Not sure, to be honest. Just what I remember reading/hearing. It made sense though, since they definitely expanded during XCX development. But could be that that studio is just a smaller addition for support on Nintendo's first party stuff. The fact that they even DARED to label X2 as 2017 in the first place seemed to imply the game is pretty far along (given that the music recording is happening in earnest the past few months too, which is usually late in development), and in order for it to ever have been a possible 2017 release in their minds, surely it must have been started before XCX production wrapped in late 2014/early 2015 for the Japanese version?

A lot of assumptions being made both ways, I suppose. Or is it possible that the game is just smaller in scope than people are expecting? Or simply more linear and sequential like the first game (which the numbered title seems to suggest), versus XCX's truly open world? Personally I'm expecting it to play out more like the first game, with large areas, but possibly loading between them or just like narrow connections between them. Or maybe we'll be traveling in the sky on that airship city thing? Just a lot we don't know about the game. The first teaser definitely looked more in line with the original though, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but it looked less 'ambitious' and 'graphically intensive/impressive' than XCX, to me.

It's also worth noting that Nintendo has been making a VERY conscious effort to release games worldwide around the same time, compared to a few years ago, even. Fire Emblem, for example, used to be a year or more apart, but Echoes came just a month later, with FULL voice acting localization. Surely Xenoblade 2 is even MORE of a priority. Mario doesn't require much localization, a lot of other Switch games are ports, ARMS and Splatoon come out a lot sooner, and Zelda's done other than the DLC, so I imagine Xenoblade 2 is one of the big priorities for Treehouse right now. So I don't think it's a 'given' that Japan will get it 6 months or more before everywhere else this time. A month or two maybe, I could see. But February 2018 wouldn't be a 'bad delay' at all, still so soon, especially after being announced just in January, and for what will hopefully be another 100+ hour epic! 

Shit, a couple months later isn't bad at all.

Well, Nintendo did once say Breath of the Wild was coming out in 2015... XD

Honestly, I hope it is more like XB Wii than XCX, as I enjoyed the former game more. But even then I have trouble seeing XB2 coming out two years after XCX, especially when Monolith had to help out with Breath of the Wild in the mean time.

There would be something kinda sad if Mario Odyessy and ARMS are the only real "made for Switch" games Nintendo can deliver this year (1,2 Switch is tech demo). 

Smash Bros. can slot into December I guess, but man that's a lot of Wii U ports for under 12 months (Zelda BotW, Mario Kart 8, Pokken Fighters, and Smash 4).

Still 2017 fiscal year

Gasp! How can this be...

Haha, well Zelda as a series has a much more notorious delay track-record than Xenoblade. The first Xenoblade doesn't count because that was idiocy on Nintendo of America's part. Xenoblade X was only delayed once from 2014 to 2015 as far as I can recall? Unfortunately we just heard about BotW and XCX WAY too early because Iwata felt desperate to assure Wii U owners that games were coming after its first two launch months, despite knowing that an 8-month drought was just starting for it, lol. Nintendo DOES seem to be trying to announce games closer to launch these days.

But hey, at least we'll get to see a lot more of X2 in just a few days, and likely get confirmation of the delay, hopefully only a small one, and we'll have a much better idea of what the game will be like and should be able to get a sense of how far along it is, so that hopefully we aren't waiting til late 2018 or beyond. 

And yeah, I love XCX, but the original Xenoblade is one of my absolute favorite games ever. The story was so good, and the music was more my preference and absolutely incredible (though XCX does have some great tunes...hello, Sylvalum!), and the characters were much more distinct and significant. Plus, I just prefer the more fantasy feel of X1 over sci-fi, though XCX did have some beautiful, colorful spots. 

I don't think Monolith Soft's 'help' on a game like Breath of the Wild was as significant as people assumed, either. I remember reading an interview that they didn't really help with the technical side much at all because their way of making games is so different from the Zelda team's way.

And again, I think people are assuming X2 is open-world, and I don't think that's been stated or confirmed at all yet? My guess is it'll be more linear like the original, with big open areas to explore that may be connected with or without loading, but maybe not truly 'open' in the sense of being able to go anywhere like you could in BotW or with a Skell in XCX. The scene in the trailer of riding on the lion/cat thing, for example, seemed like there were 'walls' on both sides, creating a narrow passage...something reminiscent of the original...and those walls may not be climbable like BotW or something you can 'fly over' with a skell, y'know? In which case, having some 'barriers' like that makes development faster and easier, cause you don't have nearly as many 'what ifs' to debug and program and worry about. Just my thoughts though, haha. I could be totally wrong because we really haven't seen enough of the game to get a sense of what it will be like. 

Splatoon 2, Fire Emblem Warriors? Splatoon 2 is NOT a port, despite what people keep trying to say. Fire Emblem Warriors is a collab with Koei Tecmo, but it's still a 'made for Switch' game. And there's no reason we couldn't get some surprises at E3 still. For example, Retro hasn't released a game since February 2014. That means this holiday they'd have had ALL of 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 to have worked on their current game/s. That's more than enough time to have something ready, technically. 

You can't forget about Splatoon 2, which is already dominating preorders in Japan.