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StarTopic Nintendo Direct Speculation |ST8| Press Your (Nintendo Direct) Luck!

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Lugia667 said:
is the Tokyo Mario team big enough to work on two games at once? Unless the DK game has been finished for a while I don't see how it happens
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The hiring calls came less than a year apart and in the midst of that EPD 8 moved into larger offices. 1-Up Studio essentially serve as the support developer for 3D Mario, and it wouldn't surprise me to see NST on hand to help too especially now we know they can use both ActionLibrary (the 3D Mario engine) and ModuleSystem (the main EPD engine currently).

There'll be support for the Tokyo games from the main division in Kyoto, too, and we don't have a clear picture of how much the Tokyo office might have expanded. It's also useful to remember Nintendo opened the Tokyo office to have easier access to temporary staff via outsourcing, given there's a larger pool of contractors there than Kyoto. But I'd guess with the internal development investment being so high in recent years, we see a larger long term production group in Tokyo.
 
Dark Cloud said:
EPD Tokyo was working on 3D World + Bowsers Fury, next 3D Mario and a new 2D game at the same time? Or maybe they didn’t start the new 3D Mario game until 2019?
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The 2D game started hiring in August 2020, 10 months after the 3D game hiring call in October 2019. My assumption has always been that Bowser's Fury was a 3D Mario prototype that ended up not being a full game and the team went in a different direction in late 2019, when the hiring call came along. Maybe Bowser's Fury then got span out and finished with 1-Up and NST's help.

I'd also assume there was a lengthy prototyping period after Odyssey. You never know - maybe they worked on ideas that never worked out, or they had an in-progress game that got canned. Prototyping tends to involve small teams at Nintendo, and the Tokyo office was historically small anyway, so it's not like there were hundreds of staff burning away months or years of wasted work. It probably just took a while to settle on where to take 3D Mario after Odyssey, and to settle on whatever the 2D project is.
 
Kingpin Rogers said:
Couldn’t the dk game just be cancelled? When was the last time new info came out for it?
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It took four years for Super Mario Bros Wonder to release after the October 2019 hiring call for that, and for almost all of that time it wasn't public knowledge. That being the case, I don't think there's any reason to assume EPD 8's 2D game has been cancelled. Whether or not it is Donkey Kong remains to be seen.
 
Lugia667 said:
is the Tokyo Mario team big enough to work on two games at once? Unless the DK game has been finished for a while I don't see how it happens
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they not, but the combined team of 1-UP, NST and help from EPD kyoto is, the theory also explains why its taking so long
Drybones2015 said:
Are we sure the job listing for 2D level design wasn't just for 2D sections in a 3D game? Like the 8-bit segments in Mario Odyssey.
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the listing said it was an 2d action game and had courses
 
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Kingpin Rogers said:
Couldn’t the dk game just be cancelled? When was the last time new info came out for it?
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My guess is that it’s been done since 2022

Nintendo is very annoying about sitting on games, but the switch 2 delay shows that it has at least some rational basis

For DK I don’t think the delay was about the switch 2 probably more likely because wonder came out last year and this year and next year have DK parks opening
 
Number1000DKFan said:
My guess is that it’s been done since 2022

Nintendo is very annoying about sitting on games, but the switch 2 delay shows that it has at least some rational basis

For DK I don’t think the delay was about the switch 2 probably more likely because wonder came out last year and this year and next year have DK parks opening
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nintendo started hiring for dk one year after they started for wonder and that was finished only in 2023, if they have the same scope it should be finishing by now,if its a bigger project its not close to be done
 
MetalLord said:
nintendo started hiring for dk one year after they started for wonder and that was finished only in 2023, if they have the same scope it should be finishing by now,if its a bigger project its not close to be done
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They definitely didn’t start DK when they put out those hiring notices, I’m sure they were working on it a year or two prior
 
I suppose it's possible DK got cancelled but that would make me very depressed so I choose to ignore that possibility
 
Hmm… with Mario Party, Metroid Prime 4, annual Zelda, and Fire Emblem all potential candidates, there’s a very high chance that this “end of life” June Direct ends up being a banger.

And I know I’ve probably forgotten more, but forgive me, it’s 12am and I’m getting sleepy lol
 
I walk away with at minimum a handful and more usually a mighty pile of games I’m at least interested in for Nintendo Directs so even “disappointing” ones I usually walk away very happy lol.
 
A direct that has nothing I’m interested in is just as good as a direct packed with stuff I’m interested in because I don’t have to add to my backlog in the case of the former.
 
I don't think this idea of Nintendo holding onto all these games is true. I suppose it might be the case with some ports and remakes, but brand new games like Wonder, Pikmin and TotK were definitely out as soon as they were done.
 
Wockio said:
I don't think this idea of Nintendo holding onto all these games is true. I suppose it might be the case with some ports and remakes, but brand new games like Wonder, Pikmin and TotK were definitely out as soon as they were done.
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iirc it indeed primarily has been true of remakes

I think yoshi's crafted world was held back for spacing but that could just be tales from my ass
 
EvilChameleon said:
A direct that has nothing I’m interested in is just as good as a direct packed with stuff I’m interested in because I don’t have to add to my backlog in the case of the former.
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you are so real for this king

the worst indie worlds are the ones where I lose like a hundred bucks to shadowdrops
 
Wockio said:
I don't think this idea of Nintendo holding onto all these games is true. I suppose it might be the case with some ports and remakes, but brand new games like Wonder, Pikmin and TotK were definitely out as soon as they were done.
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I think it's almost definitely the case that they've sat on new games as well as remasters/ports. Nobody's suggesting they do this with every game, but there are some instances we can point to

Everybody's 1-2 Switch was reported on as being finished nearly a year before it was announced. The person who leaked pics of FE Engage a few months before it was announced claimed that game had also been finished for roughly a year

And then there's the suspicious shuffle they did with Xenoblade 3 and Splatoon 3 in 2022. After the February direct that year, Xenoblade was given a September window and Splatoon had a less-solid "summer" window. A few months after the direct they moved Xenoblade up to late July and then like a week after they put a September release date on Splat 3 (meaning it could just barely make its summer window). Pair this with Imran Khan's reporting in August 2021 that Xenoblade 3 was nearing the end of development and could possibly make an early 2022 release and you start to get a picture of Xenoblade 3 being done for a while and only getting moved up so they could give Splatoon 3 more time to cook (that is, Splat 3 was probably meant to be the July game, got delayed internally, and so it traded spaces with Xenoblade)
 
2023 was the Year of Games What Finished Early, which is funny, and shouldn't be taken as the norm:

  • Fire Emblem Engage was content complete roughly a year before release. It was held back because Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was also finished, and so that Intelligent Systems could get a head start on DLC development.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered was finished nearly 18 months before its surprise reveal/release (September 2021). Presumably it was held back initially due to proximity to Metroid Dread.
  • Advance Wars 1&2 Reboot Camp was finished in early 2022. However, Russia invaded Ukraine because the Wars franchise is cursed.
  • Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was largely finished in March 2022. It was delayed until May 2023 for 'polishing'. We've no real idea what condition the March 2022 build was like on a technical level. Was it a Scarlet/Violet mess, or a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fudge? My assumption is the latter. 2022 was stacked anyway, so Nintendo could afford the delay.
  • Everybody 1-2 Switch was initially finished at some point in 2021, with physical copies apparently already in production, but the game playtested abysmally. The game first leaked on this website in late 2021 and became known as The Legend of the Stinky Horse before Imran Khan officially reported on it in summer 2022. It's unclear if the eventual 2023 release was reworked, but I think the game's files indicate cut content so it wouldn't surprise me if NdCube were roped in to salvage something from it.
  • Pikmin 4 was "very close to completion" in 2015. However, Miyamoto was going through his rum era and probably should not have been let out to speak to Eurogamer that particular day. Whatever build of the game existed then is not the game we got in 2023.

So there you have it. 2023 was nuts, and nearly half Nintendo's line up was done well ahead of time. But given they have dozens of projects in the works at any one time, they do seem to have a degree of pipeline flexibility. We have been told in the past this is in part a strategic reaction to the Wii U generation, when they didn't have any flexibility in their software pipeline. We've seen that with ports like NSMB U DX being on the eShop servers months ahead of reveal, or something like WarioWare Get It Together going to age ratings agencies a year before release, or the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 situation.

For more on Did You Spo Gaming? check out our video about how 2D Zelda is almost certainly definitely maybe hopefully launching this year because that's what I dream of happening.
 
MisterSpo said:
2023 was the Year of Games What Finished Early, which is funny, and shouldn't be taken as the norm:

  • Fire Emblem Engage was content complete roughly a year before release. It was held back because Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was also finished, and so that Intelligent Systems could get a head start on DLC development.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered was finished nearly 18 months before its surprise reveal/release (September 2021). Presumably it was held back initially due to proximity to Metroid Dread.
  • Advance Wars 1&2 Reboot Camp was finished in early 2022. However, Russia invaded Ukraine because the Wars franchise is cursed.
  • Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was largely finished in March 2022. It was delayed until May 2023 for 'polishing'. We've no real idea what condition the March 2022 build was like on a technical level. Was it a Scarlet/Violet mess, or a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fudge? My assumption is the latter. 2022 was stacked anyway, so Nintendo could afford the delay.
  • Everybody 1-2 Switch was initially finished at some point in 2021, with physical copies apparently already in production, but the game playtested abysmally. The game first leaked on this website in late 2021 and became known as The Legend of the Stinky Horse before Imran Khan officially reported on it in summer 2022. It's unclear if the eventual 2023 release was reworked, but I think the game's files indicate cut content so it wouldn't surprise me if NdCube were roped in to salvage something from it.
  • Pikmin 4 was "very close to completion" in 2015. However, Miyamoto was going through his rum era and probably should not have been let out to speak to Eurogamer that particular day. Whatever build of the game existed then is not the game we got in 2023.

So there you have it. 2023 was nuts, and nearly half Nintendo's line up was done well ahead of time. But given they have dozens of projects in the works at any one time, they do seem to have a degree of pipeline flexibility. We have been told in the past this is in part a strategic reaction to the Wii U generation, when they didn't have any flexibility in their software pipeline. We've seen that with ports like NSMB U DX being on the eShop servers months ahead of reveal, or something like WarioWare Get It Together going to age ratings agencies a year before release, or the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 situation.

For more on Did You Spo Gaming? check out our video about how 2D Zelda is almost certainly definitely maybe hopefully launching this year because that's what I dream of happening.
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I eagerly await the next installment of Did You Spo Gaming :)
 
With the big push Nintendo is making for Donkey Kong by putting him in movies, theme parks etc i think it has to be in part because they are working on a new Donkey kong game.
 
MisterSpo said:
2023 was the Year of Games What Finished Early, which is funny, and shouldn't be taken as the norm:

  • Fire Emblem Engage was content complete roughly a year before release. It was held back because Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was also finished, and so that Intelligent Systems could get a head start on DLC development.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered was finished nearly 18 months before its surprise reveal/release (September 2021). Presumably it was held back initially due to proximity to Metroid Dread.
  • Advance Wars 1&2 Reboot Camp was finished in early 2022. However, Russia invaded Ukraine because the Wars franchise is cursed.
  • Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was largely finished in March 2022. It was delayed until May 2023 for 'polishing'. We've no real idea what condition the March 2022 build was like on a technical level. Was it a Scarlet/Violet mess, or a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fudge? My assumption is the latter. 2022 was stacked anyway, so Nintendo could afford the delay.
  • Everybody 1-2 Switch was initially finished at some point in 2021, with physical copies apparently already in production, but the game playtested abysmally. The game first leaked on this website in late 2021 and became known as The Legend of the Stinky Horse before Imran Khan officially reported on it in summer 2022. It's unclear if the eventual 2023 release was reworked, but I think the game's files indicate cut content so it wouldn't surprise me if NdCube were roped in to salvage something from it.
  • Pikmin 4 was "very close to completion" in 2015. However, Miyamoto was going through his rum era and probably should not have been let out to speak to Eurogamer that particular day. Whatever build of the game existed then is not the game we got in 2023.

So there you have it. 2023 was nuts, and nearly half Nintendo's line up was done well ahead of time. But given they have dozens of projects in the works at any one time, they do seem to have a degree of pipeline flexibility. We have been told in the past this is in part a strategic reaction to the Wii U generation, when they didn't have any flexibility in their software pipeline. We've seen that with ports like NSMB U DX being on the eShop servers months ahead of reveal, or something like WarioWare Get It Together going to age ratings agencies a year before release, or the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 situation.

For more on Did You Spo Gaming? check out our video about how 2D Zelda is almost certainly definitely maybe hopefully launching this year because that's what I dream of happening.
Click to expand...
I should probably mention that Future Redeemed also 100% counts for the purpose of this list. Xenoblade 3 was likely complete before it's reveal in 2022 and development of the expansion was def happening alongside Xenoblade 3's. There's no way it wasn't finished prior 2023 and it's reveal in the February direct.
2023 legit might be the Switch's best year tbh, so much good shit released that year.
 
This upcoming Direct will have something for ALL fans. Turn-based RPG fans. Action RPG fans. Tactical RPG fans. Looter RPG fans. MMORPG fans. Rogue-like RPG fans. Something for everyone.
 
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