Going into this year, it seemed as if Nintendo had enough titles on the slate to cover their calenendar and avoid the "droughts" that have haunted them almost indefinitely on home consoles since the SNES -- with the Wii U's first two years being a prime example. The question is: three months into the year, when are they going to start the steady flow of titles? 

We knew things were off to a less than desireable start when Nintendo moved "Captain Toad" back to January in Europe, presumably to bridge the income gap until they started releasing their 2015 titles worldwide. Then we got the news that "Kirby: Rainbow Curse" would be pushed to May in Europe -- again, presumably to cover the gap left by Splatoon being (rumored to be) bumped back into later in the year in that region. 

Now, sitting mid-March, we have "Mario Party 10" launching today in Japan (more regions to come on the 20th) with no other strong dates for games in the United States or Europe. Splatoon is set for some time in May and "Xenoblade X" is hitting Japan on April 29th.

Is Nintendo's release strategy to place one launch - anywhere in the world - per month, and are they not concerned with having releases in each region monthly? Does that mean that "Xenoblade" in Japan will be the only release in April? Will "Splatoon", pushed back in Europe, be the only release in June? If you think this is the case, what does it mean for the rest of the year?

It seems to me like they have several titles that have to be ready to move(Yoshi and Mario Maker can't be that intense of a development process). Assuming that they're going to give "Xenoblade", "Star Fox", and "Zelda" August through November releases, are they trying to place "Mario Maker" and "Yoshi" back to back during the summer, following "Splatoon"? I honestly figured we'd have dates (spring/early summer) for those games by now.

At this point, I also figured we'd be given a (late summer/early autumn) date for "Xenoblade", especially if "Devil's Third" actually makes it out for their traditional "Mature" October title.  "Star Fox" seems perfect for either summer or September, but - if all of those "serious" games land in the fall - will "Yoshi" and "Mario Maker" (both platformers) be enough for the spring/summer schedule with only "Splatoon" to hold down the fort as a AAA mainstay?

What does everyone think?  

*Edit: Hoping that they pad the summer with a localization of "Fatal Frame"*

Wow, no replies.

Good thing I never checked back on this thread. Well, here's the...

UPDATE: With the 4/1 Direct done and over we've discovered two things. Nintendo is, indeed, still supporting the Wii U - and seemingly well into 2016. The "Zelda" delay still hurts, but the direct has given us a little more confidence that the U will have a few more years of life on the market. The second, and unfortunate, thing that we discovered is that my previous fears of a somewhat barren release schedule were proven correct.

If you look at how Nintendo has dated their releases, they seem to be artificially delaying games in specific regions to fill global release gaps. Their strategy has switched from one of avoiding droughts on the consumer end, to one of patching over income drought on their end.

My meaning: They will release one Wii U title every month SOMEWHERE in the world, and not worry about having a steady flow of games in any one region. Examples? "Toad" pushed back from 2014 to January for Europe, "Kirby" comes out in Feb - delayed in Europe until May. "Mario Party" comes out in March, "Xenoblade" comes out in April in Japan (later elsewhere). "Splatoon" comes out in May, "Yoshi" comes out in June for Europe (later in the US).

"Mario Maker" doesn't land until September, meaning we'll likely have two global releases (anywhere) to fill in those gaps. Afterwards, my new predictions are "Fatal Frame" for October and "Star Fox" for November. "Xenoblade" has to release in the West sometime in the summer, right? Or are they holding off until November to make it the big holiday release?

What if the Wii U release schedule looked like this ...

Jan - Kirby Rainbow Curse
Feb - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Remake
Mar - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
April - Codename S.T.E.A.M.
May - Splatoon

I'm guessing Nintendo fans would a whole whack happier.

The time to go unified platform is overdue. 

Nintendo can't support two distinct platforms on their own. No single company in this business can, not with the resources modern games take to make (it's not the NES-Game Boy era anymore, it's not even the Wii-DS era). 

Yeah, I agree with what you have said. I'm glad they are adjusting their releases for each continent, while ensuring the game is complete and bug-free, so every Wii U owner can get a constant flow of games, and that's not including all the indie titles making its way on Wii U, demonstrated in the Direct yesterday.

And you're forgetting about SMT x FE, which i am confident will release this year after about 2 years of development. I think they will place this game around Christmas at least for Japan, as it will be popular there. As for EU and NA, I think it will either be in Winter as well, or release at the start of 2016.

Nintendo should really give up on announcing release dates until they're absolutely certain. Shuffling them around can cause annoyance for fans. It's not like they were blindsided by the lack of third-party support this year.

They did this before, and everyone was complaining that there where no release dates until just a few weeks before release. So however Nintendo does, they can't win, again.

Agreed. My 3DS has been seeing a lot more action lately. If these releases were unified - with hardware acceleration when played on the big screen - there wouldn't even be a drought. 

when will Sony and Microsoft ramp up their release schedule?

No one can do it alone. They needed to retain their 3rd party support not let it die completely.

1st half for Wii U wasn't that good, but 2nd Half is looking great so far
-Yoshi's Woolly World
-Splatoon
-Mario Maker
-Xenoblade Chronicles X
-Fatal Frame 5
-Star Fox
-Rodea the Sky Soldier
-Devil's Third