won't help Wii u per se although more people Will play the games for sure. Collector Will still have a hard time to grab the games on Wii u

@DannyBoi it's over a year now and it's longer than a normal year too since it's a leap year.

@status-204 yeah, in Oct once Mario Kart Home Camera and Pikmin 3 are out I suspect they will announce on Youtube a new game for Dec release.

BOTW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 seems like wishful thinking, I doubt it's Mario related otherwise it would have been announced in the Direct and Bayonetta 3 doesn't seem like a traditional holiday release but is the most likely from what's known or the often rumored Metroid Prime Trilogy.

@status-204 @jump They need something for late November or early December but also would not surprise me if Nintendo are hoping all this Mario related buzz is enough to see them through till the new financial year.

Following today's announcements I am expecting a Partner Showcase around the time the Mario collection releases. There is also a chance of an Indie World happening in December.

@FragRed yeah, Mario Kart Home Camera could be massive hot Xmas toy (like back in the old days when kids use to get toys for Xmas) but I would of thought Ninty would at least have a few more gamer games be out too. It's insane not to release something in Nov/Dec as they are the biggest selling months.

given that Nintendo has just so far shadow dropped Paper Mario, Pikmin 3, and now the Mario 35th anniversary. I would not expect a traditional Nintendo Direct at all at this point. I expect this month we'll get another one of those 'partner showcase' directs.

if there is anything for November/December, Nintendo will surprise announce it out of the blue.

Oh yeah I don't expect a regular Direct now either. They're not gonna carve off such big first party announcements as 3D All Stars and then also have a normal Direct. This would've been in the normal Direct if they were planning one. It'll just be smaller things for the foreseeable future!

I honestly hope the holiday title is Wind Waker HD, I mean Nintendo's gone so far to recreate 2013 this year they may as well go the full distance and fill in the gap between Pikmin 3 and 3D World with Wind Waker HD.

People are really trying to argue that Nintendo doesn't generate artificial scarcity for its games (in the spirit of the Disney Vault)? Really? What about Super Mario Bros. the Lost Levels, which was mostly unavailable outside Japan until the Wii era? What about Ocarina of Time Master Quest ("ura Zelda"), which came out as some weird Gamecube pre-order bonus and many years later as part of Ocarina of Time 3D? What about that Star Fox game that they only had to cut the ribbon on (not Grand Prix, the other one) but didn't actually let people buy it until 20 years later? What about the original Star Fox, playable only on the SNES, SNES Classic, and Switch Online? What about the e-reader levels of Super Mario Advance 4 (or as I like to call it, Super Mario Bros 3: the Lost Levels) - initially locked behind a partially Japan-exclusive set of cards and a janky GBA accessory and eventually ported to the Wii U? What about those Virtual Console games that were available on the Wii but not the Wii U after they closed the Wii Shop Channel for some inexplicable reason (Smash 64 being the most famous example)? What about not selling Game Boy Advance games for the 3DS even though some are clearly playable (the Ambassador Program was a good idea, but the games should also be available for purchase for people that missed out)? Making these games more available would've been a line or two of code in most cases. I don't buy into the idea that Super Mario Sunshine and other Gamecube games fall into this category (it has more to do with their limited appeal and the effort involved in porting them), but to say Nintendo never does it is clearly not the case.

@damien33ad Limited availability is still a very anti-consumer practice regardless. It was bad enough when Nintendo decided to repackage Super Mario All Stars on Wii for Mario's 25th with no new content added, but at least there were still some nice physical goodies that came with the physical release

This is completely different. It's a barebones collection of 3D Mario titles sans one game with very minor adjustments being sold like any other regular retail game at full price, except they feel inclined to delist it later probably so they could just sell the games again individually as download-only titles

It's unwarranted artificial scarcity and you can't defend that

It's called releasing a product. You release it, sell some, then move on. Or are we going to say that publishing houses create an artificial scarcity of books because they don't continually print them 30 years later, as well? Mcdonald's creates an artificial scarcity of McRib? There's nothing artificial about a promotion or limited quantity item.
If you want a game, save up and buy it. Don't try to toss your own decisions on someone elsebecause you missed out on something.
Nothing gold can stay.

@damien33ad No, there is no "Jew" content.

@damien33ad I doubt it, if there's another Mario game for a Nov release then they would have announced it in the Direct and they announced Mario games post Nov already.

@HobbitGamer The difference is that building a house requires time, resources, manpower, equipment, etc. Making a game available on the eShop is just a line or two of code. The only thing making it scarce is Nintendo exercising its monopoly power (granted by copyright law). So yes, it is artificial scarcity.

@Euler It's not a monopoly if they own it.

@HobbitGamer Of course it is. Nintendo is the only (legal) supplier of Super Mario Bros, just as Disney is the only (legal) supplier of Mickey Mouse movies. Legal barriers (copyrights) prevent anyone else from offering digital downloads or increasing the supply in circulation, giving Nintendo complete control over the availability.