Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Slowdive I mean, it's not hard to guess the game could've been a thing. Guess something so many times, and it's bound to come true eventually. Most people were guessing off of the series director wanting to do something with Dread, but never had the proper way of doing it until now. Like eventually, there may be a Metroid Prime Trilogy collection.. but maybe in the distant future, when Nintendo has a new console. Are we going to up and say those leaks were correct too, just because they guessed the obvious, when they guessed it many years before it happened, and kept guessing it until it eventually happened?

If a switch pro does release years from now, are people going to point to these rumors circulating now, and say that it was right, despite them guessing it every single year?

@Slowdive And those people who are "confirming" it's existence aren't confirming it. It's only confirmed when Nintendo confirms it themselves, not when a "leaker" or "Twitter insider" confirms it. Most of the time, their words mean very little. Intentionally vague, just so that when something doesn't happen, they can say "Well, I never gave a date, so I can't be called out for not being credible!".

That's the issue with modern Nintendo culture. People circulate rumors from these rumormongers, who in actuality don't know anything at all, but like to say that they do, being vague as possible in return. Then gaming news sites perpetuate these rumors, since they come from people who once gotten 3 things right in the past, not understanding that these "Insiders" can always end up being wrong due to their sources.

When things don't end up happening the way that these "insiders" say they will, they then get attacked, or people attack Nintendo, perpetuating the cycle of disappointment which ruins the fun for everyone involved. There's no longer surprises to announcements, since it's either met with extreme disappointment by people who get their hopes high for something different, or if the leakers do end up being correct, they spoiled the reveal and the big surprise factor from the reveal.

@Slowdive

Except I don't think Prime 4 will be coming out until 2023, so Metroid Dread will probably not really be a precursor to it on any reasonable time scale.
They're clearly holding onto Prime Trilogy for that exact reason. They want that to come out about 9-12 months before Prime 4, I'm guessing.

Prime Trilogy could just be another Star Fox Grand Prix situation, where everyone agrees it's real, when it never was, and never was planned to be real. It was a fake leak made up by someone, which everyone bought into, including insiders.

@Slowdive People hold Bloomberg up to high regards, but even they could have the possibility of being wrong. People put way too much trust into insiders.

@VoidofLight It's such a safe bet that Nintendo will bring their Wii / GC titles as HD remasters once all the Wii U titles dry up that Metroid Prime Trilogy is bound to happen. Fools game saying when, mind.

@GrailUK But that's just speculation based on something that could just possibly be untrue. We don't know what Nintendo will do after the Wii U ports dry up. They could just end up doing nothing, and continue making new games with the occasional remake/remaster.

@Slowdive Then what are they? They must get their information somehow. Can't just come out of thin air, since they'd just be guessing stuff right?

@VoidofLight Indeed. I only look forward to what is announced, but some rumours are so nice I hope they happen lol. But, it's best just to play what they release and appreciate what they announce.

@VoidofLight We've already gotten a hint of what Nintendo will do when the Wii U ports dry up due to 2019-2021's lineup. Pre-3DS handheld games get remakes, 3DS and Wii games get HD remasters. N64 and GC are the big unknowns given there's only 1 example of each (Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine in 3D All Stars).

Look people, nintendo are the king of the endtimes. They are acting pretty weird.

I mean there's a fair amount of precedent for Nintendo porting/remastering titles to pad out the library for low effort/high reward. Just about every console they've made since probably the Gameboy Color has leant on ports to prop up its library. And there's reason to believe the Switch cycle is going to be longer than usual.

They've exhausted the Wii U well, they're already dipping into the Wii and GC. And going further back than that isn't really a viable option for "reducing development effort" because, lets be honest for a second, remaking something like Link's Awakening or Advanced Wars on the Switch is not less effort than making a new title. It's a safer bet in terms of sales but it's not an easier release in terms of effort.

Also kinda sliding back to the leaks/rumours hardware bit for a second. Using the earliest console release dates the longest time Nintendo has gone without releasing a new "hardware platform" is just under 6 years, between the release of the Famicom and GB in Japan. The longest gap between two "main consoles" was just over 7 years between the Famicom and SNES.

Using that metric and calculating some dates? August 19th 2019 was when the Switch generation became "longer than average" in terms of the gap between new hardware*. The 20th of Nov last year was when it became older than the average Nintendo portable console lifecycle. Oct 24th next year is when it becomes older than the average lifecycle for a Nintendo home console.

Then we start breaking new ground. Dec 9th next year is when the Switch, discounting potential hardware refreshes, marks the longest gap between Nintendo releasing new hardware. March 3rd 2023 is when it has been on the market with no direct successor for longer than the Wii was. Then the 20th June 2024 marks when it overtakes the Famicom -> SNES transition for the longest gap between any Nintendo console and it's direct successor..... ignoring the GB -> GBC gap which is interrupted by the VB.

Basically, the Switch is almost surely going to be stretching the length of time we're used to for Nintendo consoles. I am personally expecting a Switch revision somewhere in here but, in terms of software, that's only going to make it an even longer console generation. Nintendo is going to have to dig into some other wells, the Wii/GC is probably the best source for that. And of all the games in that library? Metroid Prime is the easiest pick. Super safe bet to say there's a Switch release for Metroid Prime Trilogy.

*worth noting that the quiet 2019 Switch revision came out in July 2019

edit: that was a longer post than I expected......

I think Mario Galaxy 2 is perhaps an even easier pick for a Wii -> Switch conversion. I'd be shocked if we don't see it late in the Switch lifespan. I reckon next year - provided that there's no new Mario game planned.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is a game that I think we'd have seen on Switch by now if they hadn't ported it as a very late 3DS release. Ditto DKC:R.

The Wii Punch Out would also seem to be a game that would make a natural port. It always looked nice with an ageless cartoon style and it was well received.

@StuTwo 40th Anniversary release (with new content / amiibo etc) because at this rate, the Switch will still be going!

@skywake are there any examples of Nintendo using a port to test the water on restarting a franchise? I can't think of any, but I imagine if Advance Wars sells well they may be encouraged to make a new game for the series.

@MarioBrickLayer
There are a couple of examples kinda like that. Star Fox 64 3D on the 3DS was a bit of a testing of the waters for Star Fox, they wouldn't have started dev on StarFox Zero until after the 3DS title was released. There were also the ports of Pikmin 1 & 2 to the Wii which we now know were released when Pikmin 3 was very early in development. Also, not a port but I got the feeling at the time that the plane sections in Wii Sports Resort were a bit of a test for Pilotwings. Which it kinda was given that Pilotwings became a launch title for 3DS with Wuhu Island as its setting.

I think the problem with this idea of a port "testing the waters" is that development takes time. By the time you've had enough development time to release the new title after the port? You're 3-5 years down the road, which has always meant you're on a new platform. And if you're much closer than that it's either a small title or you had started development before the port released making it less of a "test" and more of a "hype the user base". I think Skyward Sword is a "hype the user base" title, I wouldn't be surprised if a Metroid Prime Trilogy is used in the same way.

Hahahahahahahaha... where have you been the past four years? There's a good reason the term "fake news" entered the popular lexicon.

@GrailUK Will they? We know at least some of the code for said games has been lost (Prime Trilogy in particular has been confirmed.) Obviously some still exists (Wind Waker HD was built on Wind Waker's code base, same with Twilight Princess), but I'm not sure. Plus... quite frankly, NIntendo doesn't have a library of games to port from the Wii. We've already gotten Xenoblade Chronicles, Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword.

Looking at what remains and isn't heavily unlikely to come as a remaster (a la Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, Warioware Smooth Moves, Smash Brawl, Big Brain Academy, City Folk, Wii Fit or any other Wii series etc), There's...

• Super Paper Mario - Nope, Nintendo will never acknowledge old Paper Mario games again
• Excite Truck - Highly unlikely to be ported given the lack of interest the first time around
• Pokemon Battle Revolution - Hated by Pokemon fans, one of the worst selling spinoffs
• Prime Trilogy - Discussed heavily already
• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Possible, but probably as a double pack with the GCN title
• Battalion Wars 1+2: Big maybe if the Advance Wars remake succeeds... but even then, it's more likely we'd see DS / DoR
• Endless Ocean 1+2: ...I really don't see these coming back? Arika's still heavily in co-development with Nintendo so it's not impossible though
• Punch-Out!!!: Possible, can't rule this one out actually. As NLG is forming (a) new team(s?), having a new team work on bringing back an old title as a first go isn't out of the question.
• Sin & Punishment: Star Successor: I'd love this but... unlikely.
• Trace Memory / Another Code: With Cintiq dissolved it's unlikely that the code base for this is still accessible to Nintendo
• Metroid: Other M - I doubt Nintendo has any wish to revisit this. They seem to have understood how the fanbase felt about it, and it'd need a LOT of work to fix it's flaws.
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Epic Yarn: Highly likely
• DKC Returns: Highly Likely
• Last Story: Mistwalker is dead, so who knows where the source code is
• Pandora's Tower: Can't rule it out but... seems unlikely.

Unfortunately, the Wii software library just isn't good for ports like the Wii U one was. While there's a few more ports we might receive out there (DKC Returns, Kirby, Punch-Out!!! and Fire Emblem are the standouts, with Sin & Punishment, Pandora's Tower and Endless Ocean as unlikely), there's not the huge library of titles that would still work with just a fresh coat of paint. Quite a lot of the Wii era titles were heavily aimed at casuals to the point of pissing off the kind of fans that make up the Switch's fanbase.

@VoidofLight FYI, Dread was never confirmed in a game. Prime 3 did use the word dread, but the developer's went on the record stating it had nothing to do with the rumored title, and was to do with a piece of Prime lore they'd been hinting at. Based on what we later heard regarding Dread's development time windows, this appears to be the truth. And besides that, Prime 3 came out years after the Dread leak had occurred, I don't think that harms the credibility of the original leaks in any way.

@link3710 Then the leaks began as rumors from those hints in the game. The project dread thing.