Methinks Nintendo likely already has a game deep in development judging off precedent (e.g. Famicon Detective Club, Metroid Prime Remastered, Metroid Samus Returns) as well that they’ve already gone so far out of their way as to create such a graphically demanding remake (well… graphically demanding as far as my eyes can see). Doesn’t seem like a cheap throw away, but an appetizer at something much bigger coming.

My guess is Nintendo is using this remake to prime Stat Fox for a strong return once his new entry drops.

Reminds me of when forum dwellers were shaking pitchforks at Nintendo over Retro making DKC: Tropical Freeze instead of going back to Metroid Prime, but Retro was bleeding talent while making the MP trilogy because the team was getting tired of churning out Metroid Primes and wanted to do something else.

This is why I'm a proponent of slowing down the power and graphics arms race and having longer console cycles. I've been saying since the PS360 days that the modern gaming industry won't be sustainable because budgets and development time just keep getting bigger and bigger. Nintendo has been trying to stave it off as much as possible, but even it can't hold out forever.

One benefit that I hoped for with the Switch was that with all of Nintendo's games being pipelined to a single console or console succession instead of two, this would lead to a greater variety of games and revival of dormant IPs for the need to have an diverse library. Because there's no need to have a Mario Kart DS/Mario Kart Wii or SSB 3DS/SSB Wii U, it would allow those teams more room to work on other things and Nintendo would see the need to have a greater range of experiences. Hopefully, this is the case.

Maybe with the crazy prices for hardware the console makers are forced to sustain a generation longer, which would help game makers as they aren't under the pressure of the graphics arms race anymore or not that much. We will see.

During the Star Fox vs. Fire Emblem debate, I forgot to mention a game that kinda has Fire Emblem in the title but definitely was meant to appeal to Fire Emblem fans: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. That game is the equivalent of Star Fox Adventures, taking characters from a dormant franchise and putting them into a different genre in a game made by an external studio. It was as popular as a fart in an elevator. Unlike Star Fox Zero, which was also on the deeply unpopular Wii U, it got a second chance at life on the Switch. It didn't do much better there: https://personacentral.com/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-encore-debut-sales-japan-worse-wii-u-version/

So unlike SF0, TMS can't blame it's floppiness solely on being on a console no one owned. It just goes to show that Nintendo can't always plop characters from an IP into a different style of game and expect fans to come running just because they see their favorite characters on the cover. A standard FE or even a standard Shin Megami Tensei would have gone over much better.

Well numbers are in (though we are in November)

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave - 1.34m (2 weeks)

Starfox - 1.17m (4 months)

Star Fox surprised me for actually crossing 1 million units, I thought it was going to just miss the target. Still, Fire Emblem proved to be indeed bigger than Star Fox, outselling it in its launch window, despite costing 30 USD more than Star Fox

Now I'm curious to see if all FE sales will be fandom driven and fall of a cliff like Engage/Echoes and finish 1.5 to 2 million range, or if it will follow the sales pattern of the most popular titles (Awakening, Fates, 3 Houses) and sell in 3~4 million range 

I think it’s still too early to say which series is truly bigger (or at least has more potential). Remember that Fire Emblem has now had over a decade of consistent, well received releases on popular platforms with strong backing from Nintendo (starting with Awakening in 2012/2013). On the other hand, this is Star Fox’s big return and a fresh start, will it have legs and pave the way for a brand new entry to grow from here or has the industry moved beyond Star Fox and this is all it’s capable of?

Well, let's look at the time span (US dates).

SMB 1 - 1985

SMB 2 - 1988

SMB 3 - 1990

SMW - 1991

SM 64 - 1996

SMS - 2002

SMG - 2007

SMG 2 - 2010

SMO - 2017

So in years, that would be 3, 2, 1, 5, 5, 5, 3, 7. Right now, we're at 9, and it isn't launching this year, so that makes it a minimum of an entire decade since we had a new, mainline Mario game. That's kind of ridiculous. For a sense of scale, if someone were born on the day that SMO came out, they would now be in the fourth grade and likely (and sadly), making their own TikToks... and perhaps even driving, if Nintendo doesn't get on the ball soon. For a game as low-tech as a Mario title (this is not GTA 6), that's just... I'll just put it this way: people's concerns, and even their frustrations, are justified, imo. Anything more than that, like death threats, or whatever else, though, I'm not cool with. Our community has long harbored some of the most toxic online behavior there is, and there's no excuse for any of that. But frustrated? Sure. Absolutely.

Don't get me wrong, the wait has definitely been excessive and some frustration is justified, but a lot of people turn that frustration into "Switch 2 has no games" when what they really mean is "where is Mario and Smash".

The absence of 1 or 2 key franchises doesn't negate the existence of games like DK Bananza, Splatoon Raiders, Pokopia, Fire Emblem, Switch Sports Resort, Kirby Air Riders, etc. 

Switch 2 has plenty of first party games, some people just only seem to care about 1 or 2 flagship ones.