Cognition Dissemination: Nintendo Should Space Their Schedule Out a Bit
Nintendo has a current problem with Switch software that other hardware manufacturers would dream of dealing with: There are entirely too many good-looking games releasing in a ridiculously short timeframe early in the summer. They should space these out a bit.
The fun will start will Mario Strikers: Battle League on June 10th, alone a remarkable title because of how it will be the first new Mario soccer game since Mario Strikers Charged released on Wii in… 2007, a whopping 15 years ago. This will be followed by Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the next Koei Warriors-based spinoff of the Fire Emblem series that will serve as an alternate story to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, on June 24th, a mere two weeks later. These are close enough to each other, but it wasn’t until another game was dated that it fully became noticeable how busy Nintendo’s summer will be.
Nintendo announced earlier this week that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will release on July 29th, now arriving around two months earlier than the “September” release timeframe announced with the reveal on the last Nintendo Direct in early February. That’s good for anyone who’s been awaiting the third game in the franchise for years. (But it’s bad for anyone who wanted to have enough time to play the first two games before this arrived, as there’s little chance that I can play Xenoblade Chronicles 2 before it releases.)
This is horrendous news for the Live A Live remake, an updated HD-2D version of a classic Squaresoft Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Japanese RPG also being published by Nintendo in western territories on July 22nd, a mere week before the Big Nintendo JRPG. The last thing the remake of a nearly 30-year-old title being officially localized for the first time needs is to be cannibalized by a larger game in the same genre from the same distributor.
It is too much for Nintendo to have four flagship titles releasing within less than a two-month timespan, especially when May remains empty. This isn’t even factoring in the third-party titles releasing on multiple platforms that include Switch simultaneously with some titles mentioned above. AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative will release alongside Three Hopes on June 24th. Digimon Survive, which has been a long — LONG — time in coming, was finally dated for July 29th, the same day as Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This is ridiculous. It’s usually great when a solid number of RPGs release in the summer, long games coming during typical software droughts. Those days are behind us, and RPGs are just getting longer.
Nintendo should shift some of these summer games around. Splatoon 3 is the only game the company has planned for release in the later summer months between August and early-to-mid September, dated for September 9th this morning. Nintendo will want a game from their internal Japanese development studio to be separated from the other titles on their list, and the date should explain why Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was moved up to July. But it, like previous Splatoon games, is popular enough to stick out on its own and doesn’t need much space. It’s not too late for Nintendo to reveal another game for the late summer timeframe, but the chances of this happening now are low.
Another intriguing question is what the company has in store for the fall and holiday seasons outside of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and maybe Advance Wars 1+2: ReBoot Camp — the latter delayed due to topical reasons and not game development purposes. Since the sequel to Breath of the Wild was delayed yet again until spring of 2023, it’s a big mystery as to what else Nintendo has in store for the year’s end. Switch ports of The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD would fill in the newfound Zelda gap, perhaps between later this year and early next year, but there’s no way to currently see whether the secretive Nintendo will feel the same.
Still, there’s little chance that the above games planned for summer will be pushed back until then. The promotional campaign for Three Hopes is starting to rev up, while regular Live A Live videos have been coming every few weeks since the February announcement. Unless some kind of late-game twist manifests, these games are all set to cannibalize each other.
Still, it’s not too late for Nintendo and their partners to take this advice. Live A Live is the title I’m most concerned about here, a localization of a solid classic JRPG that should get all the attention it deserves. There are several more classic Squaresoft titles never officially released outside Japan that deserve the HD-2D treatment. It’s already been made clear that producer Tomoya Asano has further plans for such remakes, and it would be tragic to see them so quickly derailed. It’s possible the game will sell fine regardless, but I’d like to see it have as big a shot at success as it can.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Edit for typos urk!
Nintendo has a well established platform that isn’t going through development growing pains (as ps3 did famously), and it seems they have hit a max cadence of games for sure.
But this is great honestly — while some other Publishers are still posting delays right?
But for sure they are milking it. And why shouldn’t they ? Mobile game makers are raking in more dough. They release new free content on a furious pace ( which they actually get some people to pay for). I see what Nintendo is doing as the same. They just ask people to pay for the games. Fewer gimmicks.
Also to be a bit cheeky , should a prolific publisher making decent games slow down to be like other publishers ? That works well on cartels like the Oil group OPEC but game companies actually compete Instead of collude.
But I would expect they will hit a snag sooner or later. For now they are running and probably trying to stay ahead.
And as you said before. The Pokémon train doesn’t stop it just slows down periodically to pick up more Pokémon !!
Oh, it’s definitely great that Switch has too many games coming out at the moment, and it’s the “problem” Nintendo and anyone who owns the system would prefer to have. But yeah, I just don’t want them all stepping on each others’ feet.
(Also, I haven’t paid any attention to the mobile world in a while, so I know less about what’s happening there than I should.)
They might hit a snag eventually, maybe when they migrate to a new system. But right now, like Pokémon, the train just won’t stop even if the gas is getting low or too expensive.