Nintendo Direct set for September 14 at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m. ET

[The_Liquid_Laser]

zorg1000 said:

PAOerfulone said:

To add to your point, all of those releases were split up amongst Nintendo's main console and handheld at the time. (Pre-DS: GBA and GCN. Pre-Wii: DS, GCN, and GBA. Pre-3DS: DS and Wii. Pre-Wii U: 3DS, Wii, and DS. Pre-NS: 3DS and Wii U.)

This time around, the Switch is getting it ALL. Which means what would've been a subpar or mediocre pre-successor launch lineups for 2-3 different systems back then will now be a solid or pretty good pre-successor launch lineup for 1 system here.

Exactly!

Individual Nintendo systems may have had droughts or mediocre years but when looking at their overall output, they have always had a steady flow of releases.

In previous transitions, Nintendo has had to simultaneously develop games for 3-4 systems at a time  but now it’s just Switch and it’s successor so they should be able to give Switch a solid 2024 lineup while also making sure Switch 2 has a strong launch year.

I don’t get how some people still don’t understand this is the whole point of them unifying their handheld & home console divisions.

Not all games are created equal.  Your previous post implies that Electroplankton is just as important as a Pokemon title.  It should be obvious this isn't true.  

Nintendo likes to have several high profile titles during a launch year.  When they do this, then they have a good launch.  (And when they don't, they have a bad launch.)  Their past handheld consoles usually have 1 high profile title, like Pokemon, and several smaller titles the year before a successor.  Home titles have a similar pattern with 1 high profile title like Skyward Sword or Super Mario Bros 3 a year or so before the successor.  Even the 3DS -> Switch transition was like this, and Nintendo was benefitting from unifying home and handheld divisions at this point.  There was Pokemon Sun/Moon before the Switch released and the other first party titles were smaller titles. 

What Nintendo doesn't do is release more than 1 high profile title the year before the system gets a successor.  This year has TotK and Mario Wonder.  Both of those are huge sellers.  Not only would one of these titles be held back if a new system was about to release, but releasing a new system is going to cut into the legs of these titles if the new system comes too soon.  There may be more high profile titles coming as well. (We'll find out tomorrow.)

It makes no business sense to launch a new system soon.  They are making a ton of money right now and releasing multiple big titles.  If they were about to release a new system, then they'd be behaving differently.