2018 is drawing to a close. We have one more first party release for Nintendo Switch left before we move into 2019. 2018 was an interesting year, in that it served as a weird transitional year for both Nintendo and the Switch. Most of its internal staff was just coming off two of their biggest productions yet (BotW and Odyssey), and no doubt they're hard at work on a new sizable batch of Switch games. The release slate of 3DS games has slowed to a trickle, the online service for Switch formally debuted (abiet to largely mediocre reception), and Nintendo itself went through a few changes with Tatsumi Kimishima stepping down back in June, handing the reigns over to Shuntaro Furukawa, who helped mastermind the console's record-breaking launch. So for this year on Switch, Nintendo mainly relied on Wii U greatest hits, DLC expansions, and Third party games to do most of the heavy lifting with some new games in the form of Kirby, Labo, Mario Tennis, Super Mario Party, as well as Pokemon and Smash Bros. spruced in-between. I'd say 2018 had more good games, but 2017 had bigger titles (In B4 "2018 was awful because I didn't get x, y, and z. Switch has a drought, wah!").
So that brings us to 2019, which is where things really start to get interesting. 2019 is when the Switch will truly start feeling like the 3DS successor everyone wanted and Nintendo likes to avoid admitting, since many of the former's well known series will be getting sequels on Switch. Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, etc. Nintendo will also reduce its reliance on ports next year as most new Switch games that began development around the time the system launched, will be ready by that point, and with hardly any new 3DS titles next year, we could see even more Nintendo published games than this year, including internal ones from EPD. So here's how I think the lineup will go down, rather here's what I hope to see in 2019.
January - New Super Mario Bros. U DX, Fit Boxing (Nintendo published outside Japan)
February - Dragon Quest Builders II (Nintendo Published outside Japan), Puzzle League Forever
March - Yoshi's Crafted World, Nintendo Labo: Toy-Con 04 - Outdoors Kit
April - New digital IP (something along the lines of Snipperclips)
May - Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Daemon X Machina (Nintendo published outside Japan)
June - WarioWare: Freestyle, Luigi's Mansion 3
July - New IP, Nintendo Labo: Toy-Con 05 - City Kit
August - ARMS II, New IP
September - Pokemon Rose and Violet, Wii U port (Pikmin 3?)
October - Fire Emblem fighting game by Arc System Works, New Casual IP
November - Metroid Prime 4: Desolation, eShop only game
December - Animal Crossing: Road Trip
That's my prediction/wish-list for 2019. I think next year is when the Switch will really start hitting its stride. By this point, all of their developers are done with 3DS projects, a new batch of Switch titles from Nintendo will be ready, and third parties will help as well as more of their original titles will be ready as well. If you thought 2017 was great for the Switch, it's just getting started.
