Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Alongside Wii games, 3DS games are the next obvious seam to mine for ports. They all require a lot more work to bring up to scratch but they’d definitely go down well as budget “spring-time” titles in the latter days of Switch.

Thinking about the implications of Splatoon 3 in 2022 (& several other big hitters like Botw 2 and Metroid Prime 4 in 2022 and beyond), Switch is going to remain a big presence in the market for at least another 2 years - and on shelves for at least a year after that. If that happens it means that Switch could conceivably have DS scale lifetime sales in its sights.

So I'm wondering if they haven't mentioned the Zelda anniversary simply to avoid having plans in place needing to be chopped up suddenly, like with the Mario anniversary that didn't go too smoothly.

@Haruki_NLI I was thinking perhaps mentioning Zelda anniversary could spoil plans for the end of the Mario anniversary. Like if say for example OoT and MM got N64 standalone digital only releases (or added to NSO) then that would suggest that the games in 3D All Stars aren't limited time after all which would decrease potential sales.

If Nintendo doesn't mention the fate of 64, Sunshine and Galaxy until at least a few weeks after March 31st there'll likely be a large surge of 3D All Stars sales in March as a result of panic buying.

As long as Mario anniversary isn’t finished (I think it will be at the end of March) we probably won’t hear about Zelda.

@Grumblevolcano they picked miitopia because it’s easy and cheap to bring over. I wouldn’t expect other 3ds games to come over.

@Qwertyninty

I wouldn't be too quick to say that.

We've had rumors of the Metroid II: Samus Returns 3DS-to-Switch port for quite some time now.

[OT]

It's a shame Level-5 is in dire straits these days.

I'd love a Switch port of Fantasy Life.

The best single player mmo-like that not enough people played.

@Dezzy that image is refeing to the rumored and higly antecipated 2D Metroid game that continues the Metroid Fusion history.

@Qwertyninty I think there are probably many reasons why they picked miitopia over - say - Samus Returns. Certainly from a marketing perspective it's an easier sell to the Animal Crossing crowd - Nintendo will have figures on how many 3DS players bought both.

From a graphical point of view miitopia also has the advantage that it's a deliberately low poly, low texture, style.

Another advantage it has is that it's from a "franchise" that isn't going to be otherwise represented on Switch yet. It won't interfere with the marketing plan for (or market reception of) "Tomodatchi Life 2" for instance in the way that Samus Returns might interfere with Metroid Prime 4.

Other 3DS games are definitely possible and I do expect to see some at some point.

It could just be the simple case that Kouichi Kawamoto (he runs the department that did Labo, Ring Fit, 1-2-Switch etc) was in between in projects so he used some of his team to port it over whilst they are working on their next gimmick game.

@TheFrenchiestFry Oh I missed the spring window, I was thinking it was general 2021.

@StuTwo possibly as filler games I guess it’s possible. I expect low budget easily made games though. Nothing you would consider a major IP.

@Magician like I said it’s possible. Lower budget quick cash grabs to put something out. My main take away from the direct is that Nintendo just wanted to ride 2021 out. Hopefully sales continue. I expect 2022 to be the year some thought 2021 would be. I expect the next switch late this year early next year. It will release with the botw2, Metroid, bayo games. Think about it. The switch really took off because the software it launched with.

I know we keep saying this, but you really can't overestimate the impact of the pandemic. I would wager a lot of this stuff was originally planned to be released months earlier than what we're seeing, if not approaching a year earlier. Not a doubt in my mind they wanted 3D World as a holiday title along with Age of Calamity, and Splatoon 3 to be a 2021 game especially if BotW2 was probably gonna be 2022 all along.

I'd bet Mario Golf was supposed to launch in February, Skyward Sword HD was probably originally gonna be in March, and Splatoon 3 was gonna be late Summer/Fall.

To me it makes more sense for them to be aiming for a 2021 release for BOTW 2, hot game + anniversary hype = mega sales. I reckon they are doing the same thing with the next Mario game and waiting for the horrible Minion people to make the Mario film so they can both release in 2022 with extra hype for each, synergy and all that.

@rallydefault I hate the pandemic it ruind our whole fricken year.

@Snatcher Year? It's not over yet, it could be going on for another year or two ;p

We're going to be dealing with covid for a long time. Vaccine distribution in poor countries is likely going to take a while, and we have about a dozen variants that the vaccine is less effective against already.

@rallydefault I agree about 3D World and Skyward Sword HD but not Mario Golf and Splatoon 3. Mario Sports is a spring/summer thing (e.g. Mario Tennis Aces in June, Mario Golf World Tour in May, Mario Tennis Open in May) so I think Mario Golf was always planned for around June 2021. As for Splatoon 3, it always planned for 2022 to bolster the lineup following new hardware.

As for new hardware I think the original plan was a new Switch launching alongside BotW 2 in holiday 2021 but BotW 2 being delayed to March 2022 and unlike Microsoft, Nintendo actually understands the importance of strong software surrounding new hardware so hardware got delayed too.

Some folks need to remember that it took Nintendo five years to develop BotW 1, from announcement to launch. Those folks like to assume that BotW 2 development shouldn't take as long because Nintendo might be using the same assets from BotW 1, a la OoC to MM on N64. That's a nice assumption, but I don't believe that's the case with BotW 2.

@Grumblevolcano
Hrm, perhaps. It just seems to me that they maybe wanted Mario Golf in March because it would be right at the end of the Mario anniversary and it'd be practically Spring. If that was the case, maybe they wanted to launch the Pro (again, I still think it's just an upgraded dock) right around E3 time (Summer), and Splatoon 3 could have been ready to rock along with it. And then BotW2 could have been waiting in the wings for Fall/Holiday 2021 to really cement the Switch Pro's initial months.

Just my guess. Basically I'm thinking they had to push most stuff back by 4-6 months.