Things aren’t looking so great for Nintendo right now. Lagging sales, upcoming competition, and the loss of a highly-anticipated exclusive have fans of the company reeling.
Perhaps that’s why the N has opted to host another Nintendo Direct just a couple of weeks after the previous big show.
The next Nintendo Direct takes place tomorrow, Valentine’s Day (February 14th), at 9AM EST/6AM PST. The special will focus on upcoming 3DS and Wii U games. While nothing more has been announced, we have our pretty savvy ideas as to what the announcements could be.
Wii U
The loss of Rayman Legends didn’t happen over night. Originally a Wii U exclusive, there would have been some contact between publisher Ubisoft and Nintendo about the delay as long as a couple weeks ago. That leaves a pretty huge hole in the Wii U’s extended launch window. It’s safe to assume that firm release dates are coming for the remainder of the Wii U’s Spring lineup, including Wii Fit U, Game & Wario, Wonderful 101 and Pikmin 3. Our guess is that April and May might be pretty busy for the console.
Likelihood: 95%
Also mentioned during the last Nintendo Direct was that the company would host one specifically to detail new Wii U games from 3rd party developers. Could this be it? Mindshare would go a long way if any exclusive or unannounced game was detailed. Tomb Raider U? Final Fantasy XIII-3? Dragon Quest X for the US? Maybe not.
Likelihood: 20%
Looking for more news about Zelda (Wind Waker HD or otherwise)? The next Mario game? Not going to happen. Those are E3 announcements.
Likelihood: 1%
The Virtual Console has been announced, but we still don’t know much about it. Right now would be a solid time to really detail it out, especially since Nintendo is starving for any money on the Wii U gaming front. Classic games would help. But, the company has bigger fish to fry.
Likelihood: 5%
Pokemon Rumble U is coming to Japanese eShops this Spring. You’d have to be blind not to see this coming to the US as well. This should be a given as an announcement.
Likelihood: 90%
3DS
Having just launched Fire Emblem, and with Luigi’s Mansion on the way, Nintendo needs to show us what else is coming for its portable device.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the big bogey out in the wind, and so this Direct could possibly have a huge chunk of time devoted to it. We expect the announcement of a release date (May or June?) to be revealed as well.
Likelihood: 65%
Monster Hunter details will probably squeak in, but it’s not going to be much of what we already don’t know. However, there may be some information about the 3DS/Wii U interoperability discussed.
Likelihood: 40%
We’ve been hearing that Dragon Quest VII is tearing up the Japanese charts. The US loved the previous installments on the DS (though sales weren’t mind-blowing). We think that an announcement of this coming Stateside should be a given now. At least, we HOPE it is.
Likelihood: 40%
The rumors of an unannounced title for the 3DS in development from MonolithSoft are reaching across the web. We’d love to see it. But we’re not confident that they’d be announcing it here instead of E3.
Likelihood: 10%
Where are the 3D remakes that we were teased with in 2010 when the 3DS was announced? The service has all but dried up. Well, perhaps this is the best time to bring some classic games to the console with updated visuals. Namely, we’d loooooove to see a Zelda LTTP or Majora’s Mask remake, and it could very well happen this time.
Likelihood: 40%
[Source: Nintendo via Facebook]
No Comments