Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Bolt_Strike While I agree that the Direct implicates that new hardware is coming sooner rather than later, calling the currently known 2023 lineup a "Wii U tier schedule" is a gross over exaggeration and you know it.

A Wii U tier schedule would have massive gaps in between 1st party releases with literally nothing but a handful of indies in between. That's what a Wii U tier schedule is.

There's at least one 1st party release every month through July with the lone exception of June (and that may very well be filled) and plenty of 3rd party releases and indies in between, including an exclusive with Disney Illusion Island (and I think Rain Code is also exclusive?). A Wii U tier schedule this is not.

As for what's coming after July? I suspect it's almost entirely remasters/remakes, which Nintendo may feel don't need to be revealed yet because they don't need a big marketing cycle.

It's not really uncommon to start a year and have no idea what new projects Nintendo has cooking for the latter half, or for a Direct to laser focus on games releasing in a specific part of the year. This has happened several times over the lifespan of the system, in fact. And I've heard this exact same argument made before as evidence of upcoming hardware. Humans are good at cherry-picking evidence to support pre-supposed intuitions.

Which isn't to say that new hardware isn't coming sooner than later, because of course it is. Switch is pretty old at this point, and Nintendo isn't generally known for dragging out console lifecycles in the first place. But nothing about that Direct, in and of itself, would make a relatively unbiased observer think that new hardware was imminent.

@Snatcher
You can pick 3DS version of Mario & Luigi while it still available.

With this lineup. I feel like this is the end for the Switch. It's what I get from it.

@Ralizah Agreed, not saying Nintendo isn't looking to the future but they usually keep game releases close to the vest until they are close to launch (within several months as opposed to years) except their huge flagships and that is likely only to stay in front of leaks. If they could have gotten away with it we would hear about TotK for the first time next month in its own direct. I like their approach as it keeps me engaged in their ecosystem while I have to play catch up with the others because I forget what is on the way because it is so far out. That being said I think they are trying to close out a lot of lingering projects first, likely to free up more dev teams. Not for successor persay but to get more projects in the pipeline.

Nothing screams the end like a brand new Fire Emblem, brand new Zelda, brand new Pikmin, Metroid Prime Remake, Advance Wars Remake, expanded content Kirby remaster and expansion pass content for Xenoblade, Mario Kart, Fire Emblem and Splatoon all in a 6 month window.

If only Wii U could have spelled it out for us this plainly we wouldn't have been caught so off guard by the Switch's announcement

To be clear: Nintendo obviously probably hasn't greenlit any brand new first-party projects for the system in a couple of years (with the exception of cross-gen stuff). What's in the making is almost undeniably all there is for this console.

That said, as @Ryu_Niiyama said, Nintendo likes to hold its cards close to its chest for everything but the biggest games. And sometimes even the biggest games. I went into 2018 knowing very little about what Nintendo's first-party plans for the console were. Yet, in less than a year, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced and released.

You're not understanding the argument, I'm not saying that the Prime 1 remaster is evidence of next gen hardware, I'm saying the lack of any new 1st party games EXCEPT the Prime 1 remaster is evidence of next gen hardware. The only games coming in the first half of the year are ones we already knew about + Prime 1 remaster, and there seems to be little scheduled for the second half of 2023 and beyond besides DLC.

Okay, first of all Zelda and Advance Wars were not originally scheduled for this time period, they were delayed multiple years. Metroid Prime remaster probably was not either, it was probably delayed until now because of the Prime 4 restart. What's left is Fire Emblem, Pikmin, a Kirby remaster (relatively low effort) and a bunch of DLC (also relatively low effort). That's not that much.

Furthermore, it's 2H 2023 and 2024 that are more questionable. Can they provide a similarly packed lineup as 1H 2023? I highly doubt it. They've tended to give us a sneak peek at 1 or 2 titles in the 2H lineup this time of year, they didn't this time. And I doubt they're suddenly giving us a blowout of 2H titles in June considering that when they're not at E3, they keep their mouth shut in the Summer and leave us hanging until September. If they're not willing to show us any surprises now, they probably have little to none of them period.

I'm not sure if by "greenlit" you're referring to projects that they may have started on in say, 2019-2021 that they haven't announced yet, I would guess by now that there's little left for the Switch (again, besides cross-gen stuff) that they haven't announced yet. It's important to remember that some of the projects we've been getting lately are games that they've announced several years before. We've known about TotK since 2019 and it kept getting delayed. Splatoon 3 was announced February 2021. Advance Wars was meant for 2021 and delayed all the way until April 2023. Prime 4 was restarted in 2019 and still isn't out, and Prime Remastered was rumored for years and probably delayed as a consequence of Prime 4's restart. Most of this was probably started on before the pandemic and intended to release at least a year or two sooner than it did. The recent lineup would look a lot more dire than it does if it weren't for delays, and I think the delays are hiding just how little they've actually been working on for this period. Probably most of what they started on in 2020/2021 is next gen/cross gen stuff at this point.

Bad example, as Smash Ultimate was first teased around this time of year (technically it was in March, but that Direct was analogous to the one we just got for this year). It's pretty much too late for that kind of announcement. At this point the only hope is for more of a Metroid Dread situation, but I'm doubtful of that happening for two reasons:

1. We already knew there were games coming in late 2021/2022 and beyond going in to that E3 with games like (what we now know as) TotK, Splatoon 3, and Prime 4 on the horizon. Here we just have Prime 4, but with just 1 you have to question if it just won't be a cross gen game.
2. Nintendo actually had an E3 presentation that year, whereas there's rumors that we won't this year, and the other years they didn't attend E3 (2020 and 2022) they didn't have a main Direct or presentation at all (just game specific Directs and Partner Showcases).

@Anti-Matter If I had a working 3ds lmao.

@Bolt_Strike I understand your argument - I just think it’s flawed. If Nintendo has nothing to anchor Switch’s 2023 Christmas on then a fairly good remaster of one of their most critically acclaimed games is the sort of thing they might have held back and used as a crutch. Especially since they have so many games in the first half of this year.

Releasing it now is either a statement of confidence or being done for other purposes in their release schedule. I simply think it has more to say about the release schedule of Metroid as an IP and spacing things out optimally than it does about hardware (though the two may obviously be linked).

Counting Metroid 2 on NSO we got two Metroid games on the same day. We’re getting Fusion and Zero mission this year. Prime 4 is coming at some point - best it doesn’t arrive to ‘Samus fatigue”

On confirmation it has gyro, downloading the Metroid Prime Remaster. Seriously though, the visual upgrade is pretty solid regardless. I was going to cave eventually! There's only so much emulation alone can do to push Wii/GC titles

I don't agree with some of the logic in the thread, if the first half in 2023 is packed with a game or two coming out every month but nothing announced for the second half wouldn't that just mean nothing is currently announced for the second half? If they had nothing at all for the second half then they would probably delay a game or two from the first half to the second half.

To me it looks like they are trying to not let Zelda eat attention away from everything else which is why there’s still not a lot of info on it despite being 3 months away so there’s no point in announcing say Metroid Prime 4, new Donkey Kong or whatever as the big winter release as it should have a big announcement that doesn’t become the second headline under Zelda Kingdom Sad 😢

In any case it's way off Wii U levels of maybe a game every 3 months and there's actually cool games coming out so there's no biggie.

@jump Agree.

Also not sure about this idea generally that we'll have a quiet period before the new console comes out. Just look at last generation. 2016 was light on Wii U content (so were most years, tbf...), but the Wii U was also a pretty clear failure at that point so it made sense for Nintendo to move all of their resources to the Switch. The 3DS, on the other hand? There was significant overlap with the Switch. People were complaining that we were still getting 3DS games for the first couple of years of the Switch's life.

If the new console is similar to the Switch in overall concept and architecture (and heck, backwards compatible)? Then it would make even less sense sense for Nintendo to dial down Switch releases half a year before the new system.

Nintendo state that inflantion and diversifition of entertainment choice was the responsible for Nintendo Switch lower sales, especiay in the Americas
https://gonintendo.com/contents/16096-nintendo-says-inflation...

@Ralizah @BoltStrike_, @StuTwo,@Jump e @JaxonH also Nintendo is know to sit on finished games and release them, when they think it fit it release schedule, Fire Emblem Engage for example was finished a long time ago and was planned to release in 2020, the franchise 30th anniversary, but the pandemic screwed everyting, Nintendo could have at least a dozen games already finished just waiting to be released on the Switch, like the rumored 2D Donkey Kong developed by the Nintendo EDP 8,based on that,Nintendo will slowly release this already finished games to extend Nintendo Switch lifecycle, you already got another example of a already finished game finished just releasing on the console(the remaster of Metroid Prime, that acording to rumors was finished in 2021), so based on this i believe Nintendo Switch sucessor will only release in 2026 at the lastest

To add to this discussion, the Wii U's last year was kinda unusual in terms of software lineup. Usually the last year has some pretty significant swan songs. The Wii U of course had BotW on the day the Switch released but in the entire year prior to that Nintendo published:

• Twilight Princess HD (March)
• Pokken Tournament (March)
• Star Fox Zero (April)
• Mario & Sonic & Rio 2016 (June)
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (June)
• Paper Mario: Color Splash (October)

Which also means that only three games released that year after E3, which is why E3 that year was pretty much just BotW. October of course is when the Switch was unveiled, after that point the Wii U basically went radio silent. I mean you could draw parallels to the Switch lineup I guess, if you squint really hard. But I think its fair to say that the Switch is looking better in terms of Nintendo's output

But..... the Wii U -> Switch transition was also the 3DS -> Switch transition. And the 3DS had some pretty significant titles even after the Switch released. To the annoyance of people such as myself. Pokemon Sun/Moon, significant Animal Crossing DLC, Samus Returns, Detective Pikachu. It also got ports of Mario & Luigi, Captain Toad, Yoshi's Wooly World and Mario Maker. Hell, they ported Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2019 (I mean really, by 2019 it should've also been on Switch surely!)

If I was to guess? I'd say the Switch -> Next Hardware transition will be more 3DS than Wii U. Probably even more 3DS than even the 3DS was. I think new hardware is soon, for sure, but I think it'll be like Nintendo's portables used to be. Like how in early 2006 you'd see people rocking a DS Lite with a copy of Fire Red poking out the bottom or how my most played game on 3DS for its first year was Pokemon Black 2

I didn't mean flick the thumbstick. In the Wii version, you can flick the Wii Remote to make the ball jump, so I wondered if that specific motion control carried over to this version.

I was baffled by Square Enix's absence in the Direct. We're still waiting to hear about release windows for Final Fantasy Tactics Remastered, Final Fantasy IX Remake, Dragon Quest III HD-2D, etc.

As for the usual Switch successor discussion, I still stand firm with an announcement in 2025 with a release early 2026. It'll take Nintendo years to cultivate a launch lineup. Expect Nintendo to coast on the Switch's success for couple years, people. Lower your expectations or suffer sublime disappointment.

@Magician i still stand that Nintendo will launch the Switch sucessor in 2026, given the console is still selling well, Nintendo is not gonna reveal the Switch sucessor in 2025, if they reveal it, they will kill the sales momentum.

@Magician The March 2022 State of Play was Japan focused and featured a bunch of Square Enix stuff (FF Origin, Forspoken, DioField Chronicle, Valkyrie Elysium) so I could see Sony perhaps repeating that in February/March but with a load of Final Fantasy stuff.