Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

[Blast]

I would be very surprised if they won't make any sort of announcement by Pokémon Day at the latest. There shouldn't be a reason to hold off on it for much longer. I'd expect to see something any day now, maybe even next week.

 

[a230]

Don't worry, you'll probably only have to wait until February or March for an announcement to change your mind. XD


No? Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were both announced via Pokemon Direct.

You're right, I tough they annonce them with a simple trailer on their youtube account, my mistake. Therefore, this year, the situation is really different. Pokemon is the main game for Nintendo this year, it wasn't the case in 2016, that's why I think that Nintendo would want to have the chance to anounce the game themselves. The Switch will be lacking in tripple A game this year, so Pokemon is for them their biggest seller for the switch this year. We know nothing about fire emblem yet, it' not even near pokemon in term of popularity, Luigi's Mansion 3 will probably be a good seller, but it's far from pokemon, same thing for Yoshi, Animal crossing is far from being as popular as pokemon, and Bayonetta 3 might be delayed,. So, that's why I think they will count on pokemon to be the star of their direct and the star of their E3.

 

[Oriden]

You're right, I tough they annonce them with a simple trailer on their youtube account, my mistake. Therefore, this year, the situation is really different. Pokemon is the main game for Nintendo this year, it wasn't the case in 2016, that's why I think that Nintendo would want to have the chance to anounce the game themselves. The Switch will be lacking in tripple A game this year, so Pokemon is for them their biggest seller for the switch this year. We know nothing about fire emblem yet, it' not even near pokemon in term of popularity, Luigi's Mansion 3 will probably be a good seller, but it's far from pokemon, same thing for Yoshi, Animal crossing is far from being as popular as pokemon, and Bayonetta 3 might be delayed,. So, that's why I think they will count on pokemon to be the star of their direct and the star of their E3.

Nintendo still posts Pokemon Directs themselves, they just don't bundle the Pokemon announcement in with their other game announcements.

Also Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, so Luigi's Mansion 3's potential for sales is probably not that far from Pokemon at all.

 

[The Great Guardian]

And as for Animal Crossing, if you look at the replies to the tweet Nintendo posted about which games people are hyped for, the majority are for animal crossing, by a pretty long way

 

[a230]

Nintendo still posts Pokemon Directs themselves, they just don't bundle the Pokemon announcement in with their other game announcements.

Also Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, so Luigi's Mansion 3's potential for sales is probably not that far from Pokemon at all.

Luigi isn't Mario, that's for sure, but yes, that's why I said it will be a good seller. But pokemon is more popular then luigi in my opinion, Luigi's mansion 1 and 2, althought great games, haven't sold that much . Pokemon is the maint title for Nintendo this year, and it's normal for a company to want to announce it . In a marketing point of view, it's the best option for Nintendo. I know a lot of people who bought the switch after the announcement of metroid prime 4 , and now, with the announcement they've done yesterday, some of them are thinking of selling back their switch. Pokemon is the kind of franchise that will convince people to buy console, not luigi or Animal crossing,this is why they'll put the spotlight on that game this year .

 

[Blast]

Nintendo still posts Pokemon Directs themselves, they just don't bundle the Pokemon announcement in with their other game announcements.

Also Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, so Luigi's Mansion 3's potential for sales is probably not that far from Pokemon at all.

I would disagree. The latest Luigi's Mansion didn't sell more than 5,5 million copies, which is much less than even USUM, not to mention the other main series Pokémon games on the 3DS. The new generation might even surpass Mario Odyssey in sales. It is without a doubt the biggest game for Nintendo by far this year.

 

[Oriden]

I would disagree. The latest Luigi's Mansion didn't sell more than 5,5 million copies, which is much less than even USUM, not to mention the other main series Pokémon games on the 3DS. The new generation might even surpass Mario Odyssey in sales. It is without a doubt the biggest game for Nintendo by far this year.

If you compare it to the other best-selling titles on the 3DS, though, it was still up there. Yeah, Pokemon dominated the handheld as it always does, but in all it wasn't too far off from Pokemon's lowest number compared to most other games.

List of best-selling Nintendo 3DS video games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There's no doubt that Pokemon will be the top seller this year, but in all, Luigi's Mansion has still landed a slot as one of the best-selling games on the GameCube and 3DS. With Nintendo having dominated last year with Smash, and having a few relatively strong titles this year, they're not exactly hurting for a flagship to star in their Nintendo Direct.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Well, since Metroid Prime 4 is off the table for this year, that leaves off with two anticipated games that are coming this year for sure, Pokemon and Animal Crossing. I see Animal Crossing being released for the summer as to have strong sales in the middle of the year during summer break.

 

[Myth]

I don't think Animal Crossing is a system seller, though. I know some people may disagree, but that's what I think.

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't understand what a system seller is. The game may be the top seller of the platform and still not be a system seller. System sellers are games that make people buy the hardware exclusively to play them, or/and that greatly increase hardware sales during their launch.

Animal Crossing can increase the hardware sales a bit (like a bunch of other games can do), but I don't think it's enough to call it a system seller. Pokémon and Smash are system sellers.

I know very few people who would buy a Switch just to play Animal Crossing.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I don't think Animal Crossing is a system seller, though. I know some people may disagree, but that's what I think.

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't understand what a system seller is. The game may be the top seller of the platform and still not be a system seller. System sellers are games that make people buy the hardware exclusively to play them, or/and that greatly increase hardware sales during their launch.

Animal Crossing can increase the hardware sales a bit (like a bunch of other games can do), but I don't think it's enough to call it a system seller. Pokémon and Smash are system sellers.

But it is undeniable that it has a decent following that guarantees strong sales for summer releases standards.

 

[a230]

I don't think Animal Crossing is a system seller, though. I know some people may disagree, but that's what I think.

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't understand what a system seller is. The game may be the top seller of the platform and still not be a system seller. System sellers are games that make people buy the hardware exclusively to play them, or/and that greatly increase hardware sales during their launch.

Animal Crossing can increase the hardware sales a bit (like a bunch of other games can do), but I don't think it's enough to call it a system seller. Pokémon and Smash are system sellers.

I know very few people who would buy a Switch just to play Animal Crossing.

I totally agree with you! Animal Crossing will surely be a good seller, this is not a system seller. I bought my Gameboy,my DS ,my 3DS exclusively for pokemon, and I i've bought my switch Knowing that a pokemon game was coming , so let's say that pokemon is certainly a system seller, i've never heard of someone who's bought a console for animal crossing to be honest.

 

[Oriden]

Looking at the lists of best-selling games, if Animal Crossing doesn't count as a system seller, then the only system sellers are Pokemon, Smash and Mario...? You know they can only produce those games so often, right?

 

[Poke Dragon]

Plus, Smash already had a release for the Switch, with plans of DLC already being set in stone that it is coming. So that leaves Mario and Pokemon, and it will be quite a while before another 3D Mario comes out. I don't want this to be a repeat of summer 2017 where Splatoon 2 was forced to be released way earlier than needed and the repeat of Ultimate in which it was forced to come out in 2018. I just hope that next time, everyone is patient with Smash and Splatoon, as that would allow developers to fix glaring issues. The Switch made the latter popular enough to allow the next system without the game for a couple of years.

 

[Icy Wind]

Maybe you guys should check before you say that Animal Crossing isn’t a system seller

July 2013 NPD: Animal Crossing is officially a system seller

NCAA Football was the best-selling game, and the 3DS was the top-selling piece of hardware.

www.google.com

 

[Oriden]

I'm also not sure why we're concerned about sales and system sellers when we already know that Pokemon is coming out this year and is going to fulfill both easily- it just doesn't need to be shoved into a Nintendo Direct to do it.

 

[Myth]

Looking at the lists of best-selling games, if Animal Crossing doesn't count as a system seller, then the only system sellers are Pokemon, Smash and Mario...? You know they can only produce those games so often, right?

I don't even know if Mario could be considered a system seller, but Mario Odyssey was certainly one. As I said, the Metroid game might be one, depending on how the game be and how Nintendo administers it.

Maybe you guys should check before you say that Animal Crossing isn’t a system seller

July 2013 NPD: Animal Crossing is officially a system seller

NCAA Football was the best-selling game, and the 3DS was the top-selling piece of hardware.

www.google.com

When I said "I know some people may disagree" I was exaclty thinking about you and about this article, Icy. : p (I've seen you posting it before)

As I said, Animal Crossing can increase the hardware sales a bit (like a bunch of other games can do), but I don't think it's enough to call it a system seller. I disagree with this article.

Also, I don't believe that in that period sales were driven by Animal Crossing alone, but also by Pokémon.

 

[Poke Dragon]

The ideal scenario is this, Pokemon Direct first, Nintendo Direct second, mainly because there are many more games with less following than Pokemon, so it makes sense that those games are shown after Pokemon has been shown.

 

[Icy Wind]

Also, I don't believe that in that period sales were driven by Animal Crossing alone, but also by Pokémon.

This article is from July 2013, before any Pokemon mainline game even came to the 3ds.

 

[Myth]

This article is from July 2013, before any Pokemon mainline game even came to the 3ds.

Exactly. It was the pre-release season of XY.

Do you think I didn't read the article?

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Showing off those few Pokemon will not compensate for the marketing cycle loss caused by delaying announcement to match detective Pikachu.

What loss? @Myth's idea is actually much better marketing imo.

I personally think that the previous announcements were made way too early. It's frustrating how we only get drips of information throughout the year. We don't need 10 months to convince ourselves to buy a Pokemon game.