I really believe they pushed the Disaster realease after all the E3 complains... some months ago, i think the game was planned to be released in the first half of 2009...

But many fans were complaining about Nintendo's 1st party line-up for the end of the year, with only Wario Land, Animal Crossing and Wii Music... Disaster looked the perfect addition to please the more mature/core fanbase, as many very good third parties games (Mad World, the Conduit, Fragile, etc) will only be released in 2009...

Now, will they really try to promote it? I don't know... on the net, maybe, but i think that's it... that kind of game is not a multi million seller, Nintendo knows it, we all know it too, so i think they'll let the userbase decides, thanks to good or bad reviews...

I think Monolith is a great dev, but they mostly had experience in RPGs... an action/adventure game is way different, but i know Baten Kaitos looked superb, and so Disaster won't be a disaster that way... now it's all about gameplay, game's length, and originality...

Wait and see, but it's still on my radar, and if it's a 80+ game, it's one of the 4 or 5 Wii games i'll buy in the next 4 months, that's for sure...

If they're releasing it to appease to core gamers, there is no way they would not advertise it. That would be the pinnacle of stupidity. However, I don't think they're releasing it to appease to core gamers. I think they're releasing it because it's ready.

^I agree. I just don't know why they waited so late to announce the release date if they know it will be ready soon. It reminds me alone in the dark.

Im confident. Nintendo wouldn't have bought monolith last year if there wasn't a reason for it.
Delays, short term announcements and limited marketing / advertising coverage is predictable even expected but Nintendo are not monkeys, they can't fuck this up.

I dk what to expect, maybe that will be the best reason for being optimistic about it.
No it will not be Alone in the Dark.

@Majin-Tenshinhan: That is true and they will advertize it. But then again, why should it need advertizing? They gave a release date and we have a dozen threads about Disaster. If that doesn't promote it, then what does? All the whole thing is proving that you don't need to put anything out months in advance, you only need to announce the date week earlier and the hype just keeps going. People who don't go to games forums would be different matter and would definately need larger scale advertizing, something like announcement at E3, where the mainstream press would pick it up.

And i didn't see anyone complain about Madden, when the first review came out something like day before release.

In any case, we should look at the Nintendos strategy as a whole, maybe it would help to understand the decisions behind Disaster. So far we know that:
1. Wario, Disaster and Animal Crossing (and Wii Music, but that's a different category) are coming out at the same time period.
2. Disaster is a new IP.
3. Unlike Japan and Europe, NA doesn't need "help" to boost Wii sales further.
4. Nintendo propably wants to get more Wiis online.
5. Nintendo Channel is a cheap channel for advertizing.

So, as a new IP, Disaster isn't going to reach same level of popularity than established franchises like Wario and Animal Crossing, which means that you get better returns by advertizing them instead. If Disaster is good and people like it, it's going to get a sequel which gets more budget for advertizing.
Whether advertized or not, Disaster is helping in building a solid games lineup and is a game for people who buys the most games per person, who will get Disaster as the "39:th game for the rest of the year", to who there isn't enough games to buy anyway. And in Japan and Europe, it's going to work as one part in decision making for console purchase during the christmas time.
The less Nintendo gives information about the game into the gaming websites, and more to Nintendo Channel, the more interesting Nintendo Channel will be for public, the more it's going to be used and more advertizing costs will be saved. Also, getting more Wiis online, will lead to more Virtual Console and WiiWare purchases.

Seems people forget that the delay was only of 2 months.

It was scheduled to be released at the end of July in Japan and it was postponed to the end of September.

We are sure that the game was pretty much completed before July because Nintendo even released a commercial phamplet for it.

2 weeks till it launches in japan. Boxart = x, pics = x, trailer = no, hype = x

just look at fatal frame it didnt have a trailer till the week of e3,

Speaking of Fatal Frame, when does that come out in Japan, and everywhere else for that matter?

I think it will be great, Nintendo wouldn't allow it otherwise, hence the change of attitude towards Project HAMMER not being a real title. I think we should all consider it, the only fear i have is its lack of graphics. Which i don't care about, but the game will be in the competing category of realistic games. I just hope it lives up to alot of the G-Whores standards.