There’s no doubt that Nintendo has had an incredible first year with the Switch.
Game after game has released catering to just about every demographic.
But so far, most of 2018 remains a mystery.
We know that some games like Kirby, Fire Emblem, Yoshi, and Bayonetta 3 are on the way, sure,
but we don’t know what else Nintendo’s studios might be up to and what surprises
could be in store.
With that said, we thought it’d be fun to look at these developers and see if there’s
any way to determine what might be coming next.
And yes, while we realize any of these games could be on 3DS, we’re running with the
idea that Nintendo will largely be focusing their efforts on the Switch this year.
However, here’s the thing, these days most Nintendo first party games are developed under
Nintendo EPD, or Entertainment Planning & Development.
They cast a huge net consisting of a variety of teams that don’t really have their own
official title, which makes it rather daunting to determine what exactly they might do next.
So instead, we’re going to be focusing on the subsidiaries and second party-developers
that all fall under the Nintendo umbrella.
What might they be up to?
To determine that, we’ll be taking a look at their game release history--what kinds
of games they produced and when they came out--to try and figure out what could be coming
next and when it might be released.
But since release dates obviously vary by region over the years, we’ll be going by
the first initial release since that marks when primary development of the game wrapped
up.
Let’s begin with Nd Cube, who’s best known for their work on Mario Party, Wii Party,
and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival--yeah, they really like their party games!
Even though their last game was quite recent, being Mario Party: The Top 100 this past November,
these guys can crank out games on an annual basis.
Since 2012, they’ve only had a single year without some kind of release, being 2014--although
that can be explained when you consider that the years immediately before and after, being
2013 and 2015, had two games each.
So their output since 2012 has actually been slightly higher than just one game a year.
Based on that, we’re pretty darn confident that we’ll be getting a new game from Nd
Cube this year, and it’s likely to be a Mario Party as that tends to be the bulk of
their output--shocking, right?
Then there’s Monolith Soft, the developers behind Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which just released
this past December.
But despite how recent that game is, we may already have some idea of what their next
project--or at least a future project--is going to be.
In August of 2017, the company’s recruitment page posted that they were looking to hire
for an “ambitious project different from the brand image of Monolith Soft.”
So yeah, it’s pretty clear this likely won’t be a Xenoblade game, especially based on the
concept art on that same page that shows a more fantasy-based setting.
But when might we see it?
Well in the past, there tended be a two year gap between their releases.
The original Xenoblade Chronicles came out in 2010 with Project X Zone in 2012 and a
sequel to both games 3 years later in 2015.
Based on this, it’s likely that we won’t see a new game from Monolith until at least
2019, especially because they’re still supporting Xenoblade Chronicles 2 via updates and DLC
throughout most of the year.
However, there is still the possibility that this new fantasy game--or a new game in general--could
release sometime this year given that Monolith seems to have at least two different teams
working simultaneously, especially since they were hiring new staff in August for this known
project that presumably had already started development.
Retro Studios is a bit of a wild card.
We know they’re working on a game.
We just have no idea what it is.
Since the release of the original Metroid Prime in 2002, Retro was able to put out a
new game roughly every two to three years.
The longest gap in original games was between Donkey Kong Country Returns in November of
2010 and Tropical Freeze in February of 2014.
But now it’s been an even longer wait, at four years and counting since Tropical Freeze,
and we still have no idea what their next project is--and no, we’re not counting the
Tropical Freeze Switch port.
I know Funky Kong looks awesome, but I'm pretty sure it didn't take 4 years to add him in.
Really, the only thing we do know is that it’s not Metroid Prime 4, which is seemingly
being developed by Bandai-Namco.
So given the complete lack of information and the fact that we’re in an unprecedented
lull, it actually leads us to believe that we should finally hear about their next game
this year, BUT that being said, we don’t expect the game to release until next year
based off Retro’s history.
Because nearly every game they’ve developed was revealed the year before its release.
The only exception to this was Donkey Kong Country Returns which was revealed and released
in 2010.
But hey, maybe they’ll surprise us again this year.
Finally, just because we’re being thorough, there’s technically one first-party studio
left: 1-UP Studio, formerly Brownie Brown.
But given the fact that they only seem to assist with games like Super Mario 3D World,
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and Super Mario Odyssey, and haven’t released one
of their own titles in 12 years, we’re going to go out on a limb and say that streak’s
going to continue.
And that’s all the subsidiaries of Nintendo, but there’s still a lot more studios under
their wing that could be considered 2nd Party developers.
First up is Creatures, Inc. which is mainly known for producing the Pokémon Trading Card
Game as well as developing some of the Pokémon spin-offs like Pokémon Ranger and PokéPark.
In fact, they also helped with the development of the Mother series back when they were known
as Ape Inc.
So what are they up to now?
Well, they’re the ones developing Detective Pikachu for the 3DS.
Now Part 1 was released on the Japanese eShop in early 2016 but this worldwide release is
presumably the complete story.
So with development nearly finished, that makes it tricky to determine what they’ll
do next or when we’ll see it.
There was an unprecedented 5 year gap before Detective Pikachu, but since that involved
the development of new tech--remember that creepy demo?--we doubt we’d see that delay
again--especially if they pursue a proper sequel, which wouldn’t shock us given the
upcoming movie.
Cross promotion for the win!
And since they had a new game every year or two prior to Detective Pikachu, we think it’s
possible their next one could hit as soon as 2020.
Then there’s Camelot who are mostly known by Nintendo fans for their Mario Golf, Mario
Tennis, and Golden Sun games.
And considering we already know that they’re the ones developing Mario Tennis Aces, it’s
probably going to be a while until we see what’s next from them.
That said, there’s usually only a one or two year gap in their Nintendo releases dating
all the way back to 1999, with a 3 year hiatus between 2007 and 2010 being the only exception.
So given that fact, it seems likely we could see their next game as soon as 2019.
So that covers the when, but what about the what?
Well, given that every game from them for the past 6 years has been a Mario sports title--and
that with the exception of the Wii U, every console that has had a Mario Tennis also had
a Mario Golf, we think there’s a good chance we might be seeing Mario Golf next, again
possibly as soon as next year.
Although...the gap between Golden Sun: The Lost Age & Dark Dawn was about 8 years, and
well, it has been just about 8 years since the last one.
Hmmm.
It’s probably unlikely though.
Game Freak, Good-Feel, HAL, and Intelligent Systems--or GGHI as I like to call them--are
other developers where we know what we’re getting.
Game Freak already announced they’re hard at work on Pokémon for the Switch although
they didn’t hint at any kind of release window or even if it’ll be the start of
a new generation.
But considering the fact that the first Pokémon game released on a new platform has always
been the start of a new generation, we’re pretty certain this will be the beginning
of Gen 8.
But when might it come out?
Well, there’s always been a 3 or 4 year gap between generations, and since it’s
only been 2 years since the beginning of Gen 7, it seems unlikely that Pokémon Switch
will release this year and instead pushes it to 2019.
That said, before worldwide releases began in 2013, many Pokémon games have been put
out in the Spring in both Japan and North America, pointing to a possible early 2019
release date for Pokémon Switch.
So that’s what the numbers say, but hey, Game Freak has gone against tradition before,
so maybe there’s hope for it this year after all.
As for Good-Feel, we do know that they’re the ones behind the upcoming Yoshi game on
Switch that was announced for release this year--even though we haven’t seen anything
of it since E3 and it still doesn’t have a final title.
But assuming it’s still on track, it’ll likely be some time before we see another
game from them.
There was a two year gap between Wario Land: Shake It in 2008 and Kirby’s Epic Yarn in
2010 and an additional five years until Yoshi’s Woolly World in 2015, with only a slew of
StreetPass games inbetween.
So yeah, it seems their next game after Yoshi won’t hit until 2020 at the absolute earliest.
Like Good-Feel, HAL Laboratory is another developer with a game coming soon--super soon,
as in less than a month with Kirby: Star Allies.
However, unlike some of these other developers, we could see any number of games from them
not long after as they’ve developed multiple titles simultaneously in the past.
Heck, Kirby Battle Royale released just a few months ago for most of the world.
And before that, Bye-Bye BoxBoy in February, Team Kirby Clash Deluxe in April, and Kirby’s
Blowout Blast in July, all for 2017.
While this seems like a massive amount of output for the studio, most of those were
smaller titles.
This makes it hard to predict what HAL will do after Star Allies as they could release
another small Kirby game, an eShop title, or even help with the development of another
Nintendo game like they have in the past for the Super Smash Bros series.
But we wouldn’t be too surprised to see another game--or two--from them in 2018 as
they’ve had multiple releases each year since 2014.
And then we have Intelligent Systems.
Nintendo has already announced that a new Fire Emblem is in development for the Switch
and that it’s coming this year--even though we know nothing else about it.
However, like HAL, they’re a big enough studio to have multiple projects in the works.
2015 was a particularly busy year for them as they released Fire Emblem Fates, Stretchmo,
and Code Name: STEAM in that timeframe.
And of course, they’ve worked on the Advance Wars and Paper Mario series in the past, so
any number of these games could possibly come from them in the future.
But for 2018, we think it’ll be limited to just the new Fire Emblem.
After all, despite the fact that three Fire Emblem games were released in 2017, only one
was fully handled by Intelligent Systems, Fire Emblem Echoes.
The same goes for the year before in 2016 where they only released Paper Mario: Color
Splash.
As for what could be after Fire Emblem Switch, that’s a bit tricky to determine.
Paper Mario is technically possible, but since there tends to be a 4 to 5 year gap between
games, and Color Splash was just released in 2016, we think it’s more likely that
another Fire Emblem will be on the way first considering we haven’t heard from the Advance
Wars games since 2008 and Fire Emblem games have been releasing like clockwork.
It could even be another remake with the Echoes moniker.
Next is a developer you might not have heard of, Genius Sonority.
They started as a developer of Pokémon spin-off games with 4 of them releasing between 2003
and 2006 with Pokémon Colosseum, Gale of Darkness, Trozei, and Battle Revolution, before
taking a break for the next 8 years to develop Dragon Quest Swords followed by three Denpa
Men games.
They finally returned to Pokémon games in 2014 with Pokemon Battle Trozei followed by
Pokemon Shuffle the following year.
However, since they’ve been providing constant updates to Shuffle since its release, it’s
not clear if they’re actually working on anything else.
But if they are, it’s likely that their next release will be a new Pokémon puzzler
in the same vein as Shuffle and Trozei.
This is especially possible since the release of a mainline Pokémon game on Switch makes
their earlier Pokémon Stadium-like ones redundant--and given it’s been 3 years since their last
game, we wouldn’t be too surprised if they shadow-dropped a new one at any time.
Grezzo is best known as the developers behind the Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask 3D
remakes for the 3DS, although they did just release their entirely own creation this past
year,.
Ever Oasis on the 3DS.
Based on their history, they’ve generally released a new game that they handled primary
development on every two years, although one of those games was the comparatively tiny
StreetPass Gardens, which was the only thing separating the four years between both Zelda
3DS remakes.
Which means, we could possibly expect a new game from them as soon as next year, although
with the likely move to the more powerful Switch, we wouldn’t be surprised if it took
longer, possibly closer to the 4 year gap between Zeldas pointing to a 2021 release
at the latest.
As for what it could be--maybe they’ll update another Nintendo property, or perhaps try
their hand at something new again.
Although given their recent history of working with Zelda, including 2 remakes and assisting
with Tri Force Heroes, perhaps it could something new in the series?
Finally, there’s Next Level Games who last worked on Metroid Prime: Federation Force
in 2016.
Yeah, it didn’t really get the best reception, but there are a lot of fans of Next Level’s
previous games.
Super Mario Strikers, Punch-Out for the Wii, and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon are all fantastic
and a sequel to any of them would be great on the Switch.
There was only a 2 year gap between Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers: Charged, and
Punch-Out Wii, which released between 2005 and 2009.
But it took 4 years after that for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, which makes sense given
it was a more complex production than what came before.
The same could be said of the wait between Luigi and Federation Force.
So while the games they develop are all over the place as far as content, it’s possible
we could see a new game from them this year if it’s slightly less ambitious or a sequel.
Otherwise, we might be waiting until 2020 for their next game.
As for what it could be?
Well, they haven’t produced a sequel to one of their own games since Strikers Charged,
and they have had a recent trend of producing new installments in somewhat ignored or forgotten
franchises, so maybe we should expect something of that nature?
It’s those possibilities that make this such an exciting time for Nintendo fans and
Switch owners.
There are a lot of great developers that work for Nintendo and while we know about quite
a few games on the horizon, there’s an incredible amount of potential for the ones we don’t
know.
Who knows how they willl all turn out but simply seeing what they have to offer has
us excited.
But what games would you like to see from these developers?
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