Punch Out, Sin and Punishment 2 , Pikmin 3 are not core games? They are basically announced for 2009. Plus looking at Nintendo's announcment strategy we wont know about the releases untill few months before. I reckon you should stop being such a pesimist about Nintendo.

@Lolic: S&P2 is a maybe, Punch Out is pretty much confirmed for 2009. As for Pikmin 3, if it's called like that, I want to know where you got the release date from.

So far Punch-Out is confirmed for the first half of 09, S&P2 has a TBA 2009, which means either late 09 or most likely Q1 2010, as fiscal years go into the next calendar year.

why foes TBA 2009 mean late 2009?

trace memory wii was TBA 2009 in Japan and thats being released january 22

I believe Iwata mentioned how with the Wii they are seeing a trend where more consoles are not being purchased after the holiday time frame and could be part of their stragedty to help that process along. Not to mention keep momentum up form the holiday time frame.

Those are the games we know for a fact will be released in 2009. NINTENDO themselves said that was the 2009 release schedule, so why do I think S&P2 will be a holiday title for 09? Because the rest of the games are coming in the first half.

As for Europe, that release schedule is really frightening, at least they are getting FF4 in February.

Nintendo released most of their big titles in the past 2 years - Zelda, Mario, Kart, Smash, to name a few.

Now, why don't I see more threads that say "Why hasn't Bungie released a new game yet?" Or "Where is Blizzard's new game?" Or "Why no GTA5 this holiday?"  I could go on.

My point is, Nintendo is always held to some goldy status of needing release games every 3 months... and they kind of do... they release dozens per year, and they do a lot.  I just think it's ridiculous to expect "harder core, AAA titles" from Nintendo, multiple ones, every single year.  Games take years to make, if not longer.

There was only 1 Zelda game on SNES.

There was only 1 Mario Kart game on SNES.

There was only 2 Zelda on N64.

Only 1 Mario Kart on N64.

Only 1 Mario Kart on GCN.

Only 1 Mario on SNES.

Only 1 Mario on N64.

Only 1 on GCN.

Only 1 Smash Bros. on N64.

Only 1 Smash Bros. on GCN.

Only 1 Metroid on SNES.

NO Metroid on N64.

A rare 2 installments of Metroid on GCN.

So far, we have 1 game of Zelda, Kart, Mario, Smash, Metroid, some others, on Wii already.

Think of it this way... if and when you get a second game of the major serieses, you're getting a very rare bonus from Nintendo at all.  The more demanding is made of Nintendo, the more disappointed you'll be.  Even though communications now move at the speed of light, it doesn't mean developers are able to think and produce at the speed of light.

@Rol: You realized about that way too late, you should have quit gaming a while ago if you lived in Europe.

There.... there were two Zelda games on the N64.

Oh...  Majora's, forgot that one.

It's okay. I'll comfort it while it cries in a corner, the loneliest Zelda of them all...!