What's exactly going on with Nintendo lately...?

[SirPentious]

Perhaps I'm evidencing the obvious here but... I feel Nintendo's way of communication has changed A LOT ever since Switch 2 released last year, and not in a good way. Like... ever since we had only one General Direct, and that was almost 8 months ago. We haven't got any new first party announcements ever since (well, excluding Pokemon), and all they did ever since was to announce the release dates of their various games of this year in random days and completely in shadowdrop a few months before their releases, and now their lineup after July is a gigantic question mark. We don't know anything that is coming out after that month (outside of Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave) and there are no signs of news from them anytime soon. Why are they being so deadly silent lately? I honestly preferred when they had full Directs every 3-4 months...

I REALLY hope that whatever they have in store after July, they reveal it with a big Direct in June, because if they're gonna avoid that one as well and they will just reveal the games for the Fall one by one with shadowdrops in random days, then they really lost it... (I can get behind shadowdropping the release dates of known games, but revealing the games literally 45 days before the release... doesn't seem really wise honestly). Anyone?

 

[Nicolas721]

The "optimistic" theory is that they just don't see worth investing on marketing as much as before. In this day and age what drives sales more is word-of-mouth and streamers playing it rather than trailers released ages ago. Of course, you want your product to be well-remembered but a trailer sometimes isn't enough to generate interest anymore especially as it could be competing with already-released products.

The pessimistic theory is something that I fear is happening with Pokemon too, which is that they could be in a period of confusion and restructuration. Things like the price scandals and Mario Kart World not being universally loved left a dent in the public image of Nintendo, and they are sorting ways to fix it, but that requires reorganizing of present and future projects and shuffling of previous plans. For example, in Pokemon we have had a new Switch product every 6 weeks for the last 6 months (Z-A, Z-A DLC, Pokopia and Champions) whereas in 2024 we got none and none are announced for the second half of 2026 too, if that is not unusual then I don't know what is. And of course, politics and global issues never help.

 

[SirPentious]

The "optimistic" theory is that they just don't see worth investing on marketing as much as before. In this day and age what drives sales more is word-of-mouth and streamers playing it rather than trailers released ages ago. Of course, you want your product to be well-remembered but a trailer sometimes isn't enough to generate interest anymore especially as it could be competing with already-released products.

The pessimistic theory is something that I fear is happening with Pokemon too, which is that they could be in a period of confusion and restructuration. Things like the price scandals and Mario Kart World not being universally loved left a dent in the public image of Nintendo, and they are sorting ways to fix it, but that requires reorganizing of present and future projects and shuffling of previous plans. For example, in Pokemon we have had a new Switch product every 6 weeks for the last 6 months (Z-A, Z-A DLC, Pokopia and Champions) whereas in 2024 we got none and none are announced for the second half of 2026 too, if that is not unusual then I don't know what is. And of course, politics and global issues never help.

It also doesn't really help that this year a certain colossus named GTA VI is coming for the holiday season, so they... can't really put their biggest title for the holiday (... whatever it will be) in that period, so I assume that by the time that game released they will have released all of their major titles for the year. Thing is, as I already said, we don't know ANYTHING of what is coming beyond July other than Fire Emblem...

Again: I REALLY hope that whatever they have in store, they show it in a Direct. It's really not wise to just shadowdrop their existence 5-6 weeks before their releases. They HAVE to advertise them well, no matter how much the Direct costs. If they skip the June Direct as well, then I don't really know what to think anymore...

 

[Archaic]

Honestly, I suspect the main reason Nintendo has been so coy about upcoming titles is because we're going into the second year of the Switch 2. Which is to say.... the launch year is when you expect things to be driven by 1st party titles where you're trying to just get people to purchase the console. Year 2 is when you pull back to allow 3rd parties to take the spotlight, so that they can get established on the platform, see that it will be profitable for them, and won't feel like they're being crowded out by how difficult it is to compete with Nintendo. Most 1st party announcements you'd expect this year in that case would be exactly the kind of thing we've got with Star Fox, Splatoon Raiders, and even arguably Pokopia:

• Sold at a reduced price point, if not outright budget titles
• Either
  • Remakes or remasters of games from franchises outside of their top tier
  • Experimental titles connected to their higher tier franchises

Now that we've had the announcement of Star Fox, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if our next major Direct isn't that far away, and that it's a partner direct focused on 3rd parties. Expect a few shadowdrops (likely of titles, particularly remakes/remasters, already released on other platforms), a few major titles for the 2nd half of the year, and a whole lot of Triple-I titles.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Honestly, I suspect the main reason Nintendo has been so coy about upcoming titles is because we're going into the second year of the Switch 2. Which is to say.... the launch year is when you expect things to be driven by 1st party titles where you're trying to just get people to purchase the console. Year 2 is when you pull back to allow 3rd parties to take the spotlight, so that they can get established on the platform, see that it will be profitable for them, and won't feel like they're being crowded out by how difficult it is to compete with Nintendo. Most 1st party announcements you'd expect this year in that case would be exactly the kind of thing we've got with Star Fox, Splatoon Raiders, and even arguably Pokopia:

• Sold at a reduced price point, if not outright budget titles
• Either
  • Remakes or remasters of games from franchises outside of their top tier
  • Experimental titles connected to their higher tier franchises

Now that we've had the announcement of Star Fox, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if our next major Direct isn't that far away, and that it's a partner direct focused on 3rd parties. Expect a few shadowdrops (likely of titles, particularly remakes/remasters, already released on other platforms), a few major titles for the 2nd half of the year, and a whole lot of Triple-I titles.

I think the spectre of Fire Emblem is the only wrinkle here, and even then it's the only really big release Nintendo has on the horizon so this mostly holds up. In general I'd actually say this has been a remarkably busy year from Nintendo.

 

[Archaic]

Fire Emblem is a bit harder to place. Like with Three Houses, the primary developer of this entry is quite likely to be a 3rd party, Koei Tecmo, rather than 2nd party Intelligent Systems.

If we count it as the major 1st party release for the year, then it’s still a release trying to stay out of the 3rd parties. While a popular franchise within its niche, turn based strategy RPGs are not exactly a hugely common genre, so they’re not going to be in direct competition with a lot of what’s coming out this year. As a direct story sequel to Three Houses, its appeal is also artificially limited, such that people who haven’t played that game might be less willing to jump on this one.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Fire Emblem is a bit harder to place. Like with Three Houses, the primary developer of this entry is quite likely to be a 3rd party, Koei Tecmo, rather than 2nd party Intelligent Systems.

If we count it as the major 1st party release for the year, then it’s still a release trying to stay out of the 3rd parties. While a popular franchise within its niche, turn based strategy RPGs are not exactly a hugely common genre, so they’re not going to be in direct competition with a lot of what’s coming out this year. As a direct story sequel to Three Houses, its appeal is also artificially limited, such that people who haven’t played that game might be less willing to jump on this one.

Perhaps I'm a bit biased because I do play very heavily in the RPG space, but my impression is that Three Houses was fairly popular (certainly enough to remain an incessant discourse-producing machine to this day) and sold quite well for an RPG. 4 million copies is obviously not super impressive in comparison to, say, the numbers Mario can put up, but I think it's pretty clear that Nintendo does consider Fire Emblem a core franchise. It is true that its appeal is comparatively narrow, but I think it's reasonable to assume that Fortune's Weave is Nintendo's big first party tentpole for 2026.

(Points of order: as far as I know, Fortune's Weave is being developed by Intelligent Systems rather than Koei Tecmo, unless there was some news piece I missed indicating otherwise... and it's more than likely a prequel, not a sequel )

 

[Archaic]

Oh, I don’t disagree that Fortune’s Weave is likely the closest to a tentpole they have this year. What I’m getting at is more that developers making FPS games, Sports games, or the like don’t really see that sort of content as being in direct competition to them, since they’re really going after different crowds.

As for its development, with how cagey Nintendo have been lately about who’s involved in development, I wouldn’t expect a firm identification prior to the game actually coming out and people having a read of the credits.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Oh, I don’t disagree that Fortune’s Weave is likely the closest to a tentpole they have this year. What I’m getting at is more that developers making FPS games, Sports games, or the like don’t really see that sort of content as being in direct competition to them, since they’re really going after different crowds.

That's fair... or unfair, depending on how much of an RPG-head you are, but either way I can agree.