I think Furukawa will phase out Directs to basically once a year in the summer maybe and then the rest will just be random drops of marketing here and there.
Furukawa is nothing like Iwata and doesn't give a crap how Iwata did things. People don't get there's been a massive internal change at Nintendo because Furukawa doesn't do interviews and isn't very visible (but again, that is the exact opposite of Iwata).
I wouldn't be that surprised if the name "Nintendo Direct" is also changed at some point to something else.
Nintendo of that past era is pretty much dead, IMO mostly it's been good because you're getting better hardware than you would have under Iwata and the same great games but the better hardware also enables better 3rd party games. But sure, things are more expensive with better hardware and Nintendo has embraced more premium pricing as a whole. I also prefer Hollywood movies and theme parks being Nintendo's big "mainstream" outreach instead of targeting the soccer mom audience in the Iwata era.
I don't miss the days of Wii Music being like the big Nintendo release for the year or them trying to launch a major platform with like Nintendogs or Nintendo Land as the lead software. I'll take "we're getting a new Star Fox because Fox was in the new Mario movie" instead. Directs were alright but if Furukawa doesn't want to focus on them as much anymore, I'll go with it.
Last edited by Soundwave - on 26 April 2026
