I think that a new Zelda is years away, but the Switch’s successor will come out next year or early 2025 at the latest.
I do expect Mario Kart 9 and a new 3D Mario at launch.
I think they’ll release a Tears of the Kingdom “Deluxe” a few months later (similar to what they did with Mario Kart 8 on the Switch). Enough people want a higher-res TotK that it’s worth making, but banking on an upscaled port as a launch title isn’t something they’d do.
There was also a leak about a year ago that claimed that this game was done, playtesting results were awful, and they were trying to figure out what to do with it.
When they silently dropped a trailer 2 weeks before release and a few days before a Nintendo Direct, I was convinced the leak was true, and that this would be a disaster.
“Okay” reviews are a huge surprise.
The weird thing is that it seems late for Nintendo to still be working on R&D for the Switch 2. This is probably less than a year from announcement. At this point, I would expect them to be hammering out agreements with suppliers, so the hardware should be more-or-less done.
Then again, I have no idea what the timeline is like for console development.
Assuming any of this is legit:
Is it possible that the “Switch 2” has a hybrid version like the Switch, a handheld version like the Switch Lite, and a home console version? (Or even just hybrid and home console versions, with a handheld to come later?)
These could all run the same software with very similar hardware, but the home console would either be cheaper or offer higher resolutions and/or framerates than the docked hybrid console.
Customers might get confused, but this is arguably more straightforward than the current lineup.
The downside is that developers would need to handle 3 different configurations (handheld, docked, and home).
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s one of the last big releases on Switch.
We know that the Switch’s successor won’t be out until FY2024, so April 2024 at the earliest. There’s also some indication that Nintendo is going to build a bit of a stockpile before launching to reduce scalping. I think that fall 2024 is the earliest realistic launch window. Even then, it’s possible that Nintendo keeps releasing games for the Switch after the next console launch (as Sony has kept the PS4 going post-PS5).
Nintendo has a packed release schedule through November 2023 and then there’s nothing. The only confirmed games with no release date are Luigi’s Mansion 2, Metroid Prime 4, and the Princess Peach game. It’s possible that those all come out next year for the Switch.
I was about to say, Nintendo seems to already be doing this, having learned their lesson from the Metroid Prime 4 debacle.
After the MP4 reset, I think Tears of the Kingdom is the only Nintendo game that was announced more than a few months ahead of its release. They even started shadow-dropping games this year.
Too boring to appeal to the MAGA crowd, too dangerous to appeal to anyone else.
It’s worse than that. The DoE’s main job is overseeing nuclear materials (not just nuclear power plants, but the entire nuclear weapon stockpile).
Are we being pedantic about the definition of species? Mosquitos from the Anopheles genus (and only those species) spread malaria. They’re humanity’s #1 killer.
Driving them and the other mosquito species that spread human disease (Aedes spread dengue, yellow fever, Zika, and chikungunya) should be seriously considered.
A lot of the third-party compilations for Switch include one game and allow you to download the rest (Assassin’s Creed is one).
On the plus side, Nintendo is good about releasing revision cartridges with updates. I think that new copies of Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey have been fully patched for years.
The Switch is turning Nintendo franchises into sales machines.
The top selling Zelda games are Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Nothing else comes close. The Link’s Awakening remake and Skyward Sword remaster also outsold the originals.
Animal Crossing New Horizons outsold the rest of the series by a factor of 3.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 sold more copies than the previous two combined.
Metroid Dread is the best-selling Metroid game of all-time.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the best-selling Kirby game, and Kirby Star Allies is #3.
Fire Emblem Three Houses is the best-selling Fire Emblem game.
It’s not unreasonable to think that Pikmin 4 could be a breakout for the franchise.
When I played it a few months ago, it felt complete enough to get a full release. I didn’t run into any major issues, and there was plenty to do.
Microsoft also owns Windows, so it’s debatable whether a game for PC and Xbox can truly be considered multiplatform.
Utopia is a must-have.
Leviathan and Distant Stars are good for their prices.
Beyond that, get what sounds interesting. If you want to play as robots, get Synthetic Dawn. If you want planet-destroying weapons, get Apocalypse. If you like playing diplomatically, get Federations.
This far exceeded my expectations:
But the bad news:
Right. People who grew up with video games as a normal thing (30-35 or younger) think that video games are socially acceptable at any age.
People above that age probably have a “cutoff” of teens or 20s.
Then he has never been the victim of a cyber-attack!