Support NeoGAF

[SaviorX]

I can't help but feel Smash Bros is September 2014 the earliest. Mario Kart is April-June.

Zelda is 2015. Wind Waker HD was made to tide gamers over and buy time.

X will be in the summer of 2014. It doesn't really seem like it would benefit from a holiday release. I could see an October release though.

There will be no third party games worth mentioning for the rest of Wii Us life after August 2014 is over. What're started development 2 years beforehand will be out by then.

 

[AmyS]

I wouldn't count on Zelda showing up until the end of 2015. It's almost certain to be Nintendo's biggest game for Wii U in terms of, well, everything to make it. Effort, cost to develop, number of staff involved, size of the game itself, even if not in sales.

With Wind Waker HD being an exercise for a number of things in learning the Wii U, don't expect the new Zelda a year later.

 

[metalslimer]

When Nintendo says Spring 2014 for Mario Kart it's safe to say they mean after Quarter 1 begins. If Mario Kart was coming in March they wouldn't of said something as vague as Spring. Frankly even your listings under the Realistic category are extremely optimistic given that so few of their titles have actually hit their originally planned release dats.

I have like 6 games under the realistic category. If Nintendo can't even meet that realistic scenario in terms of the amount of games launched, they might as well just give up. It's already going to be a barren drought when only Nintendo will be launching games through most of next year.

 

[Some Nobody]

Yeah... people keep going around saying "the late 2013 lineup is good, but 2014 is where Wii U will REALLY shine".

Unless there are numerous unannounced titles (both first and third party)... I just can't help but scratch my head at that assertion...

Are there ANY 3rd party titles announced for 2014 yet? Anything at all? Besides maybe that Young Justice Legacy garbage?

That's because everyone saying that isn't pushing the titles that are actually interesting at Nintendo (Zelda, X, SMTxFE) to 2015. That would be why.

the secret formula has been about 10-11 releases per year. flooding the market isn't going to make retailers happy. they're going to keep nintendo shelved because they're efficient with the allocated shelf space. they'll lose sales from flooding the market too fast.

We're not talking about quality over quantity here. We (or I) are talking about a large quantity of quality titles, ones all guaranteed to sell 3+ million copies, with the exception of smaller releases like X or SMTxFE. They need a larger number of games to make up for there being so few of them in comparison to Sony/Microsoft, and so gamers can have options to choose from, rather than someone asking what good Wii U games there are and someone proceeding to list them every Wii U game ever because there are so fucking few to choose from.

Zelda aint shit in Japan, Metroid aint shit anywhere. You know compared to Kart and Smash. Kart, Smash and NSMB are their 3 biggest titles, one launched with the console already, releasing the other 2 in the first half of 14 is just dumb.

Even though it's going to jack shit for the position the Wii U is in, releasing Kart in Spring and Smash for Holidays is the best move Nintendo can make. Smash is also for 3DS giving the 3DS a big name title for the holidays as well, and of course it will probably sell more on the 3ds as well since the userbase is far bigger than the Wii U.

> Japan

Who fucking cares. As much as I wish Japan were still the mecca of console gaming, everyone has made it plain as day that they aren't. And that goes for Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Japan themselves since they keep holding TGS and disappointing everyone who doesn't do most of their gaming on a smartphone.

Zelda does well in general. Worldwide, Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess both topped 3 million. If Nintendo returns to form and does an HD, open-world Zelda game, they could easily claim a couple million sales even with their shitty install base.

Of course I say that now and then Nintendo will announce the new Zelda will be inspired by Wind Waker or something, lol.

And Monster Hunter 5 for Wii U is just a waste of sales potential compared to the 3DS, and if it's a smash bros type release on both consoles the majority will go to the 3ds anyway.

MH5? Shit they need to focus on getting MH4 Ultimate first. But the majority of the love for that title is definitely for portables.

 

[EulaCapra]

I wouldn't put is past them again if Smash 4 got pushed back to February/March 2015. You never know.

January:
HAHA nothing

February:
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze

March:
Uh no

April:
Save your money while you wait for...

May:
...Mario Kart 8

July:
Mario Golf (speculation)/probably nothing

August:
Yarn Yoshi
Style Savvy: Glamorous (BELIEVE!)

September:
Bayonetta 2

October:
Professor Layton!/probably nothing

November:
Super Smash Bros....... for 3DS
Obligatory Mario-saving Winter game would be... Paper Mario

December:
X by Monolith Soft

March 2015:
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (lolololololol)

April 2015:
Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei

 

[Some Nobody]

Basically, everyone thinks Nintendo's going to die a slow, horrible death in 2014. Cool.

 

[shinra-bansho]

I think people are being rather optimistic about the potential release slate.

porting AssCree 3 cost less than a million euros to do, its fair to assume that 4 cost less still (with a lot of the hard work having been done last time), 3 was profitable, 4 should sell more (higher install base + more appealing setting)

similar situation with COD, the port wont have cost much

When did Ubisoft say AC3 was profitable on the Wii U? Also, as noted above: opportunity cost.

If you're expecting much in the way of third party "core" support going forward, I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[Darryl]

We're not talking about quality over quantity here. We (or I) are talking about a large quantity of quality titles, ones all guaranteed to sell 3+ million copies, with the exception of smaller releases like X or SMTxFE. They need a larger number of games to make up for there being so few of them in comparison to Sony/Microsoft, and so gamers can have options to choose from, rather than someone asking what good Wii U games there are and someone proceeding to list them every Wii U game ever because there are so fucking few to choose from.

yea i don't think nintendo is going to start releasing double the amount of titles so they can overwhelm the console warriors in the list warz segment. there are so many titles you can release per year without cannibalization. nintendo isn't going to cannibalize themselves. if they could release every single wii u title right now they wouldn't do it because it's a god awful business strategy.

 

[jay]

You forgot:

These jokes are really lame and display an obvious fanboy bias.

Neither of you mentioned:

 

[starwarsfan541]

yea i don't think nintendo is going to start releasing double the amount of titles so they can overwhelm the console warriors in the list warz segment. there are so many titles you can release per year without cannibalization. nintendo isn't going to cannibalize themselves. if they could release every single wii u title right now they wouldn't do it because it's a god awful business strategy.

Bingo, probably why DKC was delayed,

Also anyone else want a new Cruisin Exotica/ World Game, didnt Nintendo own the IP?

 

[LOCK]

Jan: Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club advertisement push, with new sports added to the club.
Feb: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
March: Mario Kart 8
April: more sports for the club
May: Bayonetta 2
June: nothing (Nintendo hates June)
July: Wii Sports Club retail
August: Yarn Yoshi
September: HD remake, X
October: Super Smash Bros WW release
November: FExSMT, casual game
December: Zelda promised but delayed to Match 2015

2015:
Zelda
Paper Mario
Animal Crossing
HD remake
New IP
Pokken
Etc.

 

[I'M FINISHED!]

There is a lot of optimism in your proposed release schedule.

 

[Not]

If the last half decade is any precedent, every game will come out much, much later than we expect them to. I'm thinking DKCTF in December, every title announced for Q2 in December, and all other 2014 Wii U games in December. Smash will be in December too...

Spoiler

2016.

 

[IntelliHeath]

I heard a rumor about Mario Kart 8's release date being April 2014 because of Amazon or online store, right? I saw it at other thread but I don't remember which one.

Also I would like to say that I suspect that we are getting SSB4 during Sept 2014. Hopefully Sept 21 or Sept 23.

 

[Not]

I heard a rumor about Mario Kart 8's release date being April 2014 because of Amazon or online store, right? I saw it at other thread but I don't remember which one.

Also I would like to say that I suspect that we are getting SSB4 during Sept 2014. Hopefully Sept 21 or Sept 23.

We're getting Smash in March 2015. Quality issues. Please wait a little longer.

 

[frankie_baby]

I think people are being rather optimistic about the potential release slate.
When did Ubisoft say AC3 was profitable on the Wii U? Also, as noted above: opportunity cost.

If you're expecting much in the way of third party "core" support going forward, I have a bridge to sell you.

they didn't need to say it, at a 1 million to make the port required less than 50k worldwide sales

I put a post further on regarding opportunity cost and no I don't expect much in the way of third party core support just that a couple of games are no brainers for their publishers

 

[LOCK]

There is a lot of optimism in your proposed release schedule.

Like what? Everything other than a suggested HD remake and a presumed Wii Sports Club retail release has already been announced. I think it will be released as a retail title or be included into the next sports title, and this is evident if you have been paying attention to Nintendo's recent casual online then retail push. I feel WW HD was a massive success and cheap to make, especially now that the engine they've made is ready. I feel Zelda will be promised but delayed, and everything announced in the Jan 2013 direct will have an additional year of development plus more. Everything shown at E3 will be ready. Platinum and Monolith aren't as incompetent as internal Nintendo teams when it comes to HD development.

My 2015 guesses just make sense. The AC plaza, the next gen Pokemon tease, easy remakes, etc is my evidence.

 

[I'M FINISHED!]

Like what? Everything other than a suggested HD remake and a presumed Wii Sports Club retail release has already been announced. I think it will be released as a retail title or be included into the next sports title, and this is evident if you have been paying attention to Nintendo's recent casual online then retail push. I feel WW HD was a massive success and cheap to make, especially now that the engine they've made is ready. I feel Zelda will be promised but delayed, and everything announced in the Jan 2013 direct will have an additional year of development plus more. Everything shown at E3 will be ready. Platinum and Monolith aren't as incompetent as internal Nintendo teams when it comes to HD development.

My 2015 guesses just make sense. The AC plaza, the next gen Pokemon tease, easy remakes, etc is my evidence.

I doubt we will be seeing Zelda Wii U in 2015. Smash also has a chance of delay. We have barely seen anything on Yarn Yoshi and Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei. So, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of those doesn't hit 2014 as well.

 

[ASTROID2]

It's funny how no one in here thinks Nintendo will announce new games next year.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

If Smash Bros misses Holiday 2014...

IDK what to say about that

 

[FTF]

im gonna say something wich I expect neogaf to remember..




Wii U is gonna be canceled next year. Iwata will be erased in april and wont be april fools, maybe may 2014.

There wont be a new game console really soon. The death of the system will be slow. They will release the rest of the games and the next zelda will be ps4 game. Call me crazy, but I really expect that.


Please dont bann me, but I really see that happening.

You're crazy...but seriously, you really think that??

Also, new Zelda in Fall 2014 would be nice, but not so sure it makes a 2014 release date.

 

[starwarsfan541]

It's funny how no one in here thinks Nintendo will announce new games next year.

It is funny, DK64 HD
BELIEVE

 

[Richie]

Of course I don't expect it to be a big seller, but I'm amused that absolutely no one remembers we have a retail release of Art Academy confirmed for next year.

 

[daripad]

Of course I don't expect it to be a big seller, but I'm amused that absolutely no one remembers we have a retail release of Art Academy confirmed for next year.

Any link to that?

 

[I'M FINISHED!]

It's funny how no one in here thinks Nintendo will announce new games next year.

I do. I expect one of them to be the mysterious project that Yoshiaki Koizumi has been teasing.

 

[Jamessh]

Any chance of a majora's Mask HD next fall to tide is until the wii u Zelda fall 2015?

 

[Chittagong]

The rule with Nintendo lineups is that they are always later and more spread out than we would hope for. For that reason, I expect their next year to be headlined by just Mario Kart 8 / Spring and Smash Bros / November.

No Zelda, no real new Super Mario, no Metroid.

 

[Zornack]

Any chance of a majora's Mask HD next fall to tide is until the wii u Zelda fall 2015?

I'd expect that to be a 3DS game.

 

[I'M FINISHED!]

Like what?

Confusion happened. I was commenting on the OP's proposed schedule.

 

[Rezae]

This is Nintendo.

I expect Mario Kart to be late Spring/Early Summer and their main seller leading into the fall.

Smash will be their big holiday title of 2014.

I don't think we'll see Zelda until Holiday 2015. It wouldn't even surprise me if it's not shown at E3.

X is a very wishful late 2014, maybe Japan and 2015 for the West.


I inagine we'll get some surprises, maybe some HD remakes that can be rushed out in under a year. F-Zero or Metroid at next E3 would be heaven. Maybe new Earthbound with the response its gotten lately.

 

[shinra-bansho]

they didn't need to say it, at a 1 million to make the port required less than 50k worldwide sales

I put a post further on regarding opportunity cost and no I don't expect much in the way of third party core support just that a couple of games are no brainers for their publishers

The only third party "core" franchise that's a "no-brainer" right now is COD - mainly due to the size of the franchise itself wherein even with a less than ideal audience base the game can still sell a large amount. I don't think Assassin's Creed is at that stage. We already had John Harker telling us that Ubi and other publishers were watching Splinter Cell's performance, to gauge whether future support was worthwhile - and that was an abysmal failure.

Also, I really think people are being too liberal in applying an off-the-cuff number Yves Guillemot threw out in an interview as blanket indication of the cost structure of all of their ports to the Wii U, or any other platform for that matter.

 

[SaviorX]

It's funny how no one in here thinks Nintendo will announce new games next year.

It actually is kinda funny; threads got me Rollin.

Nintendo is only going to release 3 games in 2014 (fucking Donkey Kong, Mario kart spring, and hopefully smash bros), accompanied by some indies and a paltry virtual console release schedule.

In the meantime they will ask us to be patient and enjoy the trailer to their new Dry Bones mini game collection title. Art Academy will be delayed again due to "unsatisfactory colored pencilz".

 

[Some Nobody]

yea i don't think nintendo is going to start releasing double the amount of titles so they can overwhelm the console warriors in the list warz segment. there are so many titles you can release per year without cannibalization. nintendo isn't going to cannibalize themselves. if they could release every single wii u title right now they wouldn't do it because it's a god awful business strategy.

Cannibalization is the risk you run when you're supporting a console with just you and the folks that make Sonic. Its flat-out inexcusable to have a month in which there are NO releases. Nintendo has to stop that from happening in 2014-2015 if they're going to get anywhere.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I do. I expect one of them to be the mysterious project that Yoshiaki Koizumi has been teasing.

Any chance of a majora's Mask HD next fall to tide is until the wii u Zelda fall 2015?

3DS games

Its flat-out inexcusable to have a month in which there are NO releases.

This is kinda how Nintendo consoles works post-SNES. Nintendo exclusive 1-2 months, maybe a quality third party exclusive slips through, and lots of shovelware. GC had technical parity with the PS2/Xbox, so they actually had more third party support than the Wii ever had(or the Wii U will ever have).

Nintendo's 2008 Wii releases:

Jan-Endless Ocean
Feb-please understand
March-Smash Bros Brawl
April-Mario Kart Wii
May-Wii Fit
June-uh no
July-please understand 2: the lost levels
august-Mario Super Sluggers
september-Wario Land: Shake It!
October-Wii Music
Nov: Animal Crossing: City Folk
Dec: pls buy Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit again

Now imagine this, with 90% more third party shovelware, with the occasional No More Heroes and de blob third-party exclusive worth a damn, and that was the year. But that was ok, because Wii Fit made them over a BILLION DOLLARS IN REVENUE alone, Smash did 10+ million, and Mario Kart Wii went on to sell 34+ million copies. The Wii was very successful with what it had.

Course, shit's changed now. If the Wii U console itself sold 34+ million, that would be amazing considering its current trajectory of tracking below the Gamecube. Its still gonna be the same release schedule, a few relative big hitters like Smash and MK, Wii casual stuff, and months they just have nothing outside their dwindling third party support. Considering they're supporting the 3DS at the same time, HD development time/costs, the amount of teams they have, etc they can only do so much. They just gotta make due with the games they do have and market them/the system to their best of their abilities.

Its gonna be a long generation for the Wii U...or a really short one if Anihawk prediction is right

 

[Mileena]

If they don't have some unannounced awesome shit I just don't see how I can justify this console's existence in my house much longer. SMTxFE and Zelda are def not 2014 releases though that would be nice. A complete Virtual Console rehaul and/or more HD remasters is gonna be needed to fill in the huge gaps in the release schedule or it's gonna be a system to turn on for 3-5 games a year and that's it. A Q1/Q2 MH4 Wii U port and I go back to actually enjoying the console

 

[Hiltz]

I think Wii U's life cycle will end similarly to Wii's, so its 5th and 6th year will be plagued with software droughts as Nintendo abandons it to make the transition to the next generation of its handheld and home consoles.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Zelda is most certainly not a 2014 game. I doubt X will be out either.

 

[I'M FINISHED!]

3DS games

Evil

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I think Wii U's life cycle will end similarly to Wii's, so its 5th and 6th year will be plagued with software droughts as Nintendo abandons it to make the transition to the next generation of its handheld and home consoles.

this was also the GC...2005 Nintendo Released Jungle Beat and...

 

[Hiltz]

this was also the GC...2005 Nintendo Released Jungle Beat and...

At least Nintendo's consistent then.

 

[Yamauchi]

My review of your 2014 release schedule

Donkey Kong : Tropical Freeze - Feb.2014 -- Yes
Mario Kart 8 - Spring 2014 -- Yes, but more like Summer / Fall 2014
X - 2014 -- Nope
Smash Bros. WiiU - 2014 -- Yes, late 2013 (Oct-Dec)
Bayonetta 2 - 2014 -- Yes
Yoshi Yarn - TBA -- No clue
Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei - TBA -- Nope
Zelda WiiU - TBA -- Nope
Wii Sports Boxing, Baseball, Golf - TBA -- No clue

Basically, everyone thinks Nintendo's going to die a slow, horrible death in 2014. Cool.

Like 2013?

 

[Meesh]

Of course I don't expect it to be a big seller, but I'm amused that absolutely no one remembers we have a retail release of Art Academy confirmed for next year.

Holy. I could definitely do this, and yeah I had no idea this was happening. AA is easily one of the biggest reasons why the game pad is a great idea, if only they could take some of this art related stuff and make a real game of it instead of a reasonably decent app. But whatevs, I'm down like Charlie Brown.

Cannibalization is the risk you run when you're supporting a console with just you and the folks that make Sonic. Its flat-out inexcusable to have a month in which there are NO releases. Nintendo has to stop that from happening in 2014-2015 if they're going to get anywhere.

No one's mentioned some of the high profile indie games Nintendo is no doubt desperately hoping will pad the list a bit. I only mention this because some of them feel like real contenders even if they aren't the typical AAA offering. Surely there's bound to be few more surprises headed Wiius way from these guys?

 

[C.Olimar788]

Key strategy: stall until Smash Bros. comes out; profit.

 

[SparkTR]

They better have some more games up their sleeve for 2014 than what we know about, because that list looks kind of dire. I'm kind of hoping for a re-branding of the Wii U, with new games to build momentum.

 

[neohwa]

a lot of these 2014 games will not be released in 2014.......

 

[Darryl]

Cannibalization is the risk you run when you're supporting a console with just you and the folks that make Sonic. Its flat-out inexcusable to have a month in which there are NO releases. Nintendo has to stop that from happening in 2014-2015 if they're going to get anywhere.

They need to avoid stuff like what happened earlier this year where they went almost 8 months without any title of significance hitting. A major title each month or two is a lot. Most people don't buy or need that much software. Go check something called "software tie ratios". That's how many titles people buy per console. It really isn't that high. This flood of games that you say should come will likely cause a fast door where titles are getting discounted very quick. Customers will then just start waiting for the slashed prices. Nintendo's software strategy is pretty smart when they don't drop the ball like they did earlier this year.

I do agree with you in a way. I definitely think that they need to improve the software value behind the console. Make cheaper, easier to access titles. This is probably why they're going so hard to attract the indie developers. Add in stuff like those, eShop titles like Wii Sports Club, VC games, and you may have people playing more games than they have before. Personally I'm using my Wii U more than ever because of how easy it is to just turn it on and play crap like Art Academy. I can't even draw, either.

 

[AzaK]

Ideal release schedule would be Mario Kart Jan then Zelda in Feb. Other than those there is nothing of interest on Wii U from Nintendo for me and I'd prefer them sooner rather than later.

 

[evilromero]

I don't see Zelda coming out next year. Rather, maybe another HD release or two plus some unannounced titles in addition to those you listed. Could be an ok year, but it'll all hinge on Nintendo's published titles unfortunately.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

There's going to be no retailers stocking Wii U in Australia next year it seems. Lucky for the e-shop I guess.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

this was also the GC...2005 Nintendo Released Jungle Beat and...

And?