Nintendo Provides An Update On Potential Game Delays Due To COVID-19

We are in the midst of the generational Nintendo games drought.

This is the new normal. It sucks but safety comes first every time.

Stay home! Stay safe! We're all in this together!!!!

Remember back in March when people be like "Nah, SARS and Ebola didn't disrupt video game releases, why should Covid?"

Safety first and all that. But it does seem there’s nothing stopping them doing a direct. Especially as we’ve had 2 Pokemon and a Smash presentation.
This does sound like one could be in the offing though.

I'm pretty sure, I read this somewhere days ago. 🤔

@Cevil that's one inexplicably effective comment/profile pic combo.

Nintendo: If we don't announce any new games then it won't seem like we're delaying anything, genius!

Everything's been upturned because of this virus. They've had manufacturing and distribution problems which no doubt would affect getting their games on carts, artwork designed, printed and of course delivered to distribution. Any one of those chains gets broken the whole thing grinds to a halt.

I'm quite happy to sit and wait for whatever comes because things aren't exactly normal right now, I had a lot of my travel plans for this year go straight out of the window and games are just not that important. People are still going to stamp their feet and cry in here though that's for certain.

This has been a rare opportunity to go through my backlog, so Nintendo can take as much time as you need.

There are bigger issues at the moment, no point rushing development when everything else is on hold.

Slightly offtopic: Saw Super Lucky on the preview and for a fraction of second thought it was Conker the Squirrel.

No sh*t Sherlock

@WiltonRoots Digitial releases exist.

Delay what games?

Seriously, what 1st party Nintendo game is dated After Paper Mario in 2 1/2 weeks?

We have Mario port rumors, some Zelda BotW 2 video, a logo for MP4, Pikmin 4 nearly complete 3 years ago.

Two rival companies may be launching new consoles this year and Nintendo can't give us a "planned fall and holiday release titles" infographic?

It's year 4 of the Switch, about 2 years since 3DS game development stopped, just tell us something. 😝

@Entrr_username They do indeed, but they won't delay one for the other, imagine the riots in here.

My wiiu 3ds switch backlog is just ridiculous at this point so I dont mind a little game drought.

How convenient. They can blame the massive lack of software on coronavirus.

2020 has bee awful from Nitnendo. With almost no games in sight. Paper Mario is the only game we know with a release date. After that it's TBA Zelda/Mario that's nowhere to be seen. Just absolute crap all around. Super dissapointing.

This makes total sense, and IMO health, caution, and safety are more important than whether Super Mario Omega XXL comes out in time for Christmas.

...And, honestly, the slowdown of new releases is giving me time to dip into my backlog a bit. Or it was, until I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles on Switch.

I don’t understand why Nintendo can’t just announce another game or two already. What have they got to lose?

So it has not delayed Paper Mario or Animal Crossing? They should have lied and said they were trying harder. Two games, for a whole summer is not great. They could have,at the very least, put in a few rereleases of Wii U or GameCube games, or something.

"As you can see, upcoming games have not been impacted - so there's no need to worry over titles like Paper Mario: The Origami King which arrives on Switch next month..."
So what you mean to say is "there's no need to worry over Paper Mario: The Origami King," cos that's the only game Nintendo announced that has a 2020 release date.

@Moonlessky you mean there is someone else like me? Add Xbone and Vita. Plus, I just got an iPad, and Apple Arcade looks really cool. $5 a month for what looks to be some quality titles. Also, $15 a month for Game Pass? Problem is, I really don't need any more games.

That said, I wouldn't mind looking forward to something big during the holidays, something fresh like Pikmin 4, Metroid or something entirely new.

@TheFullAndy never safety first! Duty first!
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."

Theodore Roosevelt

@papermarioamiibo

Don't really care what he thinks/thought to be honest.

This is the world not America and I doubt Teddy was thinking about a pandemic when he wrote that.

And staying safe is the duty here as that stops the spread of the disease.

All in all referencing that quote was pointless.

@FredsBodyDouble I cant stay home I need money for college.

@TheFullAndy no sir. It is in these tough times that we are required to be vigilant and stand up. Hiding doesn't solve anything. Go. Do your cowering in your safe place. I work. Volunteer. Create industry and commerce. I do and the majority of Americans do to. God bless! 🇺🇸

@papermarioamiibo

Okey dokey.

@TheFullAndy see...there we go, son. We agreed on something. You take care!

Did I wander onto GoNintendo?

@papermarioamiibo

We agreed to disagree but that is fine. Have a good day.

@durr @rjejr @Tyranexx Don't kid yourselves, it's not about safety, or at least that's only a minor effect. Even before you knew what a covid was, did you honestly think 2020, the year of PS5/XSeX was going to be a banner year for Nintendo? Of course not. They were always going to passively go dormant this year. That was always the plan. Why make big waves with announcements when the competition dominates the news cycle with massive new state of the art hardware? They had to lay low this year. Unless they were doing a Switch Pro and challenging PS5 |DIRECT|ly they really had no choice but to wait for those launches to pass, then try to take on those new consoles with big games while they're finding their footing.

Were there no covid, we'd still be complaining about the disappointing E3 and the lack of 2020 games. That was always the plan. Animal Crossing was supposed to have been out last December....think about how barren it was meant to be!

Though I do think a refreshed hardware is coming in the next year, and then the slurry of games they'll connect to that. Not a "Switch Pro ZOMG vs PS5!!!" Just a New 3DS level upgrade/refresh to keep it current. And maybe themes. Only on the new hardware. They've always refreshed their hardware within that time on the handheld side, and tying that against/after the PS5/XSeX launch makes sense. Maybe next Summer.

@elpardo1984
Nintendo Directs typically feature dozens of games from various companies and development studios across the globe, while the Pokemon Presents and Smash videos are shorter and only focus on Pokemon-related announcements and new Smash Bros DLC content respectively.

Putting together the former is much harder than the latter.

If upcoming releases haven’t been affected, then why haven’t we heard anything about upcoming releases? The only confirmed Nintendo games for Switch we have right now are Paper Mario and Bravely Default

@NEStalgia This is going to be have to be 1 of the rare times were we disagree but you'll never convince me that w/o CoViD-19 Nintendo was going to come into E3, or even skip it, and say "sorry, after Paper Mario we're done making games until 2021, go buy a PS5 or Xbox this holiday instead to game on."

Sure, maybe nothing big was going to come out this year, but the Mario ports are probably true, at least 1 of them this year, a Galaxy 2 pack or Sunshine, and Zelda 2, and I still think Skyward Sword HD gets ported some day, it's the ONLY mainline Zelda game to only release on 1 console.

So, by now, we would have heard something for fall and holiday. Maybe they would have been delayed until 2021 b/c that's what video games do - see Ubisoft - but they are working on games for this year and they would have told us what they are by now.

I still think they'll release games this year - TLOU2 and Ghost are both releasing this year, and Cyberpunk - so I'm really just annoyed they haven't told us which ones yet. Too many Mario port rumours not be true.

Paper Mario is not going to be delayed.

And the other release dates, for game we don't know the release dates, because Nintendo hasn't told us, may or may not be delayed.

I think someone at NL is getting money for old rope, writing this sort of stuff.

@NEStalgia To be honest, I didn't expect the first half of Nintendo's 2020 to be too nuts, partially because the last half of 2019 (in my eyes) was so jammed with games. As it was, May brought about quite a few releases I was into (XC:DE, TW101, and I still need to pick up BioShock Collection), and it's not like there isn't anything coming to the Switch in July. I expect a few announcements to be dropped before long, though whether they come in the form of a full scale Direct is up in the air. I'd love to see one, but I'm not betting all my chips on one occurring in July with how things have been this year.

I kinda gotta agree with the rest of @rjejr 's comment. Sure, Nintendo might be an afterthought to many with the advent of Sony and Microsoft's new consoles, but I doubt they're gonna throw in the towel until the buzz for the two dies down.

@westman98 but not that difficult. You would have to lose the developer interviews maybe but gathering game footage and editing it together with voiceovers are all things that can be done in relative isolation.

@rjejr They were going to go into E3 with One Big Game for the holiday (think SmashE3, and BotWE3, plus Paper mario....plus highlights for Pokemon DLC and ACNH DLC. Min Min. Maybe some third party stuff like Bravely and Trails of Cold Steel, etc. But it was going to be a lame 1 game E3 with a few other titles.

We've been there before, don't pretend you don't know that drill

We don't know the One Big Game yet, but I'm guessing they're holding it until after MS/Sony reveal prices. Those two still OWN the news cycle through July Aug. Remember, were there E3, they'd have had their say back in June. Now we're dragging it out forever.

But I agree, they'll release something. But there's no way they're going to do it before the new consoles get themselves out of the hype mode. And that's being dragged out forever. The things are supposedly on shelves by November. We don't even know prices y et.

Of course, it's 2020 and so far this year, Phil Spencer has put more games on Switch than Takahashi. WORLD PREMIERE: Halo Infinite, on Windows 10, XBox Series X, XBox One X, and Nintendo Switch, releasing Holiday 2020. Calling it now.

@Tyranexx If they're going to announce on Twitter again they can just keep their announcement to themselves. I'll find out about F-Zero: Timesplit in a Game Informer column next year.....

I can't imagine though why Nintendo would spend money advertising, and more importantly, waste any hype they could build with their bigger titles, by dumping it half-way between "PS5: The future of gaming is here! Now with ray tracing!" and "XSeX, the most powerful console ever made, with the future of storage and instant load times" Who would waste your ad energy when you're ripped out of the headline in 18 hours? If you had a big BotW2 trailer to premiere would you do it weeks before PEE ESS FIVE gets a price and opens preorders, or would you wait until you have the news cycle to yourself so BOTW2 can dominate a bit?

Honestly I’m so inundated w amazing games that I haven’t had time/opportunity to play yet in my backlog that I’m ok with the current situation. You have no idea how many games I’ve picked up this summer on sale for $20 that I would have never ever picked up otherwise, on top of Animal Crossing, on top of Xenoblade, on top of getting my fitness on with Ring Fit and Just Dance. Like, I’m good.

That being said, it’s starting to be that time where Ninty needs to loosen the belt on what they have planned for Christmas/holiday.

Also, from a cynical business perspective, Nintendo is killing sales with the Switch despite not having released many games so far this year. So I’d imagine that internally the discussion is, “why rush development and announcements if we sell out of every Switch we ship?”

@elpardo1984
Not exactly as easy as you think when many Japanese companies weren't set up to operate under remote working conditions prior to the virus.

Making a Nintendo Direct is certainly not impossible (and there is one rumored for September), but it isn't nearly as easy as it was pre-Covid. For now, expect more Twitter announcements ala Paper Mario.

@PickledKong64 I was joking.

Three words. Metroid...Prime...Trilogy.

What about the games this year, Nintendo? Because the only new games we've seen produced are AC:NH, a minigame collection, and a lazy Paper Mario. Everything else is a port

And we cannot blame the virus for delays in Nintendo's case, when it hasn't delayed other similar companies. Sony's output is unchanged, beyond a couple months' delay of TLOU2

@NEStalgia "We don't know the One Big Game yet"

That's what I'm saying. Where is it? What is it? 1 BIG game. Plus Mario and Skyward Sword HD. Nintneod will nto go the next 5 or 6 months after Paper Mario and only put out 1 game in those 5 months. They just won't. Though if Bayonetta 3 is ready for October that would work, it's nto 1st party, but it's an exclusive, so close enough.

If they're waiting for Sony and MS to price their next gen consoles they're out of their minds, that may not be until mid-September. Nintneod can't be sitting around for 2 months w/ no up coming games. They'll announce something, maybe a Direct, 2nd week of August after Paper Mario has had time to sell. And I know this. And yet I still complain. Besides this holiday they really also need early next year and maybe summer if it's a big 1 like Zelda 2. ND is long overdue. Long, long overdue.

@rjejr They could make Bayo 3 it. It's been in the can forever and depends on the third party. And Platinum's busy picking Brit's pockets this month. I don't think it's Pikmin, though, sorry!

I think Sept/Oct they'll announce something. Probably something family, not Bayo. They do the family launch at Christmas. But no Pokemon this year. Paper Mario being a July drop is surprising, but tells me they have something else planned for holiday if that's not it. ACNH will probably remain top holiday billing. There's no way they announce before PSeX5 pricing and ordering is open.

Nitneod can wait 2 months with no up coming games. They've done it before. They have ACNH printing money, Paper Mario coming out. They're happy sitting tight to the "right" time they determine to hit their audience. Core gamers aren't watching Nintendo right now. It's a wasted effort. If it's not a casual family title, if it's Bayo, it's wasted breath until the PSeX5 is out.

Maybe they will do an August announce. Depends what MS does in July, and what Sony does to respond. E3 right now is in limbo until MS goes. We haven't really finished E3 week yet. Ubi is still coming, Squeenix has no assets for a presentation they were supposed to give 3 weeks ago. Sony just stuck their toes in and showed us GTAV like it's new, and unveiled the R2D2-esque router.

EA is our biggest gaming showcase thus far. Nintendo can wait.

But yeah, we're coming close to a full year since the last major announcement set. Mini direct excluded. Then again Sony was AWOL for 2 years. Who knows anymore. We have twitter. The world is saved.

@NEStalgia Twitter will be written about in the history books as the last final push over the edge in the downfall of western civilization. And I'm doing my part. 😎

Its my understanding that Nintendo tries to control their game pipeline quite carefully - they are quite happy to sit on an all but complete game for many months, partly to smooth out their physical manufacturing of carts and partly to 'place' their games into a release slot for maximum impact (loads of family switch sales at Xmas? Lets slip out a brain training game in January to get casual players into the habit of buying games for the console).

As such, its doesn't surprise me that ACNH, XBC and Paper Mario releases were unaffected as they were already done before lockdowns kicked in... but it doesn't bode well for their big release they normally drop around end of Nov to maximise Xmas sales.

Not this again... I'm just glad this year's releases won't be delayed. But darn... this seems to speak doom for next year's line-up.
What about Zelda, Metroid and Bayonetta? Honestly, it's puzzling when there's not so much game info and even worse when it's delayed out of nowhere.

There should be a way to help this. I know they already released a lot of games on Switch, but few of them have the longevity of say, Animal Crossing. I could talk more about this topic, but I'll save it for when the time's right.
Also, when I think of a perfect way to keep in touch with your fans who want new information on upcoming games, I think about "developer insights". Just like they provided an update to their development schedule, they should provide updates for their games too. Make something similar to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQrTZei3tc8
or at least small teases like these ones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRUWgM31BRQ

If you can't solve a problem, always think of workarounds (and use Metroid Prime as a motivation ).

@durr nintendo got plenty up their sleeve for this year to bring more games to switch give them some time.

@ALinkttPresent Why don't we know what's coming up? Because they don't typically announce games more than a couple months in advance. I'm sure we'll hear more after Paper Mario, just like how it was announced after their previous game Clubhouse Games, which was announced 2 months prior as well. I think they don't want to take focus off of their newest coming games and when previews of games coming out 6 months to a year later, you can't disappoint anyone when the game gets delayed or cancelled or scheduled for the next gen Nintendo system.

@NEStalgia F-Zero, huh? Now that we know what you're waiting for....

I suspect Nintendo will still sink quite a bit into advertising during this period; even if the big N will be as overshadowed like you're implying, fading into total silence in face of the competition wouldn't be beneficial at all. I expect them to play some cards for later this year as we know very little in terms of solid release dates past July. I feel like the Mario remaster rumors have some traction (though like with anything else, I'm taking them with some salt until they're confirmed) and have a feeling that a few other surprises are just around the corner.

Nintendo likes keeping their cards close to their chest. I can't say I always agree with that decision - and I WOULD like to see a new Nintendo Direct, though I won't whine and cry until we get one either - but what can ya do?

Seems like everyone is forgetting that Dead2y Premonition also comes out in July, one week before Paper Mario, and that too is a Nintendo Switch exclusive.

I wish Nintendo could sort out its supply issues; it took me forever to order a copy of Ring Fit Adventure at the actual MSRP and not at some insane markup.

Fortunately I already own the actual console; every new Switch that appears on Amazon or elsewhere at MSRP seems to be snapped up and instantly relisted at absurd markup by opportunistic reseller bots. This doesn't benefit Nintendo, and it doesn't benefit customers who want to buy a Switch console at the normal, non-inflated price. This isn't a new problem with the Switch and Covid-19– the Wii had supply issues for years, and the Switch was in short supply for many months after launch in 2017. Then there was the NES Classic...

At least games that don't rely on special hardware like the Ring-Con can be downloaded from the eShop with zero supply issues.

I’m sure covid is impacting them but I have to wonder with the switch selling so well, have they gotten complacent? Is this like the Wii in 2008 all over again?

Sure delays are expected but they aren’t even announcing anything whatsoever

Poor Deadly Premonition 2, it doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar. Francis York Morgan needs your support.

If we ever get through this virus, will the old normal ever see the light of day again? I just don't want to continue washing my hands every single second of the day. Let's hope we don't ever have to go through this again. I hate staying home.