I at least partially agree with this. I'm not opposed to Nintendo Directs or State of Plays, but expectations are always through the roof before these happen. And thus, people will inevitably be disappointed afterwards because x or y hasn't been announced. As others have pointed out, the situation is worsened by the fact that many YouTube channels seem to live off enragement and doom-spelling. If all you did was watch YouTube videos you would think the Switch 2 was this massive failure and not like, uh, the fastest selling video game console of all time. It's the same with State of Plays, people often voice negative opinions because "their" game wasn't announced. Sometimes you can see the tragedy unfold way before a Direct or Stay of Play, with people hoping for really obscure and niche titles and then being disappointed if they aren't announced.

I also agree about the "no games" part. It's especially bad with Nintendo. For a whole decade now Nintendo has revealed their games mostly just months before release. And every. single. year. we have people claiming "Nintendo's line-up for this year is bad! Sales will slow! Nintendo has no games planned!" It's like this every spring lol. It's happening this year again, with people thinking the stuff Nintendo has announced so far for 2026 is all they have (I'm also talking about Nintendo fans, by the way!). And it's tiresome to go through this every year. It's not just Nintendo, though: I vividly remember the "PS3 has no games!" times and people would still claim this years later when there were dozens of high quality titles/ exclusives for the system.

What's also worrying me is that hype does not equal quality. This has been the case for decades now, with companies hyping up games in advance, people paying high prices for collectors editions... and in the end the game is (subjectively or objectively) just mediocre. Happened to me with Metroid Prime 4, even though I mostly try to avoid getting hyped. But companies will hype up their games and sometimes paint you a distorted picture of what the game actually is to get you to pre-order or buy.

The ps5 doesn't have a new title from ND.

The ps5 doesn't have a GoW (main title) not on the ps4.

The ps5 doesn't have a Horizon (main title) not on the ps4.

The 3 statements above blow my mind.  The ps5 has been downhill since Rift, Demon and Spider 2.  It peaked super early.  

And it increasing in price doesn't help.  And the rumors of PSN increasing.  Games also jumped in price.

Or a Gran Turismo title that's not on PS4; PS1, PS2, and PS3 each had two exclusive GT titles.

Yep.  I get why people are not thrilled with this gen.  I do agree with Fire, third party i think is good as ever.  But exclusives have been rough.

I feel this way after every Direct, there is always a group of people who say it’s disappointing because some specific game they want isn’t revealed or it focused too much on games they personally don’t care about. If you’re disappointed after every or most general Directs then you’re probably not understanding the point of them.

Too many people expect them to be like E3, this massive extravaganza showing off all the big titles releasing over the next 2 years, despite Nintendo usually giving a more specific time frame of focus. For example, if a Direct is in Feb, Nintendo says it will focus on games releasing through Spring, if the Direct is in June, the focus will be through Fall, etc.

Basically a Direct is meant to promote the games releasing over the next few months and give a little tease of what’s coming beyond that. If more people went into them with that mindset then I think less people would be disappointed every time.

I do prefer Nintendo's approach; we will reveal when a game is actually coming out soon.

I never understood revealing Elder Scrolls 6 (or is it 7?) and basically saying, hey sometime in the next decade.   

I had considered doing a thread asking “What is the ideal length of time between reveal and release?”following my posts in here last night (but opted against it b/c I need a break from starting forums lol). Honestly, I kinda like it when Nintendo reveals a game well before release— the build up really complemented BotW very well, and I personally really enjoyed waiting for Pikmin 4 and TotK. …However, if an early reveal means a rocky development cycle (e.g. Bayo3 and MP4B), then Nintendo should stick with the SMBWonder/SMOdyssey/SSBUltimate/KirbyATFL approach (i.e. reveal and release within 12m).

I think two months is too soon TBH. It doesn’t give the game enough time to gain traction among consumers, leading to a kinda wimpy launch. I like it when a game gets s solid marketing cycle and a decent amount of time to sear in the public’s thoughts.

So, I’d say 4–10 months is the sweet spot.

6 months is ideal for me.  long enough to get hyped, short enough not to have said hype die slowly.  

edit

my other pet peeve, which frankly pisses me the **** off is when a reveal is just a title screen and/or cut scene.  for the love, show some actual gameplay, given these are videoGAMES.  

I agree that ~6 months is ideal and yeah, if a game is too early in development to show off gameplay then it’s too early for an announcement, unless it’s just a generic statement like “the next entry of X franchise is under development” during an interview or investor Q&A.

6-9 months would be my preference; it's annoying when games are revealed when they are years away, but it's also possible to be too secretive and have your future slate looking barren.