The phrase "big gun" can mean more than just sales. There's more artistic and creative merit in the Metroid franchise than any Crash game.

Some games  on wii u didn't sell so well and others while sold very or extremely well, had a potential for significantly more sales, so they deserve a second chance on a popular console.

Wii u sold 14m, let's say switch sells 50m, that 36m extra might liked many of wii u games but skipped the console, because the console itself was undesired, uninteresting, expensive for what it is or offers e.t.c , so ports are a great gift to them and easy money for Nintendo.

I'm not going to quote anyone in particular for having brought up the fact that Metroid isn't a "big gun."

But I will say that sometimes sales aren't the only way we can judge a game or a franchise's significance to a console's momentum and fan perception. While Animal Crossing will certainly sell more units and even has the potential to be a system seller, the simple announcement of Metroid Prime 4 arguably "won" E3 for Nintendo last year. In terms of hype levels it definitely raised the roof.

So, yeah, Metroid can't sell 4 million copies, but that doesn't mean those 4 million users don't become very, very vocal supporters of the console in a way that maybe an Animal Crossing owner wouldn't evangelize in quite the same way.

1st half for Switch is a little soft, but if Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Bayo 3, and Smash are all in the 2nd half of the year I'd say that's quite solid, especially if Smash does have a lot of new content (though who knows on that).

Nobody cares about whostation.

This thread is about portendo.

Smash is an inevitably, and if it's a port of 4, I think it's likely to come this year because there's no reason it should take a long time, unlike Prime 4 being made from the ground up. If it's Smash 5 though then yeah definitely not arriving this year, but it's announcement is possible. More likely to be a port though, as Nintendo seems set on porting every notable game from Wii U.

If a Smash 4 port doesn't come this year as a way to push Nintendo's paid online service than it is never coming. I also heavily doubt they won't announce it around E3 if it exists. Smash Bros is the perfect game other than Splatoon to push online. (1st party wise)

Also Smash bros will have like a year+ from reveal to release. It's not Smash Bros without the hype cycle to be honest. At least for me I won't be surprised if Nintendo thinks the same way.

killeryoshis said: If a Smash 4 port doesn't come this year as a way to push Nintendo's paid online service than it is never coming. I also heavily doubt they won't announce it around E3 if it exists. Smash Bros is the perfect game other than Splatoon to push online. (1st party wise) Also Smash bros will have like a year+ from reveal to release. It's not Smash Bros without the hype cycle to be honest. At least for me I won't be surprised if Nintendo thinks the same way.

Smash Bros is definitely the most likely game to be released to show off their online service.  That is if the service is going more of the matchmaking route.  However, I wouldn't totally rule out Animal Crossing as the game they pick either.  In this case it would be more about sharing the Animal Crossing experience with more people.  It might borrow elements from MMO's or perhaps they will incorporate a modified version of Miiverse into the game.

It kind of depends if they want their online service to focus more on competitive online or cooperative/sharing online.

I don't buy this. Nintendo expects to sell 25-30 mil Switchs this year, those goals haven't been set because they expect the system to get anywhere near that number off of ports like NSMBU. I'm sure they're betting on Labo to be big, and so am I, but also nowhere near enough on its own to reach that target with just a year of ports. They're gonna have something major or two up their sleeve on the software front. I'm still not ruling out both Pokemon and Animal Crossing hitting in Q4. Holiday sales for the system would be insane off the backs of those two and would make total sense with their sales expectations for the year. At least one of those two will hit this holiday. I think they have an impressive Q3 and Q4 up their sleeves and are holding off on revealing most of the games because they want all the attention on Labo for the first half of the year. Then around E3 they will unveil this year's heavy hitters. 

The other thing that makes this sketchy is why on earth would they release an NSMBU port over a Mario Maker one? That would make zero sense. Nintendo has been way too on their game to do something that stupid. 

Perhaps they feel NSMBU/NSLU works better with the Switch's "gather around" multiplayer style. They might be looking at it from a POV of feeling like they don't have enough multiplayer titles that in particular can be played in the Switch's "break off a Joy-con and pass it to a buddy" mode. 

Mario Maker on Switch is gonna happen too obviously. 

Could be a simple sales issue too ... NSMB2 sold like 12 million on the 3DS, neither of the Mario Maker games (on 3DS or Wii U) sold anywhere close to that, perhaps Nintendo feels NSMBU/NSLU deserved sales more in that range and the bigger Switch userbase is just the way to get there. I'm with you though, personally I'd prefer a Mario Maker port first. 

I think there will be Wii U ports for the Switch for a while to come ... Mario Maker, Mario 3D World, Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Paper Mario, possibly Pikmin 3 or Captain Toad will get Switch releases at some point.