General Nintendo Direct/Treehouse/Other Interweb Broadcast Thread

The_Jaster wrote:

Some of the anger I've seen over this direct mini is so bizarre to me (I guess folk really are that bored right now)...

I think that's it - not just because of COVID, but because there hasn't been a 'proper' Direct in yonks and we don't know what we're getting big-games-wise in the second half of the year, so I guess the Direct Mini becomes kind of an outlet for that frustration. It's not that most people's expectations for this Mini were high, but rather that a Mini really wasn't what they wanted.

I forgot this was on and don't feel like I missed anything. I was still a bit disappointed because there was nowt targeting me, and I did think they might've showed something like NMH3 or... I don't know what else to be honest. But I'm not too fussed by that - I'm fussed that we haven't had a bigger Direct, or if COVID makes that harder to put together then just some gameplay or trailers or screenshots or something from Nintendo in H2 2020.

Having said that there was somebody on Twitter who said something along the lines of, 'I know you said you weren't going to show Metroid but you should've known we'd expect it anyway and cancelled the Direct' which made me

Balla wrote:

It's not that most people's expectations for this Mini were high, but rather that a Mini really wasn't what they wanted.

That still doesn't really excuse those who are being colossal fannies & apparently review bombing a bunch of the SMT games. Also I think everyone would love to have a big proper Direct as well but those kinds of big blow you out the water Directs can't happen every couple of months because 1 games take years to make & 2 Nintendo have always liked to show off games when they are practically finished.

Oh for sure, review-bombing is generally immensely childish.  I get the disappointment but not the 'colossal fannyness'.  As for the 'big proper Direct' point, I feel that at this stage, with the Switch coming into the prime of its life and with it being Nintendo's only machine (sod off mobile nobody likes you), we should be seeing a fair few games that have 'taken years to make' this H2.  We would have had a Direct at E3 time without COVID, which Nintendo claimed recently it hasn't held up development yet but has held up development of Directs.  At this stage I'd just like to see what they would have shown off, Direct or no.

(Side note: I actually have more than enough games to play, but none of them have me hyped like a big Nintendo release can achieve.  That's the hit I'm craving.)


On another note, in my opinion the most interesting game of the Mini-Direct wasn't actually shown in the west:



(More information here.  The description gives me Ever Oasis vibes.)

I saw that and I think the Japanese Direct was good as I've got some interest in

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster
Shin Megami Tensei V
Cadence of Hyrule DLC/Physical
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & The Secret Fairy, I've still not played an Atelier game
Yo-Kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions

Only problem with those games and why that was shown for Japan and not something like WWE is because of the audiences.

Balla wrote:

We would have had a Direct at E3 time without COVID, which Nintendo claimed recently it hasn't held up development yet but has held up development of Directs.  At this stage I'd just like to see what they would have shown off, Direct or no.

Yeah, it would nice but that to me shows they still think highly of the direct format that they would hold back showing one of their big games by itself and rather have it together with everything else.

Well they've now pretty much confirmed that development is going to be affected by COVID and it looks like I'm just going to have a slightly bobbins year that I can't even reasonably get annoyed about.

Hmm, as I said before even though we've seen delays etc other studios are getting games out and both MS & Sony will be launching consoles that why has COVID affected Nintendo so much? Still, I've got lots to play across all of gaming.

masofdas wrote:

why has COVID affected Nintendo so much? Still, I've got lots to play across all of gaming.

Maybe, and this is a wild idea but stick with me, it's because Nintendo give a shit about their staff? Companies are rushing people back to work way before its safe and countries are pretending the pandemic is over because it got too expensive and boring, but Nintendo is the company that saw the managmenet cut their wages rather than let people lose their jobs and that genuinely delayed a game to avoid crunch.

You might be right, just they seem to be the only ones unless they're the only ones that care. Like I know Spencer awhile ago talked about how if they got to delay Halo Infinite they will as staff health etc more important but that's still coming holiday 2020.

masofdas wrote:

they're the only ones that care.

I think it's a bit of that, combined with a slightly quieter year anyway - although we're just over half way through the year and we've had Animal Crossing, Paper Mario, Pokemon DLC and Deadly Premonition 2.

Yeah that's not a bad 4 things and Nintendo Life did a article as people are saying Nintendo's worse year but looking at why they put based on games they scored above 8 (think it was above just for me a lot I'd sooner play elsewhere (in case of CrossCode, think that be great on Switch but it's in Game Pass) and guess for someone like Balla it's being peaky.

Without COVID, I'd wonder why we're having a quieter year during what should be the Switch's heyday. With COVID it's utterly annoyingly understandable. (Also from what I've heard/read Deadly Premonition 2 shouldn't be in anybody's 'top games of the year' list, including for people who loved the original.) There's another point I discussed elsewhere about games development costs but that's one for another thread.

Buskalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

why has COVID affected Nintendo so much? Still, I've got lots to play across all of gaming.

Maybe, and this is a wild idea but stick with me, it's because Nintendo give a shit about their staff? Companies are rushing people back to work way before its safe and countries are pretending the pandemic is over because it got too expensive and boring, but Nintendo is the company that saw the managmenet cut their wages rather than let people lose their jobs and that genuinely delayed a game to avoid crunch.

I'd like to think this, but (I thought I recalled you saying this) isn't it more likely just to be that Japanese companies in general were less well prepared to WfH? They don't have the infrastructure. Sony has enough Western partners that it doesn't seem likely to bother them as much.

Did I? Japan has insanely fast internet.

I think culturally people were less willing to do it here, but they would work from home before, heaven forbid, they stopped working.

Balla wrote:

Without COVID, I'd wonder why we're having a quieter year during what should be the Switch's heyday.

I think we are just used to Nintendo consoles usually having a much slower start whereas we have had all the big hitters much much earlier for Switch, also I think the system will have a much longer lifespan than the typical Nintendo system as well so stuff will just have to be spaced out a little more because of that.

You see Eiyuden is planning to come to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch/Nintendo's Current System as the game is planned for 2022 knowing a game on KickStarter it be delayed to 2023.

That unlike Bloodstained which I think they mentioned which was WiiU etc they're planning ahead and going for what will be current for everyone, which makes sense even though I've seen people go it run on PS4 (PS4 would be 10 years old in 2023) and we all know it be long retired by then.

And on Switch it would be 6 years old in 2023, that I could see a replacement by then or coming at least, especially seeing Nintendo have said Switch is halfway through its lifespan.

We're, what, nearly forty-one months one from the Switch's March 2017 launch? I can definitely see it going on for another three or so years, sure.

Forty-one months after the Wii U's launch would have been April 2016. I'd been done with the Wii U for at least half a year before that. Guess that shows how successful and fresh the Switch has been (and how pish the Wii U was).

I disagree not it's success but my enjoyment I know I'm in the minority that would have enjoyed tha time on Wii U over Switch.

Three years... yep I can see that, more if they do eventually launch a 'Switch Pro' incremental upgrade.

Buskalilly wrote:

Did I? Japan has insanely fast internet.

I think culturally people were less willing to do it here, but they would work from home before, heaven forbid, they stopped working.

Maybe that's what you said and I misinterpreted it.  I thought it might not be a matter of Internet but the other things we/I take for granted when WfH: laptops, space to work, relative peace.  I may be wrong!  

The_Jaster wrote:

I think we are just used to Nintendo consoles usually having a much slower start whereas we have had all the big hitters much much earlier for Switch, also I think the system will have a much longer lifespan than the typical Nintendo system as well so stuff will just have to be spaced out a little more because of  that.  

That is definitely part of it - we had a belting first year which 'set the tone', only it actually didn't.  I disagree that we've had all the big hitters (especially if you don't include remakes and ports), but we certainly had a hell of a lot of wonderful games in 2017 and the other years haven't quite matched up.  There's also another big contributing issue to this...

...which I'll discuss somewhere else, since this one's close to reaching the 1k mark where Forumotion makes it split!  I guess I'll drag this topic over to the Switch chat thread, and then when another Direct's announced somebody can create a new one of these.