In an earlier banter, I asked why many of Nintendo’s first party series had seen relatively few releases in recent years. Apart from sure-fire hits like a Mario platformer, or the open-world The Legend of Zelda that some have always demanded, since the 2010s many series have gone quiet and very few spin-offs have released. Where did all of these games go?
It seems as if Nintendo was already ready to provide me with an answer with the June 18th Nintendo Direct.
Perhaps one of the most notable was the one that kicked off the Direct: Mario & Luigi: Brothership. For the first time in almost a decade, Mario sets off with his brother in an all-new RPG adventure. The last release was in 2015.
In addition to that, we got news of a new Zelda title that finally features Zelda as the protagonist, something fans have been speculating about for years. Perhaps more importantly, it’s the first new top-down, classically-styled single-player The Legend of Zelda game since 2013.
And that wasn’t all. At the end of the show, Nintendo announced that Samus Aran is returning in an all-new Metroid Prime adventure as well. The third game in the series released in 2007. The fourth installment has been in production for quite awhile, and further development was delayed in the late 2010s when Retro Studio took over production of the Metroid Prime remake.
With all of these game announcements, it’s quite clear that the Nintendo Switch is not going to go quietly, as some commentators believed.
But why the delay?
Why after years of remakes and porting games from pervious systems, why did we suddenly get this treasure trove of new titles? By all metrics, by this time next year, we may be seeing marketing for the Switch 2.
You might notice everything above stopped releasing new entries in the mid-2010s.
After the commercial success of the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo followed up with the Wii U. Unfortunately, the system ultimately flopped. It seems like the public believed the system was a peripheral for the Wii, rather than the next console in its own right.
Could the unexpected system flop be the reason why we entered the almost decade long drought when it came to original titles from Nintendo?
Perhaps.
Games take a significant amount of time to produce. The Wii U disaster severely impacted Nintendo’s budget. The relative drought of first-party Nintendo titles is likely due to something like a production freeze during the particularly dire period. Once production restarted, it would take years for everything to release.
If any of these games were already in development during that time, the developers had to pivot their games from one set of development codes to another, all while keeping up with rapidly evolving technology.
Should this be the case, it may help restore some of my faith in the gaming industry that Nintendo is still developing games with quality in mind instead of rushing out with the latest and shiniest release.
What do you think? Could the flop of the Wii U be the reason so many first-party games were delayed? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.
Image Source: Nintendo of America
Pow Block Podcast – A Nintendo Podcast by Boss Rush
Pow Block Podcast is the Nintendo podcast for The Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, Edward Varnell, Corey Dirrig, and their friends from around the internet discuss the week that was in the world of Nintendo, including news, rumors, new and upcoming games, NSO, answer listener questions, discuss their weekly snacks, and more. New episodes now release on Tuesdays for everyone.
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