Video: Let's Discuss The Big Question: What The Heck Is Happening At Nintendo Right Now?

Preparing for Switch 2.

There! Mystery solved. Send my check in the mail.

@Erigen Oof, thanks for that. Saved me from having to watch the video.

From what I understand from my inside sources I believe they're in the middle of organising an extremely large Cheese and Wine Orgy for all their staff members.

After which, they will be discussing the most important question of 2024....... when are they planning to put Diddy Kong Racing on NSO

I suspect that the monkey is out of the bag

Literally about to save and quit if this thing doesn't come out already.

I wonder if Nintendo is maybe looking to phase out the Direct format and is just making announcements on their own time again.

As much as I like the Direct format, it is admittedly not representative of what Nintendo seems to want to be in the modern period. It is inextricably tied to the Iwata era, and they've been slowly letting go of elements from that period. So it could be as simple as that, who knows!

What’s there to be confused about…Switch 2 is around the corner, they probably don’t have a ton of Switch stuff to show in a Direct so they skipped the usual September slot (and did a partner showcase in August instead). They’re fully aware of how much people expect from Directs nowadays and so if the only worthwhile thing they were ready to show was Xenoblade X then the discourse around Nintendo after the show would be mostly negative.

The few announcements they do have are just being peppered here and there because what else can they do.

Obvious answer is that they're preparing a ritual to resurrect Iwata and Yokoi (maybe also Hiroshi Yamauchi) so they can launch the Swiitch in the best way possible.

@larryisaman

Oh come on seriously???? You know we don't allow such common sense and logic to be used around here

I take more umbrage with the word heck than anything else. This is a British site.

People are so impatient. They are preparing for their next product launch. Nintendo is fine. Folks freaking out like they are about to file for bankruptcy or something. Go play some games. Can’t tell me y'all have no backlog.

Nintendo droughts don’t have to signify anything, people read too much into them especially with Switch I recall back in 2021 possibly even earlier about how one was happening because Nintendo was readying all their devs to release an onslaught of games for the mythical Switch Pro.

Obviously they're just prepping everything for the Switch 2 announcement and it's not ready until the new year. Why else would they be so silent?

As far as why they haven't announced the Switch 2 yet, the rumor is they're being held up by launch games. And considering that one of the rumored launch games is an open world 3D Mario, that makes a lot of sense and that game in particular is probably the biggest drag as open world games are notorious time sinks (think back to how many times BotW and TotK have been delayed). I suspect they gave the window of "announced during the fiscal year" because they weren't sure when the games would be ready and it's panned out into the worst case scenario at this point.

You guys need new on screen people. I don't like anyone that you have. Good vibes this ain't... 😢

Mass Chaos is what is going on at Nintendo as they struggle to keep up with theme parks, movies, toys, and clocks. They wanted Disney money not knowing what it meant. Now they are struggling to put games on the table. I'm starving over here.

As many have mentioned, obviously not joking, Nintendo really needs to plan the announcement of the "Switch 2" well, because once that console is announced, sales of the original Switch will start to decline, and they need all that "hype" for that to translate into sales, since, if we analyze things, almost always of a successful console, its successor, although it may be better, does not "measure up" as the original; and they do not want to repeat the Wii U incident...
In addition, there are more factors such as people's desperation and the constant "leaks" of information that can affect (without forgetting the huge incident, the leaks to Game Freak) the perspective towards the console.

Therefore, in my opinion, the reason why Nintendo is only making simple announcements, if they were to release a Direct, they would have the effect of "annoying the hornet's nest", which would be counterproductive, since people are already expecting that announcement and if "it's not the time yet", well, hence the phrase

I think boxes are traditional for drawing stuff out of in Japan, if random anime I watched is any indication.

This is just what they always do when they are focusing on the next console, they were also supporting the 3DS for a while with ports and minor releases.

Well there’s a new console coming out some time next year. Oh. And get this. Games are coming out at this time! Crazy, I know. Oh, and get this, there’s already, hear me out, TONS of games out presently for their current system.

Seriously, who writes these damn clickbait articles. Desperate for attention?

Stop calling stuff strange. You are being weird lol.

Typical transition to a new console, really

switch 2 might be released during the summer 2025...

I think it's a Summer 2022 type situation. Not enough unannounced 1st party games releasing within the next 6 months for a general Direct in the normal slot (June - December 2022 for June 2022, September 2024 - March 2025 for September 2024) so standalone announcements happened instead.

Then things get back on track for a general Direct in the next normal slot (September 2022 for back in 2022, February 2025 for now).

@Ryu_Niiyama Exactly. Just go do something else in the meantime.

Are these guys serious here? It's literally just a case of not sharing something until they feel it's time.

@N8tiveT3ch I don't think it's that.

@fenlix Right, so what is all the fuss here?

Slow news day at Nintendo life?

the "last year" of SNES before N64 came out was a BANGER. just saying.

the pudding:

https://www.nintendolife.com/snes/games/browse?year=1995

@-wc- yeah but that's an exception, not the rule, most consoles go out with a whimper and not a bang

@Expa0 Right!!

They're expertly winding up the impatient and entitled, and it's been awesome.

@benmalsky198 I just writing random stuff on these posts because they are click bate articles.

@Ryu_Niiyama it’s as simple as that. Get on with your lives folks, it’s no biggie, the site is getting thirsty for content hence articles like this.

@WiltonRoots Only problem is I am a sucker because I engage. I really need to move on from this site. sigh.

@Ryu_Niiyama I find myself commenting less these days, combination of clickbait articles and hypersensitive people reporting posts that are no worse than anything I posted 5 years ago…

They're gearing up for the announcement of Wii U 2.

@larryisaman clearly correct.

Switch successor announcement in March, unveiling event in June, release in November...is my assumption. It's whatever, chances are I won't be buying day-one anyhow.

It’s like the people working at Nintendo Life have never heard the phrase “Nintendo logic” before. 😂

Yep, pretty much what they already said. Nintendo's just waiting to announce their next console and clearing out their backlog of wacky side projects in the meantime. And with how long I've been waiting for a Xenoblade X port and a straightforward way to listen to their music, I'm certainly not complaining.

Seems pretty obvious to me. They don't want to impact xmas Switch sales by announcing the Switch 2. And there's not many more exciting Switch 1 titles left to come. So they just release some of the stuff they have in the vault.

@Ultimapunch and they’ll call it NewWiiUDeluxe just to make sure there’s zero confusion.

How is any of that strange? They are busy preparing big things for Switch 2, and these low-key bits we’ve been getting are meant to entertain us in the meantime.

@Expa0 Did you just combine the words “exorbitant” and “inordinate”? Because “exordinate” sure ain’t a word.

@LastFootnote
I see, thanks for correcting me.

@-wc- Those were the days, back when incredible games didn't take 5 years to make. Final Fantasy IV: 1991. Final Fantasy V: 1992. Final Fantasy VI: 1994.

For me 2024 has been a pretty great year for the Switch. Let me look back through the highlights:

Splatoon 3: Side Order
Animal Well
Paper Mario: TTYD
Gunbrella
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
Dragon Quest III

Echoes of Wisdom was kind of a letdown, but they can't all be gems.

@Deviant-Dork I actually prefer NintendoLife's video team to the Good Vibes crew by a pretty significant margin (on average; Jon Cartwright and his content are still raising the bar).

I'm especially glad Zion's been doing videos again lately. Every time Felix reviews a JRPG it hurts me a bit. (Sorry, Felix. Love your enthusiasm for the Boku no Natsuyasumi series.)

For one thing, earlier this year Nintendo's CEO has made a statement as part of an earnings call, that this year was mainly about preparing for the Switch "successor" launch, and getting the launch right, and when ask about it, be stated that Nintendo was NOT worried about the announcement of the successor having any kind of effect on the sales of the current Switch system.
I think the sales of the current Switch dropped more quickly then Nintendo expected, so they backtracked on that earlier statement and went almost completely silent on ANY talk, or news of the successor system.
I think, despite that statement, they opted to FURTHER postpone even the announcement of Switch 2, until AFTER December, and Christmas, out of an OVERabundance of caution.
For me, and I'm sure, many others, it has been a super frustrating couple of weeks, and months, dying for Nintendo to release information on Switch 2, A-N-Y information, AT ALL.
My expectation is that Nintendo will, at minimum, announce the official name of the successor, in January or February, and, heaven forbid, maybe even a PICTURE of the system, or an ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO.
I'm not holding my breath anymore, at this point.

@LastFootnote

for me, every year has been great with Switch, thanks largely to indies (and retro compilations.)

I'm definitely back on the "wait and see" side with Nintendo, as far as the next console, for me.

PS - that is a good, varied and impressive list of games, nothing wrong with it.

I had DQIII on NES, approximately one lifetime ago. I tend to not like HD remasters, though! they never get it right to me and that kind of thing irks me. I bounced off FF7, FF9, and others on switch because of this. too bad for me!

I tried with Animal Well, but bounced not too far in. I felt like I'd absorbed the vibes though, especially the ambient music and interesting approach to pixel art. 👍 cool game, I'm not sad I bought it.

My big games, off the top of my head, this year must be Balatro and Shogun showdown, though like all rogue like games, I was VERY into these before I suddenly wasnt, and I never went back. does this happen to you?

Both very high quality games though 👍👍 thanks for sharing 😄

@Rictorhell

I definitely prefer to get little exciting bits leading up to the announcement. that is, if i get excited for the announcement, at all.

this one feels like a new iphone iteration imo. I hope I'm wrong and they've been working on something really special.

Feeding us smoke and mirrors until we hear about the inevitable next Switch announcement.

@LavaTwilight oh we'll get re-releases despite backwards compatibility, mark my words

Look at the new play control series for Wii that re-released GameCube games, and the re-release of that DS Mario and Luigi game on 3ds...

Point being, I'm expecting various "deluxe" versions of switch games

Preparing to release Switch 2 when it's financially optimal while trying not to lose NSO subscribers on the month that most 1 year subscriptions end, since they have little to nothing to offer right now

@-wc- I would be happy with just updated hardware that will run ALL current and past Switch games flawlessly, and allow some great ports of fairly recent 3rd party games. Nintendo is ramping up customer expectations with all the secrecy, and, if they CAN'T deliver, it will be a self-inflicted wound, and entirely of their own making. When you continually troll customers, repeatedly, for MONTHS, by saying, "We are NOT mentioning this thing, today, that we know you REALLY want us to mention", I mean, what should Nintendo expect the reaction to that to be? What is that "strategy"' called? You don't have to have much, to just say, "Oh the system is called 'X', and it launches in AROUND 6 months". That's all I have wanted. When you say, more or less, "This thing is so awesome, I can't even give it a name! I can't even speak of it! I literally can't even let you think about the system until EVERYTHING is COMPLETELY finished, and absolutely PERFECT!", that's you, as a company representative, jacking up expectations for this thing, and simultaneously frustrating your customers, at least SOME of them, and if it's NOT intentional, then it's really poor, really sloppy business.

Sadly looking like there is a huge delay with 'Pokémon Legends: Z-A' with the lack of updates we have got about it. I was hoping we would have some game footage or new pictures of it by now. I can't remember the last time they announced a Pokemon game like this and made us wait so long for new information about it.

"What the heck! This is so strange, what's going on!?!?!?"
As if you haven't seen this at the tail-end of every single previous console generation.

@Member_the_game I am still hoping we get that too along with Donkey Kong 64, Mischief Makers, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi's Woolly World, Sonic Heroes, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Poke Park 1 and 2, Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land and Wario Land 2.

@Sylamp

yeah, 1990 was pretty rough for NES, with the SNES looming on the horizon 😂✌️

https://www.nintendolife.com/games/browse?system=nes&year=1990

Nintendo going to release Switch 2 too late. It will cost a fortune because of tariffs.

Next console prep.

We also (at least imo) got some pretty hype reveals not to long ago xenoblade x, so I honestly think the absence of a direct isn’t nothing crazy.

@-wc- For me remakes of old games I've loved are hit and miss. Sometimes they're great and sometimes they're the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster. As far as Dragon Quest goes, I only have nostalgia from the NES days for Dragon Warrior 1 and 4, so 3 is sort of just a pleasant old-school RPG for me. I'm pretty optimistic for the DQI HD-2D remake though. I hope they don't add too much fluff to it.

I understand bouncing off of games, though I think my son getting so into Animal Well helped me stick with it past that early point. Occasionally I'll bounce off a game and then return to it and love it, like Hollow Knight. Sometimes I'll bounce off a game and return to it and remember why I hated it, like Yoshi's Story.

So yeah, I definitely have had stints where I'm super into a roguelite game for a while and then move on. But then sometimes I'll go back to them. For me the two big ones that come to mind are Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire. I made the mistake of getting Slay the Spire on my phone a week ago and my productivity just took a dive. I uninstalled it yesterday just to stop myself from playing it. Balatro and Shogun Showdown are both on my Switch wishlist, and on your implicit recommendation above I finally tried the demo of Shogun Showdown. It just shot way up on my list of games to grab! So thanks for that.

My Switch backlog is totally out of control, so I had a rule for myself starting about a year ago: I can't buy a new game until I've beaten two games I've never beaten before. As a result my buying new games has slowed down a fair bit and also I've beaten more than 50 games this year. There are a few loopholes, like collections count as buying one game but each game in the collection counts as a game beaten, and games I buy with only gold points don't count. Even with those shenanigans though, my backlog finally got a little smaller this year instead of much larger. Baby steps, I guess.

@LavaTwilight That's my thinking too. The Switch 2 will likely have far more brand new experiences than Switch. Too many Wii U ports was my number 1 issue with Switch. Not that they are bad games, far from it. It's just that I played most of them already. My first party collection on Switch is smaller than it was on GameCube, Wii and Wii U.

“The Terrific Trio” is so ChatGPT like guys….

Nintendo is busy not announcing anything because they have nothing to announce because it doesn’t make sense to announce anything currently because anything they announce will probably damage holiday sales so they’re doing what any sensible company would do in this situation which is pretty much nothing.

@nessisonett Here here. Too much influence from across the pond, I say. Next thing you know they’ll be using ghastly spellings like ‘donut’ and ‘drive-thru’.

Even the site’s current name is an affront to my linguistic sensibilities. I hereby propose that that this website changes back to the good old-fashioned British spelling: Nintendough Lyphe.

This truly warms the heart, ha! It's good to know we're all in this one together for the time being. Nintendo's feathers never seem to be particularly ruffled these days when it comes to announcements.

I'm sure they'll be ready to make a big splash when 'Switch 2' is 100% ready for take-off, my guess for what it's worth being early February. Look forward to the next one, lads!

İ really do not know what is going on in Nintendo right now but İ think there are working on the next Nintendo console. There must be few or more games at the launch too. There are working on that too.

İ do not know if there will be a Super mario bros 3D game at the launch but Metroid prime 4 beyond must be at the launch.

İ think Monster hunter wilds can be a next Nintendo console launch game too. Because Capcom gives Nintendo Monster hunter games too. Monster hunter Wilds will come out on the Playstation 5 and on the Xbox Series X in 2025 so maybe on the next Nintendo console too at the launch.

There was.
Monster hunter Tri on the Nintendo Wii and Monster hunter rise on the Nintendo Switch.

@Steel76 You're kidding right? If you're THAT impatient, just find something else to do until something is announced.

@-wc- Those are the American releases. Super Mario 3 came out in Japan in 1988, and Final Fantasy 1 came out in 1987. Let's not forget back then releases were spaced depending on the region.

Not to digress though. It's pretty obvious the NES was still the reigning king of the mountain even back when the SNES launched. It wasn't until the first Sonic came out that the Genesis finally gained a bigger slice of the market.

@dudujencarelli

"Those are the American releases. Super Mario 3 came out in Japan in 1988, and Final Fantasy 1 came out in 1987. Let's not forget back then releases were spaced depending on the region."

respectfully, i dont see what difference this makes to my point, at least from an American's perspective. ✌️

"Not to digress though. It's pretty obvious the NES was still the reigning king of the mountain even back when the SNES launched."

who is king of the mountain, now? 🤔

@nessisonett NintendoLife is part of Hookshot, which is part of IGN, which is part of Ziff Davis, which is an American company.

Sorry, pardner, but we spell color with no u in these here parts. Ye haw.

@WhensDinner Because of a buyout. The site is British, run by British folks. The writer’s bloody British too.

Busy releasing games and preparing for their next platform. We got EoW, Jamboree and Brothership to finish the year off and a couple of ports to start the new year. Then comes to reveal and release of the successor. Not really strange at all, they just had a direct in August instead of September. They've also been doing shadow drop announcements like Xenoblade X for years now.

@nessisonett Well, buckaroo, I ain't the one who writ the book on this here rodeo. I just play by the rules, same as everyone else. So don't be givin' me no lip 'bout it.

(This whole thing was a joke please don't kick me out this is like the only non-terrible Nintendo blog left.)

@-wc- The Switch, I'd wager.

The difference is back then Nintendo had a near monopoly on third party support, which is why we still saw a lot of entries even in 1990, such as Mega Man, Castlevania, Turtles and whatnot.

But now? It's a lot harder to support developing new games for the older console given how much time and resources they take, when they might be already focusing on the next Nintendo console. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was a lot easier for studios to crank out games at a borderline unthinkable pace - the kind that puts developers in the hospital for exhaustion. And of course, games weren't so resource-heavy either.

Plus, the concept of console generations wasn't quite yet established. Atari had gone down under, Sega was a footnote with a forgettable first couple of pre-Genesis consoles, and the SNES was Nintendo's first real successor. No one was prepared for the idea that this switch to newer generation might actually work and that the NES would become outdated. Back then, no one was really ready to give up such a guaranteed source of success like that console. Even customers had to be swayed into the notion that they would have to buy a new console for newer games. That is why the NES kept selling new games well into the '90s (2003 in the case of Japan).

EDIT: an addendum. Third party support kept the NES going past 1990, no doubt. But Nintendo's first party teams? They were already focused on the SNES. Miyamoto's people were doing both Mario World and A Link to the Past. Yokoi's crew was deep into Game Boy development. Only a few strays, like HAL, who would eventually do an NES Kirby game after the success of the Game Boy titles, and a few isolated cases. But everyone else first party-related had moved on.

@nessisonett I'm a Yank and I take umbrage to the word heck, also. No one over the age of 8 uses it. Anyone over that age uses WTF.

@dudujencarelli

I agree with your analysis. 👍

something bothers me about this:

"It's a lot harder to support developing new games for the older console given how much time and resources they take, "

I know that there is a perspective (probably the dominant, mainstream one, admittedly) from which this is true. but the opposite is also true. small (and sometimes less small) devs can and do now make both Retro games on new consoles, and new games on legacy consoles.

Sometimes I like to indulge in a wild fantasy that The japanese greats might embrace this more fully. imagine if Konami decided to throw money at the Treasure team until they made a new SOTN style c'vania game. there's never been a better console for it, and there may never be again (including switch 2.) Imagine if Sega made a new Sega rally game in the style of sega rally 2, or another fighters megamix sequel with retro poly graphics.
The list goes on (these arent even great examples but you get my meaning hopefully.)

Nothing about these ideas (besides the money throwing part i guess 🙄) screams "prohibitively expensive, long development time," to me. but, what do i know? ✌️

@-wc- Definitely some interesting ideas such as the Castlevania one.

But regarding your point about smaller devs making classic retro style games in less time. I've been playing Sonic Mania for the first time, and from what I've read that game's development took around 2 years or so (and they already had the working engine from the Sonic CD, 1 and 2 remasters, meaning less programming work, I assume). All the Genesis games were made in much less time than that. Even Sonic 3&K didn't take more than 18 months or so, and as we know, Sega being Sega split the whole thing in half in order to make that February release.

But yeah. After reading that GBA article, I feel there should be more effort into making these retro experiences that obviously take up less time than the big projects, even if they still take longer to make now than 30 years ago. I certainly miss pixel art games.

@-wc- can't you read? I said MOST, not ALL, again, these are exceptions and not the rule

@Sylamp

whoa there. coming in a little hot, want to try that again?

(mind you, I was making a specific point about another specific console in Nintendo's history, and made zero generalizations about anything. you are on some jag about exceptions to the rule that I really couldn't care less about, but I was willing to play before you got hostile and made it weird. cheers. ✌️)

@dudujencarelli

I like much of what you said, and I will just add, while I appreciate that Mania took a long time, and so on: I simply can't believe that Nintendo couldn't, for a random example, make a direct sequel to Super Mario World, in the style of SMW, faster and cheaper than they made the original. would you agree? ✌️

@Ryu_Niiyama Word! I admit have been itching for Nintendo to say something about it. But then I look at my Switch (and growing Xbox) backlog and I am not hurting for any games to play. I'm also sure those backlogs might grow a bit after the holiday season.

We/They are waiting for the blow of Switch 2.
All Nintendo developer teams stopped making Switch games years back. All the games that are published over the last 15-24 months are games that they were already made and waited the right time to have a nice flow in the schedule.

I am 120% that we will see a New Switch in a January Direct with a publish date of March 25. Also I am 200% sure that we will witness a new badass 3D Donkey Kong Country.

"Alarmo" sounds like the name of an elf who guards the town at night.

@-wc- The way I see it, they certainly could (they can certainly replicate the style as seen in the Mario Maker titles), but I doubt they would want to do it at all. I would certainly welcome a fresh Mario game with that art style again. But I think they just got tired of doing sprite-based pixel art after doing it nonstop from the earliest 1980 arcade games to the very last GBA games. As we've seen in the New Super Mario games (not a pixel art example, I know - just making a point about development speed), cranking them out quickly isn't an issue, but it did prove to be a game of diminishing returns (not just for us, but for them as creators), hence the decade it took for them to come up with something truly fresh with Wonder.

Plus, even back in the SNES, they could have done a direct sequel to Mario World, a Lost Levels sequel of sorts - same graphics and style. But I also imagine they didn't want to repeat themselves or risk having another game stuck in Japan (that's one of the reason Lost Levels was in limbo there for so long - supposedly Nintendo of America didn't want to release a sequel that looked identical). So instead, after doing Link's Awakening, they went ahead and did Yoshi's Island.

@UmbreonsPapa I am literally in the middle of putting a 6 drawer dresser together and loading it with my physical game collection (ran out of room on the bookcases and this is in addition to 4 small 2 shelf dressers full of games…). As I look at all these games and take note of what I have yet to beat and r want to play again… yeah I can wait on Nintendo just fine. Lol.

(Also lurking on ebay to see what I am missing from my Japanese collection…lol)