I mean, the fact that they are going to Gamescom makes me pretty confident in this. People are mentioning Twitter drops all the time but aside from obvious COVID mode or EPD4 games, they are not announcing other EPD games this way.
Could also be in May
/s
My understanding is that anyone knew about Partner Showcase last year because it indeed was Partner Showcase, it's 3rd party focused. We had reports from people about it who are not really not into reporting this kind of stuff. General Direct is a whole different story imo.Could also be in May
I'll be honest - the fact that none of the insiders have heard anything yet when they apparently heard about the Partner Showcase from last year 2 months in advance definitely has me a bit more pessimistic on a Direct happening anytime soon... And yet I'm not really worried about Nintendo's output thanks to their attendance at Gamescom, since that pretty much confirms they'll have some games playable there, meaning that they will be announced beforehand, one way or another.
I agree with this. The most we will get is a third party mini direct much like last year. They have TotK and Pikmin 4 carrying them through summer.
Yeah, from what I remember pretty much everyone knew that there was going to be something about Mario + Rabbids on that day, so it was probably Ubisoft leaking like usual. (Although if I recall correctly, some other announcements were teased by insiders as well)
Well, not really. Some past examples, last year's September Direct Grubb said he heard of Direct on the 12th around the last day of August, so around 13 days in advance. For this year's February Direct he said around 6 days before official announcement that it's coming the week of 6th, so only around 7 days before. We still got plenty of time.
That's what I'm expecting too, but it is weird that they didn't announce couple more second half games in their February Direct if they were going to wait all the way till September to announce another major title.
Remember there are no more major games after TotK, we're gonna go 12-24 months with no games.
Genie, you're free.
So the main "hype season" schedule currently looks like:
You're missing the /s
14th/15th remains my bet. Outside of E3-mandated Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are Nintendo's preferred days in the Switch era for their general presentation. It also means a month has elapsed for the dust to settle from Zelda, there's a full month before Pikmin 4 to begin promotion, and it leaves decent sized marketing windows for any announced 2023 games.
This is my bet for weeks too now, not to mention that they will do it before Pikmin 4 promotions really starts the week after with a dedicated Direct. It makes much more sense to show trailer and announce Pikmin 4 Direct to air week after in a General presentation.
The source on this rumor is quite dubious and gives off some big sour grapes vibes.
I mean… you just described every Direct thread in history, that’s how we roll
True, but this time the pattern feels even more obvious
opinion: they might not have anything for August
Nintendo has published only one full price game in August over the Switch’s entire lifespan, and it fell on the very last day of the month. It’s not a priority month for them, for whatever reason.
I do think that releasing a game in August is a tough choice. Its after the "big blockbuster summer" season and before the start of "holiday shopping" season so marketing might see it as a waste of time and resources.
I could actually see Side Order releasing in August, perfect slot.
I would agree, but I expect its release to be tied to the start of a season
That's possible, altough I would argue that new season will basically get overshadow with it, but it's true that Wave 1 was almost launch with new season.
