According to Nintendo, at the end of 2018 Japan had 245 retail releases, Americas had 317 retail releases and Other had 315 retail releases.

Oh I see! That is disappointing for you. I am sorry for you friend!

Lol when I went to the US in 2008 it was like XMAS buying up all these DS games, so many to pick from.

Gaving dates 2-3 months in advance and start marketing those games is not so far in advance, and they always start promoting their Switch games and gave release dates in worst 2-3 months before launch.

I also think that reason why we didnt had January Direct is because they wanted to gave Smash Bros and NSMBU DX more room, but soon they will need to start giving dates and start marketing post Yoshi games, they need to tell soon what games will be out in around 2-3 months (April-May). No one talking about 6-24 months, I actually talking about next 1-5 months (around July releases) focus with next Direct.

The shelf space of Nintendo products is pretty poor in the U.K. too, yet it is improving. It's either because things are improving for Switch over here, or Nintendo reps are paying the required "backhanders" to the corrupt store managers.

I find it astonishing the amount of hysterical gloom and doom flying around. Personally I've never had so much choice on a Nintendo system. As someone else pointed out, the Switch userbase grew by 40% over the last 2 or 3 months, Nintendo have had their best holiday quarter since the Wii/DS era, one of their best ever software launches in Smash, and four consecutive months where they've launched commercially big exclusives - three of them games built grounds up for Switch. Yes, we get it - not everything fits your personal taste. And that's fine, but that doesn't mean Switch is massively troubled or doomed or terrible.

It seems that this Direct may actually be real. It's not surprising - Nintendo will want to flesh out the March through May window at the very least and might even date some games for June and July. Mid February is a good time to sketch out the next 3 to 5 months, even if more announcements come in late April, for example. I'd expect one reveal for something coming later in the year, too - possibly the 2D Zelda title as their 'one more thing' ending.

Agreed. The last few pages in this thread have become trolled over talking about the PS4, I have no idea why. If they announce 2d zelda I will flip. Link Between World's was a glorious ode to the past and I want more! 

Also, I know it is likelier they port Color Splash or won't have one at all, but I would explode if they announced a new PM game with the gameplay mechanics from the first two games.

Either way, as long as AC is shown, it's a winner in my book.

Surely it's time for a Pokémon Gen 8 reveal, right?

Talking about UK, we last week (or previous one) had report that Switch for first time sold more physical games in UK than XB1, and that's a quiet achievement because XB1 has bigger install base more games than Switch.

Yes it is quite close between the 3 of them over here but atm Nintendo is competing with much less shelf space. I suspect if this is to change it will be just as much about success as it is about corruption. Even in the Wii heydays the PS360 both had larger shelf space.