Cliff Notes – What will be in today’s Nintendo Direct?
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Focus on Existing Titles: The upcoming Nintendo Direct is expected to highlight previously announced games, such as Star Wars Outlaws and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, rather than introducing many new titles.
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Potential for New Announcements: There is speculation that Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be announced, alongside other minor Xbox games, although the likelihood of major titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 appearing remains uncertain.
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Third-Party Exclusives Desired: There is a growing disappointment regarding the lack of new third-party exclusives for the Switch 2, with hopes for announcements from companies like Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Sega.
Games Inbox: What will be in today’s Nintendo Direct?
Is Assassin’s Creed Shadows coming to Switch 2? (Ubisoft)
The Thursday letters page is confused as to why Monster Hunter Wilds has seen a sales slump, as one reader expects Horizon Zero Dawn 3 to be a PS6 launch title.
Third party predictions
I knew the Nintendo Direct would be a disappointment in some way, just because I agree with the theory that there are no more first party games for this year, so they’re not going to want you looking forwards to things that aren’t out yet, when they’ve still got new games to sell you.
I thought it would be a Metroid Prime 4 Direct though, so a Partner Direct is probably a bit more interesting (hopefully, not that I have anything against Metroid Prime 4 but I’m already sold on it so I don’t need to know much else).
Following the rule that you should always expect nothing, and not be disappointed, I think they’ll focus mostly on stuff that’s already been announced, but is Nintendo friendly, like Star Wars Outlaws, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and Borderlands 4. I imagine Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Elden Ring will be the things they spend the most time on.
The question is whether we get anything completely new announced. I’m sure there’ll be something and Assassin’s Creed Shadows and a couple of minor Xbox games are probably likely. I’m not so sure about Red Dead Redemption 2 though, just because I can’t imagine it running on Switch 2, and if it does there’ll probably be some compromise like bad frame rates.
My hope for a complete surprise is something new from one of Nintendo’s close allies, like Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, or Konami. The lack of new games from any of them is my biggest disappointment with the Switch 2 so far. Ports are fine but I want to see third party Switch 2 exclusives.
Lentil
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Fresh start
I’d agree that a Horizon game set in another country would be cool, although they don’t really make much of a deal of it being set in the US, just a few landmarks here and there. That’s probably not surprising given I believe Guerilla Games are Dutch.
I do wonder what they’ll do with the next game though, as I assume it won’t be changing setting. I also assume it’ll be a PlayStation 6 game, possibly a launch title. I know the games have sold a lot, but I still don’t feel they’re necessarily that popular, if that makes sense? They just have excellent graphics and quite good gameplay (and bad stories).
Maybe I’m living in a bubble, but I’ve never met a Horizon fan and it just doesn’t seem like something anyone would ever get that excited about, beyond a general approval. I wouldn’t launch my new console with it, but I guess we’ll see.
Zorro
Do they care?
This Mario Kart World update raises an important question I’ve always wondered about Nintendo. Do they know when people are complaining about a certain issue in their games or do they just not care? If it was any other company they’ve be begging for forgiveness and promising a patch as soon as possible (which they may or may not do).
With Nintendo though, not only do they not say or acknowledge anything they almost seem to be trolling us half the time, by changing everything but what people are upset about. I can’t see how they wouldn’t know about the issues but maybe they don’t read comments online on purpose or something? Or maybe they do, then have a good laugh about how they’re not going to do anything about it.
Jono
Hero to zero
I was already confused at how Monster Hunter Wilds could become the best-selling game of the year and now I’m even more confused as to why its sales have fallen off a cliff. Even if you say Devil May Cry sales have shot up because of the Netflix show (not that I knew there was a Netflix show) how can even Resident Evil 7 be outselling it now? That was eight years ago!
To be fair, I’ve never been interested in it or any other live service game but I wonder if the focus on the story is what’s caused these problems. As far as I understand nobody likes it, but Capcom thinks it’s the reason why the game was so successful. So maybe they spent all the time on that rather than the ‘endgame’ content that would’ve kept people happy.
Although I don’t know why that would affect sales, rather than just the number of people playing. Is that just the power of word of mouth? Are people really putting that much stock in Steam reviews and whatever? I dunno, I think I’m more happy than ever with just my single-player games.
Mogwai
Battlefield issues
So, I’m OK at Call Of Duty. I win regularly on Warzone and top multiplayer, but the issue I have with Battlefield, and I’ve tried many games and I’m prepared to give the new one a go as I don’t want any publisher going under… but the issue I’ve always had are two really. The first is that the planes and helicopters are difficult to fly and if you want the casual gamer to play that’s a great problem.
The second is when killed the distance needed to travel to get back in the game, which can get very frustrating. They need to appeal more to the casual gamer, most don’t have time to put hours into learn how to fly or spend time travelling over a large map just to get killed on arrival.
TWO MACKS
The true cost of power
So what do you think to the brand new Evercade Neo Geo Super Pocket handheld with 14 Neo Geo games pre-installed into the tiny system? And the future three Neo Geo Arcade cartridges due to come out later on this year?
Celebrating their 35th anniversary on how time flies by, hey? For me personally it’s a fantastic idea what Evercade have done, to collaborate with Neo Geo, giving us oldies a piece of nostalgia that was way out of most people’s budget back in the early noughties.
I mean after the initial release of the console I believe you could only rent it out at certain retailers and countries at first. Then when it actually went on sale to the general public didn’t the console itself retail for approximately £600 and the games were on average around £200 each!
Also, as far as I’m aware, the power of the Neo Geo was almost as powerful as the Sega Dreamcast that came out almost a decade later, it was that advanced. That’s why the games you played then in your home were completely true 100% perfect arcade.
HAJ
GC: The console was £399 at launch in the UK, but the games were indeed £200 or more. Adjusted for inflation that’s £920 for the hardware, with games that were upwards of £460. It was the ultimate 2D machine, but unlike the Dreamcast it was useless for 3D polygonal graphics. We’ve not played the Evercade handheld but they usually do good stuff, so we’re all for it.
All GTA, all the time
Part of me thinks that GTA 6 can never live up expectations, given how long it’s been, and that’ll probably be literally true. But I still think it’s absolutely going to dominate everything in terms of sales, in terms of the amount of people playing it, and just everyone constantly talking about it, all the time.
It’s going to be on the news, it’s going to be blamed for all sorts of crimes and social problems, and no matter how sick you get of hearing about it, it’s going to keep selling and selling. As someone that likes GTA but isn’t a mega fan I almost dread it coming out. It’s definitely going to mean nothing else big coming out for months, and that at least is not a good thing.
Roger
Digital only
Thanks for the Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound review. I wanted to ask if you played it with the analogue stick or with the D-pad. I ask because I’m torn between buying it on either the Xbox Series X console or for my Switch 2.
The problem comes down to Nintendo not providing a proper pad for portable mode play and the D-pad is still lame on the Pro Controller 2. If you swap between left/right quickly as you might do while gaming, you get frequent up/down inputs. And if you hold left or right, rocking your finger up or down slightly also triggers an up or down input very frequently. Just adjusting your grip while holding left or right is enough to also trigger up or down.
This is an issue for 2D platformers and games like Tetris, specifically, are not really well-suited for the analogue stick and would normally work better with a D-pad. I’m not buying Street Fighter 6 on the Switch 2 for this reason. I couldn’t even get past the tutorial with Luke when trying to do a double quarter circle special move and I don’t like arcade sticks.
Charlie H.
GC: That’s a good question. We started off playing it with the analogue stick, but the on-screen commands imply you should be using the D-pad and since the controls are digital-only we went with that. We can’t say we’ve had any trouble with the Pro Controller 2 but the better reason to avoid the Switch version is that it’s 30fps only, whereas the Xbox and PlayStation versions are all 60fps. Dotemu has said the Switch 2 version will be improved, but they haven’t guaranteed 60fps.
Inbox also-rans
Now you come to think of it why is Devil May Cry 6 taking so long? The last one was a hit and Capcom are in the money so what went wrong?
Bronson
GC: It is a mystery, although the director of Devil May Cry 5 leaving last year can’t have helped.
Loving Donkey Kong Bananza so far and special shout out to the soundtrack. Really great stuff, as usual, from Nintendo.
Whistler
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