The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a major wrench into the plans of the video game industry as a whole. Developers and publishers have made adjustments in order to work from home, but the reality is that video game development can be a difficult process. As such, some announcements simply aren’t as ready as they might have been if not for the pandemic. According to a recent rumor, this is the case for Nintendo’s first-party games, which are not in a place where the company is ready to show them off to fans. If accurate, this might explain why a Nintendo Direct has yet to air.
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According to the rumor, Nintendo has reached out to third-party publishers, and informed them that they are free to make any announcements that they were holding for Nintendo’s E3 presentation. Apparently, the company plans to hold off on revealing its upcoming games until later in the summer, rather than around the time E3 was set to occur. On the one hand, this might lead to some earlier announcements for certain Switch games, but it would also mean a longer wait for those developed by Nintendo.
Obviously, if true, this will come as a bit of a disappointment for some fans. After the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the company really doesn’t have much in the way of announced first-party games on the way. Metroid Prime 4 and Breath of the Wild 2 are both in production, but it seems quite likely that neither game will see release for some time.
During any other console generation, this might have been problematic for Nintendo, but the company has forged strong relationships with indie developers and third-party publishers in the Switch era. The console has an incredibly large library, and it seems likely that it will only continue to grow, as demand for the system increases.
It will be interesting to see what Nintendo has to show off when their next Direct presentation is ready to air. The next DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seems quite likely, and there have been unconfirmed rumors regarding remastered versions of a handful of 3D Mario games. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess! Knowing Nintendo, whatever comes next will certainly get fans talking.
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