Yeah since Retro isn’t making Prime 4, you’d have to suspect they’re doing a new DK game. And we’ll maybe get a port of Tropical Freeze.
The fee will be around 20 dollars a year but it’s free for now.
What online multiplayer? Zing!
wumpus
2915
Man, the Switch release list for end of 2017 and early 2018 looks … pretty dire from my perspective. This is gonna be a Mario and Link machine for a while, which I guess is tolerable since these games are ultra deep and ZOMG ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ BEST IN THE SERIES, ALL TIME
The big AAA release for Christmas (assuming you aren’t excited about Skyrim, which I’m not) is Xenoblade 2. I think they’ve done a really good job of having at least 1 interesting looking smaller game per week (although interesting looking doesn’t always pay off), but if you’re looking for big release titles there isn’t much else.
Yeah, Octopath Traveller and Fire Emblem are the releases I’m excited about in 2018 and neither are Q1
However… I don’t have Disgaea 5 yet. That’s like a 100 hour sinkhole just waiting…
The switch list doesn’t look much different than the PS4 and XB1 lists. I think it’s normal that everyone tries to release between E3 and the holidays, with releases being slow in December -> April.
The big AAA release for Christmas is Super Mario Odyssey. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a nice bonus. They’re selling the Switch on the back of Breath of the Wild, SMO, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and a broad catalog of other options for this holiday. Those are the games that drive everyday consumer sales. The rest is all gravy to fill out the catalog. Some will sell well (I think DOOM has started really strong and Skyrim will fare well too) and some will be middling successes.
Nintendo has been doing this for years now. They don’t talk much about the next year while they’re selling the games they put out in the current year. The next “big” release is Skyrim this week. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the next big one after that. It’ll be quiet until after the 25th and then in early January they’ll start dishing out dates for the things coming in 2018. There will likely be a “big” release in January that they haven’t talked about yet.
So far, Nintendo has had at least one big Nintendo release in almost every month after launch. I don’t think they’ll stray from that plan.
March - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and 1-2 Switch
April - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
May - (No Nintendo, but there was Minecraft and Ultra Street Fighter II and as they did in November this year, I think they got out of the way for third parties that month…)
June - Arms
July - Splatoon 2
August - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
September - Pokken Tournament DX
October - Super Mario Odyssey and Fire Emblem Warriors
November - (Again, no Nintendo but DOOM and Skyrim are taking the first party-like spotlight. Don’t forget that Skyrim has Legend of Zelda tie ins with costumes, etc. It’s getting first party-like billing from Nintendo… Rocket League too… also L.A. Noire and Sonic Forces regardless of its quality are definitely taking the spotlight too)
December - Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I suspect you’ll see a similarly managed list throughout 2018. It seems like Nintendo do try to get out of the way in November by releasing their games before the Call of Duty/Battlefield-front feeding frenzy begins each year. Also, we rarely mention them, but there are big sports game releases in there too. FIFA 18 and NBA 2K18 received major support as well.
Hmmm, I’m skeptical about that (though I was before and was proved wrong). I suspect they’ve frontloaded their releases to ensure a packed launch year and we’re going to see a bit of a drought, at least in terms of Mario/Zelda tier games, until at least holiday next year. It’s certainly true that Nintendo tend not to say too much about games until they’re pretty close to release, but it’s also true that they haven’t historically put out a lot of console games in any given year. It’s also going to take a while for those studios that were cautious on the Switch to get releases ready.
It’s not an issue for me, as I’ve already got far more to play on my Switch than time to play it, but if people are buying in expectation of a similar year two line-up, then I think they’re going to be very disappointed.
If you look at Nintendo’s 2016 on the Wii U, their internal teams weren’t working on it at all with the exception of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Paper Mario: Color Splash and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE had Intelligent Systems involvement, but everything else came from external developers that they put the Nintendo name on. IS is the very definition of a second party developer too as they’re not owned by Nintendo but produce all their stuff for them.
Nintendo has been planning for Switch for a very long time. The last truly internal developed Wii U game was Super Mario Maker, released in September of 2015.
Think about how Mario + Rabbids came out of nowhere at E3. That project had to have started two years ago. Maybe more? I think they just took time to get their ducks in a row while some other devs held down the fort for awhile. They kept supporting 3DS too, but those games obviously take less time to develop and again, they’re farming things out where they can. Metroid: Samus Returns being a good example of that.
.EDIT! - Duh… I forget that 3DS sometimes take the spotlight. Obviously this month for Nintendo is not about Switch, it’s about this…
I’m sure they have. Doesn’t mean they’ll be churning out a new “AAA” (or whatever that means for Nintendo) game every month. They haven’t done that for decades. Even the excellent Switch line-up in 2017 had a whole bunch of ports in it and one not very different sequel.
I’m also skeptical that Nintendo will be able to maintain this pace of AAA releases through 2018, but I still think the Switch looks really strong. I always assume there will only be one or two major Nintendo releases for their consoles per year that I’ll want (maybe 4-5 overall, but I never really get into a Pokemon game, for example), so that’s business as usual in my book. What worried me was that the 3rd party support wouldn’t be there, and the strong showing there is why I’ve changed my mind I wish I could afford a Switch now instead of just picking one up in 2-3 years to catch up on the Nintendo exclusives.
Third party support yes, but I’m not sure EA is really on board. FIFA and NBA were ok ports, but it could be roster updates from now on.
And a lot of the support may be in the vein of LA Noire and Skyrim – complete versions of popular last gen games. I suspect a GTA 5 next year… that’s a license to print money.
Nintendo needed to have massive releases every month to get the system selling. Now that it looks like third parties are willing to take up the mantel (both indies and AAA studios) I fully expect Nintendo to slow down to their usual speed.
FIFA is the only Electronic Arts game. NBA 2K18 is from 2K Sports, a subsidiary Take-Two Interactive.
I’m not sure EA is on board fully, but that’s par for the course and it comes from years of Nintendo neglect that started when Trip brought the company to consoles with the SEGA Genesis many moons ago. He just talked about it in a recent interview in fact. It’s a corporate legacy for them at this point. They do have one other announced game right now though…
Portable Grand Theft Auto V does seem like a license to print money. I guess we will see? I am optimistic.
Isn’t all the money in GTAV in the online world? I’m not sure the Switch has the infrastructure there for it to be a hit the way it is on the other consoles. There might be people who would enjoy the single player campaign again on the go, but I’d hardly call it a “license to print money”.
Also, I’m pretty sure they stopped supporting the 360/PS3 versions with their newer content a while back. Not sure where the Switch falls in the gap between the generations, but it may not make sense if they have to deal with that.
Now a new GTA for the Switch? Chinatown Wars 2? That fantasy sounds a lot more appealing and practical.
Glad to hear Ace Attorney is making an appearance on the Switch. Maybe they’ll finally make that Phoenix Wright Amiibo I’ve been waiting for.
And The World Ends With You 2 sounds fascinating. Not only because it was one of the best DS titles, but also because I’m curious how they’re going to transition the gameplay to a single screen.
I’m not getting my hopes up until it’s confirmed this is about new (or new to the West anyway) games. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just ported the DS/3DS games. Getting the Dai Gyakuten Saiban games would be pretty awesome though.
KevinC
2930
Speaking of that game, I downloaded and tried the demo. I’ve never played that series before and I like what I saw from a gameplay front, but I think I might kill myself if I have to listen to that laugh one more time. Does anyone know if dialogue audio can be turned off in the game or anything like that? Because I would really like a RPG/tactics kind of game so that seemed right up my alley, but dear god I don’t think I could handle it.
