curl-6 said:
| Jumpin said:
I think some people love drama, pessimism, and whining. Nintendo could literally announce Breath of the Wild 2, Mario Galaxy 3, Final Fantasy 16, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Persona 5 for release next week, and they'd complain there are no more games coming after that and conclude Nintendo is quitting gaming! Nintendo is doomed and we're all gonna die!
I'll never understand this mentality of thinking games/releases that won't exist for months or even years are much more important than games recently launched or launching in the next two weeks.
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Or maybe, just maybe, some people simply want to know what's releasing in the coming months, and what's happening with highly desired releases like BOTW2, Bayonetta 3, etc.
At present, we literally don't have a single major game dated for the Switch. People have every right to be dissatisfied with that, as it really isn't acceptable for a system in its prime. Imagine if the PS4 had had no major games dated in its 4th year.
Pretty much every other big company in gaming has kept its customers updated on future releases in spite of the pandemic. It's not a big ask for Nintendo to do the same.
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Bayonetta level games are releasing quite commonly. As I pointed out in my last post, Paper Mario, Rogue Company, Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town, Bloodstained 2, Crysis Remastered, WH40K Mechanicus, and Trails 3 DX all just launched; some of these may even perform twice as good. And "I wanna know!" is not a good answer for inventing all this drama, and doesn't change my above opinion.
And it is completely acceptable for Nintendo to not announce dates for product way in advance. Not only is it acceptable, it's preferable.
To illustrate: Were you representative of the actual population, an I were Nintendo's product manager, I'd be deeply concerned that you're only interested in what's coming out in the distant future, and not what's coming up, newly released, or on the catalogue promotion. I'd consider you as representing an unhealthy customer profile, with healthy customer profiles (and desired ones) being constantly focused on the featured catalogue, the upcoming schedule, and the new releases. And I'd say your behaviour needs to be corrected (for this thought experiment, you'd represent a significant portion of the audience). What's the best way to do this? Generally just wait 1-3 years - this is (in my experience) and let customer adjustment to the new paradigm set in.
In actuality, Nintendo's Nintendo's been far more calculated, and adjusted their processes over about 3-4 years starting with Kimishima in the phasing out of directs and closing back the window of scheduling releases. It seems to have worked since Nintendo just had their second most successful Q4 in history for software sales on a single platform - the record is 48 million (set by Wii) and Switch hit 46 million. So I'd consider this thread to be more like a loud expression of an outlier.
The point I'm trying to make with the illustration above is it's better for business when hype is generated at launch rather than far in advance. Generally a good business practice in mostly every type of established business, it kind of baffles me that some people have the mentality that video gaming is an exception and needs to be announced months to several years out; this is completely illogical. Generally, the reasons you'd generate hype far in advance is because you need investment to finance your project or to disrupt the competition in a desperate move; it doesn't apply to Nintendo, because it's a powerful established brand. Of course, a drought would be another reason to announce future software to disguise the fact that your launch schedule sucks - this is why Nintendo's stocks would often slump after what some gamers would feel are powerful announcements, because investor analysts see the picture FAR more clearly, and through all of these spin strategies; what Nintendo was doing in the past was revealing their poor schedule. The difference with the Switch is Nintendo has developed a very good release cadence that is causing high sales to existing users and their evergreen first party titles keep driving hardware. As an investor, I'd be FAR more excited about the consistency of sales driven by Animal Crossing New Horizons, Breath of the Wild, and MK8 DX than I would be for something like Bayonetta 3, the fact that Nintendo keeps releasing games of that level makes Bayonetta 3 kind of irrelevant in the grand scheme. Anyway, investors care about business health, and firms have analysts who tear down and study this stuff in order to make calculated investments.
Anyway, an example of a company which has traditionally had a short announce to launch window (sometimes as little as announcing a new product on launch day) is Apple, and it has led them to become the most powerful brand in the world - a very good model for a company like Nintendo to follow, in fact, it might be more beneficial to Nintendo that has a much higher release cadence and a much higher risk of cannibalization (which has been problematic for Nintendo's third parties since Nintendo began regularly announcing things FAR in advance during the N64 era, especially after DK Racing (which, bit of trivia, was developed as Pro-Am 64 at first, but they wanted a stronger license; so technically it's a sequel to Pro-am with DKC characters), which I think was the last game they announced weeks before release for many years - and DK Racing was one of Nintendo's fasting selling games, ever, prior to the DS and Wii.
But I'm rambling and I gotta go! So I'll wrap up before I leave (without proofreading, sorry for mistakes/poor English).
Bottom line, Nintendo SHOULD make sure customers stay focused on catalogue, newly released, and upcoming games they can pre-purchase. That drives sales, and is what's good for business.
At most 3 months, and that's because of investor quarterly reports - August 6th is the next one, and by that date the next key Nintendo game should be revealed.
You don't even need to take my word for it that it's a good business strategy (if I somehow haven't convinced you with my pages of rambling), just look at investor satisfaction. Nintendo is a healthy business, their stock is at its highest levels since 2008 and is both growing and far more stable. Although, to be fair, Nintendo's stock collapse in 2008 was primarily from disparity in the level of economic collapse with the US and a projected longterm rise in the value of the yen, which GREATLY impacts Nintendo's net income. But shareholders wouldn't value Nintendo this highly if they didn't think the company wasn't being run extremely well right now, and with the right strategies and good business health.
Last, as I have been saying, August 6th is the day I'd guess they'll announce the next game by as that's their next investor meeting. So, if you're wondering about Nintndo's next scheduled release, that's your date.
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