At Nintendo’s recent Media Summit, the gaming giant finally announced dates for several highly anticipated games. It’s an impressive list, both in terms of the pedigree and the sheer number of releases. Japanese blockbuster Monster Hunter Tri in April; Fan favorite Super Mario Galaxy 2 in May; Treasure’s Sin And Punishment: Star Shooter in June; Metroid: Other M, co-developed by Nintendo and Tecmo’s Team Ninja, also in June. My non-scientific methods conclude that this is the most dense, title-rich stretch of important releases in the history of the Wii. But why now? And what’s on the horizon?
Nintendo is a company that knows its market. It has a precise, almost surgical understanding of the worth of its intellectual properties. Last fall, Nintendo launched New Super Mario Bros. Wii into a landscape that most publishers had pretty well surrendered to Activision’s Modern Warfare 2. At the time, people were asking, “how can a kiddie game compete with MW2?” New Super Mario Bros. Wii was too easy. It was too hard. It was too much like the DS game. But Nintendo, as always, held firm. New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold in excess of ten million copies worldwide.
My point is this: Nintendo knows how to strike, and when to strike. It leverages the strength of its internal properties and executes right on time. So why is the company essentially “using up” two of its most storied franchises, Mario and Metroid, during what is traditionally the slowest time of the year? There can only be one reason: this fall, Nintendo is dropping something big. Really big.
There are a number of possible answers as to what, specifically, Nintendo’s big fall reveal will be. I claim no special insight into their plans — this is pure speculation on my part — but I’d like to explore a few very real possibilities.
A New Legend Of Zelda
This game is no secret, and has got to be the first thing that jumps to every mind. Eiji Aonuma, caretaker of the series since Majora’s Mask on N64, has discussed the new Zelda‘s development on several occasions, noting that it would be very different from the last few installments of the series. He has even made public his hope to have a playable version at E3 2010. But is this one game enough for Nintendo to completely front-load its Wii release schedule? I’d like to suggest, without jumping too far ahead, not by itself.
A New DS
You can’t read a game site lately — Game Rant included — without tripping over scores of DS2 speculation. I don’t think there is any doubt that DS2 is coming, and coming soon. Perhaps Nintendo wants to clear its slate of Wii releases in order to focus exclusively on DS2. After all, the DS is the best selling handheld game system in history. There is clearly a lot of anticipation for the DS2 (or whatever its name may be). The market is there.
The only problem with this theory is the simple fact that the original DS is still selling. Fast. DS routinely outsells all other platforms during a given month, and Nintendo is not one to walk away from money. The latest DS iteration, DSi XL, hasn’t even launched in North America yet. The money-train is simply running too fast. My guess is that DS2 is slightly further out than this fall.
Continue to Part 2 for what else Nintendo may be releasing this fall. A new game? Wii HD?
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No way will the Wii HD come this year – that's late 2011. DS2 is far more likely. You mention that the reason this is unlikely is because it's still selling – Has the Wii stopped or something?
If they release a new Wii and put the new Zelda on it when there hasn't even been a full fledged Wii-only Zelda game yet….well I'll pretty much go ape-shit on Nintendo. No, I don't think they're that stupid. The new DS seems somewhat likely, though I hope not because the current one is great as is. A new Zelda, period, seems much more likely. And it will use Wii motion plus for the controller in order to harness that “new motion control”.
im all up for a wiiHD. While the Wii is fun as is, it needs more. It defenitely needs better Anti Piracy firmware. It definitely needs better online capabilities; im thinking, take PSN's best features and XboxLive's best features and mesh them together for a Mostly Free experience. A built in Hard drive would be greatly appreciated. And all this needs to be at a decent price point and different sizes too. $200, $250 and $300 price points.
I dont care if there are better graphics or not, but i do care for higher resolution. Im sick and tired of playing Wii Games that look stunning but cannot be fully enjoyed because of all the Jaggies and Pixels. REsident Evil the Darkside Chronicles, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Zelda: TP are all games that suffer from this beutiful design but poor Res situation. And if they are making this new Zelda to be launched with the WiiHD, then count me in for sure. Its gonna break my bank for sure but it would be too exciting to pass on! Heck, i might even sell my 360 to afford it if i have to. I wont sell my PS3 though.
I meant to say Super Smash Bros Brawl, not Melee. But it did however make me think, if it would also up convert the resolution of the Gamecube games, id be so happy!
hmmmm…. I don't think that Nintendo will be able to compete. New better technologies are coming out which results in new better games. I just can't see nintendo going down that road because lets face it, they SUCK at it. Maybe it's time for them to re-look at their gameplan, because super smash brothers can't keep them on top forever.
Innovation over horsepower bought Nintendo a few years grace with the Wii. There's something about the Wii… it's like, there's a certain something about it that I still absolutely love. And yet, I just can't abide playing games on the thing, especially with a PS3 and 360 sat next to it.
The DS Next needs to look a lot like the concept art in the article in order to compete with the iPhone and PSP. Right now it's aesthetically bankrupt.
Aesthetically bankrupt, yes. But the current DS it is still outselling everything in the market right now.
I think the DS should have been like this articles concept art from the beginning but Nintendo seems to be going with this new approach which is to stay behind graphically while pushes out new ideas. I think now that the new ideas are established, its time they play catch up in the graphics department. And to say they cant comepete? How So? The gamecube was a leap ahead of PS2 technology and if you remember correctly, the PS2 was praised for its hardware when it was released. It wasnt Gamecube's graphics that kept it in 3rd place, it was its library.
When the 360 and PS3 were being developed, its components werent available to the larget consumer market and so it was costly and hard to manufacture. With it being 3-4yrs since the release of the 360 and PS3, new and updated components have been released which made the older ones seen in the 360 and PS3 much more available and easier to afford. If Nintendo takes advantage of this, they could see themselves on top for another 5yrs. If they plan on keeping their current setup, they will soon be dethroned…I'd put my money on it. I have alwasy backed Nintendo and its Wii machine but now with 360 and PS3 percents rising rapidly and Wii slowly declining, it wont be long till the Power houses catch up to units sold. I think without a wii update, Sony's black box will dominate by late 2012. If they do update, i see Wii staying on top until 2015.
You know that's the problem with Nintendo so called Fans. More then any other group of fanboys. You think after almost 30 years of being a Nintendo fan. You know what their pattern is, and may always be. This generation more than any other before. They have push them selves. To provide even more content. 3 platformer Mario games in one generation. It's the NES all over again. Even with that it's not enough. You pretendo Nintendo fans ease up. The games will come when they come!
Out From The Side Of My Neck Bonus Thought 7: Yes Nintendo Loves Me Part 1 and 2
Some of you may need to watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf4zyPgqSJY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjoQgQCSrQc
wii HD dream on dude it aint happening wii is no were near tapped out and all the secret core games are for wii ds and maybe ds2 any future version of wii and games for it are far far away
its going to be new games both casual and core zelda is just one game theres most likley a good 2 to 3 coming second half 2010 into early 2011
wii-motion plus and pointer core games thats what coming with fine graphics
all the first half of year games are super gamecube games maybe some motion and pointing
but full on wm+ core games are to come like kid icaus etc these kinds of ideas for core action gameplay also the likes of pickmen etc
theres plenty to come Q3/4 2010 AND 2011
DSi horse power hasnt even been touched yet
cop recruit has insane ds graphics at 60 frames DSi is at least a DS 2.5 graphically and has its own DSi only bigger cart coming
theres more DSi games to come as wel as DS2 i think DSi and DS 2 will co-exist for a long wile
imagine 2 x 2.5 x the graphics of DS best loking games we havnt seen anything like that yet from dsi
hi the won keep up the good work like jesus said to his father on the cross forgive them lord they know not what they do
same applys here forgive them hardly cores superior nintendo fan they know not nothing about D'game
Backwards compatible games? That concept blew my mind. Though its late at night for me, making mindblowing quite as bit eaier
Great article, a new Zelda might convince me to add a Wii to my X box dominated life.
I think Nintendo is pretty safe right now considering the DS and Wii are both still selling like crazy! They may have to respond to Natal though because that will give them a run for their money. Maybe a Wii HD is in the works? But how will they compete with Natal? New controller interface? Natal isn't even going to have a control or remote! How do you top that?? I do love Nintendo though… The only systems I own are Wii, Gamecube, PS2, and PS3… and the old 3DO but that's waaaaay long ago
I hope you are right… New Zelda on a New Wii….
Nintendo have so much more market data, experience and creativity…
they where… (then they lost for a decade to ps and xbox) and are now and for the foreseeable future Kings of the gaming console market… and I'm no fanboy but I do know a quality company when I see it, sony and m$ just don't go anywhere but mainstream leaving new and creative ideas behind and inadvertently making games of the same genre basically generic, slightly improved version of each other.
I just admire that Nintendo seem to strive for excellence and quality in both hardware and software, nearly as much as they strive for healthy profits (as they should)