Topic: What will Nintendo release in 2020?

[Khushrenada]

Has Covid-19 played havoc with Nintendo's planned Switch schedule or is Nintendo preparing for a big 2nd half of 2020?

Just saw this image and it is striking how much Nintendo's output has shrunk for this year.



Now, not sure when the image was made as a couple things are missing like Good Job!, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Clubhouse Games. Also, the picture doesn't account for DLC but I don't generally think of DLC as the same as releasing a new game. So while Nintendo has certainly been active this year in adding on to past releases, the actual games they're releasing is currently at a 1 per month strategy. (Although Brain Age hasn't released in NA so it isn't quite that at the moment.) Going by the last couple years, you could argue that they've averaged one major release per month if you don't feel Super Kirby Clash or Fitness Boxing really represents a game Nintendo had to put much work into developing.

Currently, let's group the year like so: Jan. = Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Feb. = Good Job!/Brain Training (take your pick or include both), Mar. = Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Apr. = AC - New Horizons, May = XC Definitive Edition, June = Clubhouse Games.

Neal had the recent article about the Switch Port index and how 2018 was a high year. 2020 may yet surpass it with how things are going. There's been the rumor of 3D Mario remasters also in development that isn't pictured here or in Steef's breakdown. It's got me feeling restless about the Switch's offerings again like 2018 and Nintendo's releases. This Switch generation has been such a mixed bag after going through the Wii U years. So many ports and games that feel samey. Mario Maker 2, Smash Ultimate, Clubhouse Games are just some examples of games that have new elements and development put into them but kind of suffer from having had past editions seem fresher. (I know there are those that will disagree with me on that particularly with Smash but I'm just stating my feelings toward them and not stating this as fact.) Looking at that list, 2017 may have had less titles published/developed by Nintendo but it is still Nintendo's best year for the Switch and most of the games released are still the best games worth owning the console for. The past couple years haven't really produced much for contenders in best Nintendo Switch game(s).

Has Nintendo been saving a lot of major releases and heavy hitters for the back-end of 2020? This was supposed to be the year that the competition released new consoles although people are now wondering if they might not get delayed into 2021. Was Nintendo planning on trying to murder that next-gen by releasing month after month of big hype games to further drive up demand for Switch into the holidays and curb-stomp Sony and Microsoft's launch offerings? It seems like the big three here are all in a high-stakes game with no one wanting to reveal their cards or make the first move. With E3 out of the equation, how long will this wait-and-see approach keep going?

I just hope Nintendo's got a Megaton Direct. Not that I really need it since I've still got so much to play on older systems. Admittedly, there's been a lot of Wii U ports I still have yet to play on my Wii U so who I am to complain about all the Wii U porting when I should have just waited for the Switch? But, con-sarn-it! I get Nintendo consoles for the Nintendo games, and after 2017, I just haven't been feeling the hype or saying wow at a lot of what has been released since. It's that sports fan mentality and I want to proudly cheer for the team even if I'm not really playing on the team('s releases). 

[Order.RSS]

Now, not sure when the image was made as a couple things are missing like Good Job!, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Clubhouse Games. Also, the picture doesn't account for DLC but I don't generally think of DLC as the same as releasing a new game.

If we want to be pedantic, Nintendo did technically release two separate timed demo builds of ARMS and Splatoon 2 this year, too.
And for what it's worth, at larger scale projects, DLC and even major patches go through most of the same hurdles (testing, QA, certification, localisation, rating boards) you associate with full releases. (Less pre-production, production, internal greenlighting, etc. though.) Picture is likely older though indeed, given the placeholder art for Xenoblade 1 Remaster.

I haven't included strongly rumoured titles in the OP, just went with what has been announced/confirmed, which explains the lack of Mario remakes there. Also, is Square publishing Bravely Default II themselves this time, or will Nintendo do the Western releases again?

But yes, it seems almost inevitable COVID-19 hit Nintendo hard. If MicroSoft is already worried about missing dates for their software, I can't imagine Nintendo of all companies will be better at Work From Home setups. Plus, with Animal Crossing's meteoric impact it could very well be they're moving further resources into future support of that title. For all intents and purposes they've basically got an MMO on their hands now.

[Khushrenada]

Has Nintendo been saving a lot of major releases and heavy hitters for the back-end of 2020? Was Nintendo planning on trying to murder that next-gen by releasing month after month of big hype games to further drive up demand for Switch into the holidays and curb-stomp Sony and Microsoft's launch offerings?

I get Nintendo consoles for the Nintendo games, and after 2017, I just haven't been feeling the hype or saying wow at a lot of what has been released since. It's that sports fan mentality and I want to proudly cheer for the team even if I'm not really playing on the team('s releases). 

Thanks to the Paper Mario announcement, I am feeling the hype again and it is great! This is what I'm talking about for getting excited on Nintendo releases. It is only 1 month right now but for the first month for the back half of 2020, (July), Nintendo has already begun the string of heavy hitter hype games I was hoping they might be saving up and getting ready to release. Hope this is the start of a trend.

[Khushrenada]

With the way the Paper Mario trailer seemed to end on the odd note of Mario with the Samus helmet, it makes me wonder if this was meant for their E3 Direct and would then lead into a Metroid game announcement. Highly doubt it would be anything Prime 4 but people talked about a possible 2D Metroid game from Mercury Steam. Maybe that is what it could have been leading to.

[Stratos]

I'm not sure if I would qualify a Paper Mario game as a heavy hitter. Feel like it hasn't had that level of weight for some time as Sticker Star and Color Splash felt more like supplemental games than big tent poll affairs.

[Oedo]

I'm not sure if I would qualify a Paper Mario game as a heavy hitter. Feel like it hasn't had that level of weight for some time as Sticker Star and Color Splash felt more like supplemental games than big tent poll affairs.

Yeah, I would put it on par with something like Luigi's Mansion. A good secondary title that will get its fans excited, but not a "universal" big game.

This reveal lends more credence to the 3D Mario collection rumour, since this was also part of it, and Venture Beat also casually dropped "Pikmin 3 Deluxe" as something that's supposed to be part of Nintendo's 2020 plans today as well. If those two rumours pan out, then their second half of the year lineup is starting to take shape.

[NWR_insanolord]

This could give credence to the rumors of those rereleases, but I think thee fact that they're releasing this original title in July strongly implies their planned lineup of original software in the back half of this year is fairly strong. If they mostly had remakes coming up I think they would have held something like this for September.

[Order.RSS]

Yeah, I would put it on par with something like Luigi's Mansion. A good secondary title that will get its fans excited, but not a "universal" big game.

I agree that Paper Mario isn't a mainstream tentpole release, and definitely aims more at the gaming in-crowd. But I don't think Luigi's Mansion is a useful comparison.
Luigi's Mansion 3 moved 6.33 million units in just 5 months. It has outsold Mario Maker 2, and just barely cedes a spot in the Switch top 10 sellers list to NSMBUdx. Luigi's Mansion is arguably a growing franchise, with part 1 moving 2.19 million on GameCube, and the sequel did 5.45m units on 3DS (it's the 11th best seller on both 3DS and Switch).

Paper Mario has never done such numbers, the series at its peak (TTYD, Super Paper Mario) moved 2.3 million units per installment, and has since trended downwards (1.9m for Sticker Star, and Color Splash seems to have been a flop).
Maybe Yoshi games are a better comparison, although they tend to top out lower sales-wise (1-1.5m). But they release on a similarly infrequent schedule, and usually leverage their artystyle heavily too. In terms of sales per installment Kirby would be closer (1 - 2.5m ballpark), but those release nearly every year, so as a whole the series is a lot more profitable I'd wager.

I realise it's not all about sales; Yoshi and Kirby have a place in the market as entry points for young players, and they're valuable assets when added to Mario Kart/Mario Galaxy/Smash Bros./etc.
Meanwhile Paper Mario aims older with its humour. If the writing is on point again, and the fan base doesn't scorch this one in every comment section available like they often do, I think this one could be the most successful Paper Mario yet. There's a lot of brand new Switches in people's hands, so Paper Mario could capture their attention. Plus, with Mario + Luigi gone, this could be the de facto Mario RPG series going forward.

Wonder if this is why Intelligent Systems didn't work on Fire Emblem Three Houses? I also believe this decreases chances of Paper Mario Color Splash getting ported to Switch, which is interesting.

[Order.RSS]

Updated main post to include:
- Jump Rope Challenge. A small fitness game, available until September 30th, for free.
- All of the Pokémon Presents announcements of today (New Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Café Mix, Pokémon Smile).

Next Wednesday a "big Pokémon project" will be detailed too.

[nickmitch]

Coming back to this thread makes me think the project they announced the announcement for might be Detective Pikachu 2.  They haven't talked about it in a while, so that's a major possibility.

[Kairon]

God I hope Pokémon Snap releases sooner rather than later. It's not that big a scope of a game, you're basically on rails so a lot of it is level design and polish and making a world look pretty without having to account for players actually navigating it freely. Could that make Fall 2020? That'd be so much fun. Or barring that at least an early 2021 release to catch the post Xmas buyers, like in February or March.

[Order.RSS]

OP updated to include Pikmin 3 Deluxe.

With this taking the Luigi's Mansion slot from last year, I think we may tacitly rule out any spooky/horror related releases for the rest of the year. Granted, not many options seem to exist there (Bayonetta 3 may be there Halloween 2021?), but it's noteworthy. I think Fatal Frame 5 and ZombiU aren't unthinkable Wii U ports, for example.

[Khushrenada]

"What will Nintendo release in 2020?"

Nothing. The answer is nothing.

Just like MS and Sony have nothing worthwhile to release for the XB1SEXWhatever and the PS5.

It's over. Video games have made all the possible games they can and there's nothing left but to re-release what's already been released before.

[nickmitch]

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is taking a slot held previously by Odyssey (2017), Nothing? (2018), and Luigi's Mansion 3 (2019), if I'm remembering correctly.  This is making me think Nintendo either had this on the shelf for a while to fill in any gaps or maybe it slid from a planned summer release.  Either way, it feels more and more like big titles are facing huge delays.

[Luigi Dude]

Covid really messed up Nintendo's release schedule.  The fact they're giving a port of a rather niche franchise a pretty important end of year slot, doesn't bode well for the holiday season.  I wouldn't be surprised if the rumored Mario 3D World Deluxe is going to be their big November game this year, along with the remasters of the other 3D Mario games.

I remember reports from the Spring talking about Japanese developers having a harder time with covid because they weren't as used to using software that lets them work from home compared to the West.  I know in the anime industry, there was a lot of shows that went on hiatus for a few months because of covid, so development for major games was more then likely the same.  Having 2-3 months of development suddenly halted, is going to put a huge wrench in what they were trying to do.  Stuff like Xenoblade DE and Paper Mario were probably mostly finished before lockdowns started so it was easier to still polish them up in time for release, but for something like Breath of the Wild 2 which probably still has major parts of the game that need to be completed, losing several months is huge.

Not saying Nintendo would have originally had Breath of the Wild 2 out this fall, but anything they originally had planned to come out between September to December has probably been delayed to 2021.  Unless it was something Pikmin 3 Deluxe which has been rumored to have been done for quite some time already.

[nickmitch]

On the bright side, 2021 might be STACKED.

[Order.RSS]

Stuff like Xenoblade DE and Paper Mario were probably mostly finished before lockdowns started so it was easier to still polish them up in time for release, but for something like Breath of the Wild 2 which probably still has major parts of the game that need to be completed, losing several months is huge.

We can be almost certain Paper Mario: Origami King was pretty much done earlier, since it could be pre-loaded two months in advance right after they announced it.

On the bright side, 2021 might be STACKED.

Not to be pessimistic, but I think delays will stretch well into 2021. I wonder if Nintendo will try to plug some holes in their line up, by releasing Brain Training Switch in the West, or perhaps translating the Famicom Tantei Club detective games.

If they want to keep up monthly releases, something like this could be feasible I think:
September: Pokémon Crown Tundra expansion & Cadence of Hyrule expansion 2.
October: Pikmin 3 DX, Animal Crossing update & Cadence of Hyrule expansion 3.
November: Detective Pikachu
December: No More Heroes III
January: Brain Training Switch
February: Bravely Default 2 (I'm thinking this gets delayed out of 2020).
March: ...Famicom Tantei Club??? (unlikely to ever get translated, but seems like something they could spin up now.)

Sprinkle in a Smash Bros. character or two, push some third-party games harder (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Sakuna Of Rice & Ruin, Jump Force, Doom Eternal), add N64 games to Switch Online... I think they could coast like this for a while if needed.
Could of course be expanded if things like New Pokémon Snap, and the Pokémon MOBA are progressing well, plus there's always the potential for things waiting in the wings. But as a worst-case scenario where they can't develop anything else, I still think they could get a lot of mileage out of the currently announced stuff.

Would be great if Bayonetta 3 and BOTW 2 could launch in October and maybe November/December 2021, though. Metroid Prime 4 I don't see happening anytime before 2022, especially if COVID continues to ravage the U.S. Though this is all uneducated speculation of course. 

[Kairon]

I've been wondering if Nintendo really just had a bare cupboard in Fall 2020 to begin with, perhaps even by design to just not even try against PS5/XBSX. And if it was by design or just natural dev schedule, then the pandemic definitely made it certain and/or gave them an excuse for it.

[Khushrenada]

I don't know. When PS4 and XB1 released, Nintendo did release 3D World at the same time and there was a lot of talk about how 3D World seemed to be more what gamers were talking about. At least, I recall something on IGN about their editors discussing the game a lot and seeing it come up a lot on social media at the same time. Ultimately, it didn't really make that much of an impact in getting people to buy a Wii U versus the other consoles but it wasn't overshadowed at the time either.

Now with the PS5 and XBseriesX releasing, I guess it is the perfect time to.... re-release 3D World but for Switch so that it can once again...(oh god)... compete against the competition's new hardware launches.

[Luigi Dude]

Since this year is the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, and the rumors of the remasters and 3D World Deluxe all came in the Spring, I wouldn't be surprised if Odyssey 2 was originally suppose to be their big fall game.  The game released at the end of 2017 and never had any major DLC released, so a 3 year window would have been more then enough time to make a direct sequel.

Of course you do have to wonder if maybe Nintendo might still think the release of the game is possible?  I mean in the past some of their games like Galaxy 2 and even the first Odyssey were said to be almost done quite a while before release.  Galaxy 2 in particular they said could have been released at the end of 2009 but they didn't want it competing with NSMB Wii.  Tokyo EAD has been shown to be a very efficient developer and surprisingly fast while still maintaining high quality. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the situation is they still hope Odyssey 2 can be out by November, but if it's unable to be ready in time, 3D World Deluxe and the remasters will be the backup.  So yeah, I'm guessing either Odyssey 2 will be ready for November and then 3D World Deluxe is pushed back to early 2021, or Odyssey 2 is delayed to March 2021 and 3D World Deluxe is given its spot this year.

[Order.RSS]

OP updated to reflect today's fludd flood of Mario announcements.

I'm guessing either Odyssey 2 will be ready for November and then 3D World Deluxe is pushed back to early 2021, or Odyssey 2 is delayed to March 2021 and 3D World Deluxe is given its spot this year.

Looks like you weren't far off. 3D World is indeed taking the early 2021 slot, but with an expansion of some sorts. No Odyssey 2 announcement, but the 64/Sunshine/Galaxy compilation is dropping this month for Nintendo's September slot.
They have something announced for every month this year, except for December. A few good candidates still need to receive release dates however.

[Khushrenada]

Well, the port train continues full steam ahead but it's gotta start slowing down now... right? How much more can still be ported/remastered at this point?

[Adrock]

Well, the port train continues full steam ahead but it's gotta start slowing down now... right? How much more can still be ported/remastered at this point?

Wind Waker HD, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Wind Waker HD, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wind Waker HD, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Skyward Sword (today’s Mario announcements make me want to revisit the other thread).

[Kairon]

If Nintendo can just make good on some of those still-vague "2020" release dates for the months of November and December, they just might eke out an "OK" 2020 Holiday software release schedule.

[Stratos]

I've seen some theories that with Zelda's 35th coming up in the Spring we may see a similar blowout for that franchise once the Mario anniversary winds down in March.

Things we could see in a Zelda anniversary:

• Wind Waker HD / Twilight Princess HD
• Re-release of 4-Swords Anniversary title (the GBA remake on DS that was released for previous anniversaries)
• Zelda 3D collection (OOT, MM, Master Quest) or a rerelease of the Gamecube Zelda collection bonus disc (though most of those are released on S/NES Online)
• 2D Zelda online battle royale (4-Swords like title?)
• Zelda Dungeon Maker announcement
• 3DS Zelda Collection (OOT, MM, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks)

I think the first three are more likely than not, the others are just me throwing ideas at the wall.