When is Nintendo Going to Ramp Up Their 2015 Release Schedule?

[b00moscone]

StuOhQ said:
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?

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.