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StarTopic Nintendo Direct Speculation |ST8| Press Your (Nintendo Direct) Luck!
- Thread starter EvilChameleon
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In terms of hobbies, I’m considering pursuing an interest in amateur astronomy. Doing some research into it, getting a good telescope and studying the skies
I have finally beaten rebirth last weekend and finally moved on to other games. With the one I’m most hyped for right now is Paper Mario
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
Doctre thinking the 3D DK game could’ve been restarted with Velan Studios (or maybe working on a Nintendo IP in general)
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BlackthornOrion
#theprocessbroke
The Velan job listing is definitely interesting. FWIW Liam Robertson's made some comments on twitter that kinda push back on the "Vicarious Visions and Nintendo were both full-steam ahead on VV's DK game before Activision killed it" angle that the video brings up
ammonite
agent chieftain here
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Everyone is talking about previous dry spells, and the thing is, I remember none of them because my interest naturally diverted back to other hobbies. 2018, I read more books than any other year since I was a kid. 2020, I had a total breakdown because of the global pandemic, watched more movies than is healthy for a person and learnt to cook a bunch of new stuff. 2016, I briefly played #sports again. I dunno if 2021 was a drought but I fell in love with a girl and did a lot of kissing.
If anything, the periods where I’m not focused on games at all, it’s even more exciting when something cool I pre-ordered drops through my door. Going in fresh, unspoiled, having not played anything in a while instead of feeling like you’re ticking off the latest thing is a really fun feeling!
Marce-chan
Magical Girls <3
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Errr... Feels like reaching to me.
EPD Tokyo hired for a 2D Action game back in August 2020 and that's probably the safest bet on where the new house for DK is gonna be.
I don't doubt Velan is capable of making a DK game but I'm pretty sure this EPD 8 game is gonna be the next staple of the franchise.
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Same for me. I've always loved movies but 2020 was the start of me going "I'm going to watch a lot of movies all the time." I've watched a movie every day or at least every other day pretty much ever since, sometimes more than one in a day. I've seen over 100 in 2024 alone so far. As a result, I haven't been playing quite as many games as I used to, but I still balance both. I still love both, but I always have movies to fall back on if games aren't doing it for me at the moment, and vice versa! It's good to have multiple hobbies and interests.
HockeyBird
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Nintendo delayed Codename Drake into next year so it wouldn't catch any strays from Kendrick Lamar.
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Valve has a chance to do the funniest thing with the codename for the Steam Deck 2
CyberWolfBia
I talk more about games than I play them
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Hyle from DK Vine did report back then that EPD started working on their own Donkey Kong project as soon the Vicarious Visions pitch fell through, but he never was able to confirm on any specifics on if the game was just a continuation of what VV aready had (very unlikely to me, anyway), even if is a 3D game or a 2D game. It's just a matter that now they are not outsourcing Donkey Kong anymore;
Regardless of the clarity of VV's DK project and how it ended, you can start making sense of Nintendo bringing the IP back to their chest with all that investment in the IP with the Universal Parks
Regardless of the clarity of VV's DK project and how it ended, you can start making sense of Nintendo bringing the IP back to their chest with all that investment in the IP with the Universal Parks
RealUncleNintendo
Chain Chomp
Successor acknowledgment soon!
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Kevin
Chain Chomp
Successor acknowledgment soon!
What will release sooner; The Super Mario Movie 2 or the Switch 2?
Super Devon
Captain Pikachu
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Successor acknowledgment soon!
what time is the investors meeting happening? just wanted to make sure.
HockeyBird
Villager
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What will release sooner; The Super Mario Movie 2 or the Switch 2?
The movie is going to be a pack in game for Switch 2. They're bring it back
Switch: 140+ million sold (and counting)
GameCube: 21 million
People’s tastes definitely seem to vastly prefer one era over the other. The “droughts of the Switch era” don’t seem to bother people as much as you make it seem, and I still stand by the GameCube era being a far worse time to be a Nintendo fan, and the sales numbers show.
switchum
Providing Fami with bad takes a-plenty since 2022!
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It almost sounds like you’re suggesting there’s more to life than video games…?
Ricimer
Moblin
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The first party output was significantly higher during the Wii/DS era too, and that will likely forever be the most successful generation with sales too. Your point?Switch: 140+ million sold (and counting)
GameCube: 21 million
People’s tastes definitely seem to vastly prefer one era over the other. The “droughts of the Switch era” don’t seem to bother people as much as you make it seem, and I still stand by the GameCube era being a far worse time to be a Nintendo fan, and the sales numbers show.
Semi Lazy Gamer
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It'll be right before or right after the Japanese stock markets close at 4 pm JST.
That's about 24 and a half hours from now, but that entirely depends when Nintendo wants to release it. Might be a half hour early, might not.
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Do you legitimately not understand how much more time consuming and resource intensive game development has become? I'd just like to be sure for whenever this topic pops up again.
Ricimer
Moblin
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You can make games with smaller scopes. There's nothing preventing Nintendo from making a 2D Zelda similar in scope to past entries that only takes 3 years of development time.
The problem is Nintendo has largely cast this handheld design philosophy of smaller scopes to the wayside in favor of large console style games. The few times they haven't left it behind in this era has resulted in quicker dev times (see WarioWare getting 2 games on the Switch made within 2 years of each other!
The combined Wii U and 3DS lineup is higher in quantity than the Switch and Nintendo was already dealing with HD development then.
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Nintendo still make games that are smaller in scope (F ZERO 99, likely the upcoming NWC NES game). Building those "smaller experiences" in a far more resource intensive industry is harder than it would’ve been on older systems, which you ignore.
I'm not saying you are being disingenuous, but it does come across that way when you say stuff like the bolded. It was a period of inconsistent support on both systems - fatally so for Wii U - and 3DS was still a standard definition system with much smaller budgets and team requirements than Switch.
But frankly I don't see the point in continuing this conversation because even if you are speaking sincerely and in good faith, you seem especially unreasonable on this topic.
Edit - to clarify, because I don't want to be rude or confrontational: if you're saying "I think Nintendo should assign resources differently" then fair enough. But you keep returning to "they made more games in the past on old systems where development was less resource intensive" (to paraphrase) without clarifying further. Deciding how to allocate resources isn't a decision made in a vacuum; it's one made against a backdrop of shifting consumer expectations, rival products, genre developments and technological developments. The comparison you've made to previous gens (which you've done multiple times in this thread at least) comes across as either disingenuous or a bit clueless about development, which is why it provokes a response.
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These combined totals you’ve been regularly citing across threads, does not speak to a drought or not as a drought refers to a gap in the release schedule. I gave this example in the other thread, an actual example of a gap was the period of eleven months between Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland back on the Wii that only saw three releases, Mario Sports Mix, Wii Play Motion, and Mystery Case Files The Malgrave Incident. If you were dying of thirst in the desert for a week and someone says “well actually you had one water bottle a day each day last week so if you think about it you have had one bottle on average once every two days” that does not remotely help your situation.
Having everything come out on one pipeline means a person who buys into one Nintendo ecosystem won’t have to experience a gap like back on the Wii or anything like what happened on Wii U and they can cut out on redundant releases like having two versions of Mario Kart, Tennis, Golf, Smash, etc that inflate those old numbers. As games get more complex, it’s unrealistic they’ll necessarily match the number of releases of older generations and they’ve generally done a pretty job regardless especially given a major global pandemic happened in the middle of the Switch generation and Nintendo was still able to get some first party software out so it wasn’t too bad especially compared to their competitors.
You don’t need to continue this argument you’ve been pushing that we are in the middle of a drought. You are unhappy with the current line up and the direction of their output for a longer period of time which is totally fine and understandable.
Number1000DKFan
Moblin
Compared to what? Not the Wii era compared to Switch games
Number1000DKFan
Moblin
You’re not counting the handhelds
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The Wii was a standard definition system, and it was in part a standard definition system because Nintendo wanted to contain the scope and cost of developing games; so yes, resource requirements were very different versus Switch. If you mean Wii U, then I'm not sure what to say: Nintendo obviously and publicly struggled to make games for it. Yes, they also supported 3DS, but 3DS was again a much lower scope system than Switch.
Those are simple and fundamental points, even if we set aside other factors which dictate development. But I also don't see the point in once again derailing this thread with this topic.
Number1000DKFan
Moblin
The development times were comparable, with Switch games taking slightly longer to make
Switch games do require more resources but Nintendo is a lot bigger than it was in the Wii days
ammonite
agent chieftain here
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This is how doing all that kissing felt.
Semi Lazy Gamer
Like Like
Pack it in folks, NoE just started talking about Paper Mario.
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Pack it in for what? A Direct?
Dunno, this week has them focusing on financial stuff. They might just wait until June and have a Direct in their usual timeframe for summer.
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On a personal level, I don’t mind “drought” at all.
Quality over quantity.
Let stuff take time. It’s not like it’s a personal loss. There’s plenty to play in between. We’re drowning in games.
6 years for TotK was long, yeah, but I’ll always fondly remember the whole 4-year hype cycle that defined a lot of my life. Finally devouring that beast of a game after all that time and sink an entire summer into it just made it feel much more than a game release, it was a pivotal event. It was big. The same thing will happen with the next 3D Mario and Prime 4.
Quality over quantity.
Let stuff take time. It’s not like it’s a personal loss. There’s plenty to play in between. We’re drowning in games.
6 years for TotK was long, yeah, but I’ll always fondly remember the whole 4-year hype cycle that defined a lot of my life. Finally devouring that beast of a game after all that time and sink an entire summer into it just made it feel much more than a game release, it was a pivotal event. It was big. The same thing will happen with the next 3D Mario and Prime 4.
3dsboss
Nintendo Fan Always! :)
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One thing I will say is that Nintendo doesn't necessarily need to match the output they had in previous generations because they aren't supporting two, very distinct consoles anymore.
As the sales numbers comparing the handheld and home console sales numbers of each generation showed, most people were not buying both (the closest I think it would be off the topic of my head is probably the Wii/DS generation) and so Nintendo needed to have games releasing on both to support different audiences. This meant, opposed to now where we consider a good month to usually have one, pretty solid Switch release, Nintendo needed to release more than that to support both consoles.
If the handheld and home console every generation had very comparable sales numbers and Nintendo has evidence that it was somewhat because owners of one would pick up another, this would've been less of an issue since they would only need to appeal to one, larger audience. However, with the audiences being more split, Nintendo needed to have releases ready for both consoles to show their support of them. To me, this is shown in the fact that the 3DS/Wii U generation had days where multiple first-party games released between both consoles (2014 being the most memorable to me because I bought Pokémon Alpha Sapphire alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on the same day). In many of these examples, now on the Switch, this wouldn't happen, especially multiple big name games launching because they are on different platforms.
If Nintendo still were doing two consoles per generation, we may have seen a 2D Zelda by now that released on the handheld, likely in similar proximity to another larger title that would've released on the home console. However, since they aren't split anymore, for a holiday season that might've had the 2D Zelda for the handheld and Metroid Prime 4 for the home console, they don't need to do that anymore. Now, they can space them out much more, while also working on the handheld games to match what a home console experience may be like (Samus Returns on the 3DS to Metroid Dread on the Switch is probably the best example I have). This also means that franchises that would've been frequent on one or the other may now become less frequent because Nintendo doesn't need multiple games a month (for multiple consoles), even if some months do end up that way still now.
I would also just say that the way some of these franchises are approached now is just different. As mentioned earlier, there is no longer a need for there to be two Golf or Tennis games within a single generation from Nintendo just so they could have them on both platforms. However, like with Pokémon, they aren't releasing third versions anymore and, instead, electing for DLC, which in itself will somewhat lower the amount of first-party Switch games since even when they release a package with the base game and all the DLC, it is priced as the base game + DLC opposed to how the third versions would've been priced the same as the originals.
In a lot of ways, before the Wii U, I was much more so the handheld gamer, where, while my family was fortunate enough to have the Nintendo home consoles, my older brother typically would be the one that purchased the games for it and played on it more often than not (mainly the Wii). This meant for me, I was mainly focused on buying DS games, which then Nintendo needed to have both games I could buy on the market and ones that my brother could buy at the same time because we were two different audiences. With the Switch that doesn't need to happen anymore, which will inherently lower the amount of games Nintendo needs to release monthly/quarterly and instead they just need to focus on having a constant release pipeline for the console, with all their teams on board. I don't think it would've been feasible for Nintendo to move from two to one and still have the same output as, even if they are at the scale they would've been at the 3DS, they still require a lot effort as they are HD products, something that I think is seen with how Nintendo couldn't have the constant schedule with the Wii U that it needed. There's more expectations now when you have your game release on an HD console that the DS/3DS games didn't need to have.
Finally, I think we have seen this throughout this generation honestly. We do have games now that likely would've been handheld games if Nintendo kept to this format but are used to bridge the gap between Nintendo's larger sellers. Making this post did make me realize that it was probably really smart for Nintendo to move away from the two consoles strategy to the one console as, for the way they make games, eventually these two strategies wouldn't be able to complement each other like they used to as the hardware between the two platforms would've continued to become more and more similar.
I apologize with the length of this post and how I did repeat myself a lot throughout it.
The TDLR of all of this would be that: I do feel like the combination that even smaller scale games (which I feel like still makes up a good amount of the first-party library) requiring more resources to be on the Switch and the fact that Nintendo doesn't need to support multiple platforms at once does mean that it isn't really feasible to expect them to match the output of past generations (as much as I would love for them to be able to!)! I feel like, ultimately, the Switch has had constant releases, both larger and smaller scale titles, which makes getting the newest Nintendo game up to ones taste now opposed to having to get it because of the platform that you mainly use. I do understand that not every Nintendo release during the year will be able to draw everyone in, which does make years less appealing, which may have not been the case previously since, especially in the Wii/DS era, if you had both, you did have more of a choice. I don't really think this is inherently Nintendo's fault as they don't want to flood the market with their own releases. In fact, I think this has allowed them to be more careful since we know they sit on titles, something that likely is an outcome of the consolidation of their studios, because they don't want to flood their own market. It just means that titles we probably would've seen more of by now, mainly from the handheld side (2D Zelda's, titles like Kid Icarus Uprising) have to coexist alongside traditional home console experiences (3D Mario and Zelda) on the same console opposed to different ones, meaning that the constant release of titles will pull from both types of experiences opposed to one.
I'm sorry again for the length of this post!!
As the sales numbers comparing the handheld and home console sales numbers of each generation showed, most people were not buying both (the closest I think it would be off the topic of my head is probably the Wii/DS generation) and so Nintendo needed to have games releasing on both to support different audiences. This meant, opposed to now where we consider a good month to usually have one, pretty solid Switch release, Nintendo needed to release more than that to support both consoles.
If the handheld and home console every generation had very comparable sales numbers and Nintendo has evidence that it was somewhat because owners of one would pick up another, this would've been less of an issue since they would only need to appeal to one, larger audience. However, with the audiences being more split, Nintendo needed to have releases ready for both consoles to show their support of them. To me, this is shown in the fact that the 3DS/Wii U generation had days where multiple first-party games released between both consoles (2014 being the most memorable to me because I bought Pokémon Alpha Sapphire alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on the same day). In many of these examples, now on the Switch, this wouldn't happen, especially multiple big name games launching because they are on different platforms.
If Nintendo still were doing two consoles per generation, we may have seen a 2D Zelda by now that released on the handheld, likely in similar proximity to another larger title that would've released on the home console. However, since they aren't split anymore, for a holiday season that might've had the 2D Zelda for the handheld and Metroid Prime 4 for the home console, they don't need to do that anymore. Now, they can space them out much more, while also working on the handheld games to match what a home console experience may be like (Samus Returns on the 3DS to Metroid Dread on the Switch is probably the best example I have). This also means that franchises that would've been frequent on one or the other may now become less frequent because Nintendo doesn't need multiple games a month (for multiple consoles), even if some months do end up that way still now.
I would also just say that the way some of these franchises are approached now is just different. As mentioned earlier, there is no longer a need for there to be two Golf or Tennis games within a single generation from Nintendo just so they could have them on both platforms. However, like with Pokémon, they aren't releasing third versions anymore and, instead, electing for DLC, which in itself will somewhat lower the amount of first-party Switch games since even when they release a package with the base game and all the DLC, it is priced as the base game + DLC opposed to how the third versions would've been priced the same as the originals.
In a lot of ways, before the Wii U, I was much more so the handheld gamer, where, while my family was fortunate enough to have the Nintendo home consoles, my older brother typically would be the one that purchased the games for it and played on it more often than not (mainly the Wii). This meant for me, I was mainly focused on buying DS games, which then Nintendo needed to have both games I could buy on the market and ones that my brother could buy at the same time because we were two different audiences. With the Switch that doesn't need to happen anymore, which will inherently lower the amount of games Nintendo needs to release monthly/quarterly and instead they just need to focus on having a constant release pipeline for the console, with all their teams on board. I don't think it would've been feasible for Nintendo to move from two to one and still have the same output as, even if they are at the scale they would've been at the 3DS, they still require a lot effort as they are HD products, something that I think is seen with how Nintendo couldn't have the constant schedule with the Wii U that it needed. There's more expectations now when you have your game release on an HD console that the DS/3DS games didn't need to have.
Finally, I think we have seen this throughout this generation honestly. We do have games now that likely would've been handheld games if Nintendo kept to this format but are used to bridge the gap between Nintendo's larger sellers. Making this post did make me realize that it was probably really smart for Nintendo to move away from the two consoles strategy to the one console as, for the way they make games, eventually these two strategies wouldn't be able to complement each other like they used to as the hardware between the two platforms would've continued to become more and more similar.
I apologize with the length of this post and how I did repeat myself a lot throughout it.
The TDLR of all of this would be that: I do feel like the combination that even smaller scale games (which I feel like still makes up a good amount of the first-party library) requiring more resources to be on the Switch and the fact that Nintendo doesn't need to support multiple platforms at once does mean that it isn't really feasible to expect them to match the output of past generations (as much as I would love for them to be able to!)! I feel like, ultimately, the Switch has had constant releases, both larger and smaller scale titles, which makes getting the newest Nintendo game up to ones taste now opposed to having to get it because of the platform that you mainly use. I do understand that not every Nintendo release during the year will be able to draw everyone in, which does make years less appealing, which may have not been the case previously since, especially in the Wii/DS era, if you had both, you did have more of a choice. I don't really think this is inherently Nintendo's fault as they don't want to flood the market with their own releases. In fact, I think this has allowed them to be more careful since we know they sit on titles, something that likely is an outcome of the consolidation of their studios, because they don't want to flood their own market. It just means that titles we probably would've seen more of by now, mainly from the handheld side (2D Zelda's, titles like Kid Icarus Uprising) have to coexist alongside traditional home console experiences (3D Mario and Zelda) on the same console opposed to different ones, meaning that the constant release of titles will pull from both types of experiences opposed to one.
I'm sorry again for the length of this post!!
placenta
Rattata
After declaring H1 2024 with a monthly game a 'drought' and the year in principle being over as there was no april direct, now the discussion has moved on to whether the Switch in its entire lifespan did not have enough (first party) games...
There could be a new Metroid game every month and still some people would complain that it's not a weekly series.
There could be a new Metroid game every month and still some people would complain that it's not a weekly series.
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Danny
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That is true for all publishers. Remember that Square in 2000 announced 3 new Final Fantasy games on the same day (FF IX, FF X and FF XI). No publisher is able to have the same release schedule as that these days.
Zumikoi
NINTENDO ░ DIRECT ░ IN ░ BIO
The mental process of my corrupted brain:
Midori=Sega
Sega + Nintendo= F Zero GX
Banquet= New F zero game developed by Sega
Smash Kirby
Bob-omb
Project X Zone 3?
ziggyrivers
thunder
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Was Project X Zone 2 good?
Only ever played the first game’s demo
Only ever played the first game’s demo
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Wouldn't those be developed at Sega though?
Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but Project X Zone would also need Bamco participation, no?
E: And Capcom, right?
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Is this going be the week?
Good chance for it today or tomorrow.
Gamer_G
Switch Pro Denier
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I’m hopeful for today but why wait until after the meeting? This gives them another game to put on the release schedule they show the shareholders. I see no reason to hold it for later in the week… unless it’s part of a Direct they’re planning… that they could announce at the meeting a la the Sept. 2020 Partner showcase
Starphanluke
Paratroopa
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Does the word banquet have anything to do with Alice in Wonderland? All of the Zelda’s are code names with an Alice theme.
jirou
Joy Boy
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A zelda game is in development at Nintendo either way, you can bet on that pretty much any day of any year I'd say
