Let's get into this. With the event happening at 11pm EST on the 12th, my excitement level is getting a little silly. There are many little things we can hope and speculate for and I'm here to throw in my few thoughts leading into this whole shebang. We already got a great proof of concept video a while back from Nintendo, and we have seen it in real time with Jimmy Fallon, but this event will be the one to answer (hopefully) a ton of questions leading into it's March Release.
And let's talk about that date in March.
There has been a few rumors going around about the date being March 17th. A GameStop Germany posting has a date of that, Laura Kate Dale 'confirmed' that lined up with her inside sources and I believe that's also about the time those new Amiibo were said to be launching. So I think a March 17th date is probably a sure thing at this point.
Speaking of Germany; that posting that showed the date is also the posting that shows a list of the reservable SKUs. Now, I'm in the GameStop Retail life, so I know that the picture is pretty legit, and while we in the States don't have that yet (and probably will by this posting as the info will be coming in Wednesday or Thursday before the event) I feel pretty confident in most of this stuff below.
Firstly, yes, that is how the screen looks, and that's why I can say with confidence that it's accurate. Plus, we know of many of those things as no brainers. None of the listed games on there are of any surprise; unless for some reason you really didn't think Skyrim was going to make it. However, I wanted to speculate on the 5 placeholders. Firstly, speaking of GameStop, they had an internal page up for the Switch that talked about "playing Pokemon at home" and all that. Now, I think a lot of us feel that the 3rd piece of the Pokemon Sun and Moon release was going to be a thing, and we were feeling that it was going to be the Switch version (especially with all the assets that were being hacked out of the game and all that) but this helped confirm it. The other thing that helps confirm it is that they took it down. Kinda weird seeing as it's an internal only thing, but the fact that it got out there means they needed to put it away as to not avoid a street dated spoiler and ruffle some relationship feathers.
So yeah, Pokemon Stars or whatever they are going to call it. (seriously, call it Eclipse!)
I originally was thinking "ok, Dragon Quest X for the states! They keep re-confirming it on Switch lately!" but that's already on the list! As well as DQXI (of course)! So honestly, I have said this many times, my next one truly is Metroid. With the ending of Federation Force, it's pretty likely that we will be getting a 4th entry in the Prime Series. So that's 2 of the 5. The third I guess could be the whole Mario and Rabbids crossover strategy game that keeps popping up in Switch Rumor talk. But I'm not sure if I can truly think of another for sure. I would speculate that the team that worked on Fast Racing Neo is working on F-Zero as that game was a big love story to it and they had previously talked about working with them on something. A stronger thought could really go to Beyond Good & Evil 2. That one has had a lot of talk of it being Nintendo Exclusive (at least for a year, if not being something of a Bayonetta 2 situation where Nintendo put the money down to get it made) and it's been confirmed again that it's really happening with Ancel's art and all of that floating around. If I had to guess a 5th... I'll just say one brand new IP.
We have already seen tons of support from many parties, and we know that the big names like Skyrim and NBA will be there, but let's not forget that a ton of indie titles have already been confirmed for this thing already too. I expect to see at least a little video showcasing the "Nindies" in a sense (I know they are out for more than just Nintendo). But it's not just about the games. There have already been a lot of leaked accessories for this thing - we are talking cases, charge bases, controller add ons and even chat headsets. And those headsets are talking about chat volume and muting which to me starts to imply their hopefully better focus on online gaming. DeNA has been working with the, and the My Nintendo Account has been their idea for unifying the whole deal, so I think it's time this happens. Give me a proper Splatoon online (even though it's really not bad for that game specifically).
Lastly, let's talk price.
There has been a lot of chatter about this thing being $250. My guess has been $300 for a while; thinking that $250 seems too low to be able to hit that with what they are doing. However, recent rumors like Best Buys being told to adjust prices for the Switch down to $250 coincide with other sites posting that price as well. So it's possible, and I'm thinking it could be true.
So, in closing, here are the quick bullet points -
1 - Date of March 17th
2 - 5 unannounced titles will be unveiled here (my guesses above.)
3 - Better Online support
4 - Price of $300
5 - One New IP
6 - I'm a very happy old man
-Eddie
p.s. - I don't think there will be separate SKUs either for the system. Based on how pre-orders are looking, there will be the one, and perhaps it has a simple pack in game or a demo disk. With the other titles being available for pre-order, and multiple pre-sale listings showing them, I don't see a big pack in.
