I think they would have preferred to wait until next year to announce it. But with all the rumours and speculation, they had to do it now.

I don't think that was really the impetus for releasing the reveal trailer. Eurogamer and Emily Rogers leaked Switch to all hell in late July. Nintendo never seemed like it was in a rush.

That said, I don't have any confident guesses either. Maybe Nintendo doesn't want to over-promise launch titles. Then again, delaying games has never been a problem for the company. Maybe some things aren't finalized. Nintendo will have to start manufacturing Switch by December or January so it's cutting it close if changes are still being pitched/considered.

If you wanted to be apprehensive about committing to a Switch early well....here it is.

http://i.imgur.com/Ngby1hI.jpg

Nintendo is hyper-focusing the marketing for the Switch and want to focus on the NES Classic and Pokemon this year so they can make freaking money.

Plus January for a March release is what they did with the 3DS, the Wii and Wii U - the big info blowout two months before.

Well they're failing at it really. The NES Classic releases in a few weeks and I'm still looking for a place to pre-order it.

NES Classic is one of those items that if stocked on shelves will sell itself no need to spend money on it and they might not even allow pre-orders as a way to combat scalpers.

Again I ask, "What are they waiting for?"

The question is who is Takashi Mochizuki?

and why should I rely on him as my source of information?

I've never heard about this guy until a couple days before this press release. It just seems like he's just a Wall Street Journal guy who speaks and reads Japanese. Pretty much a regular guy.

Probably cause he asked Nintendo directly.

Yes and No. If you ask Nintendo directly they are pretty consistent. However, unless they post it themselves on any print form I wouldn't take it as final. Primary>secondary>tertiary>quaternary

If he asked them directly and had an audio recording. Then that would be pretty good.

If he broke a bunch of stories over the years then I could take him as a really good source.

There is some interesting thing on his twitter though. He asked them "can switch play mobile games?" They said they would comment on that later. I was wondering if its going to have access to some outer-nintendo store content, and if it does than that could be the thing that makes the system stand out over the other systems in a big way. If I can go onto the Amazon Underground store and download Goat Simulator and GTA Vice city that would be pretty amazing. Nintendo has had pretty bad third party support over the years, and it could easily cheat having good third party support. Ouya had this and it was really nice, but it didn't have Nintendo first party support. As mobile platforms become more powerful it might be nice to be able to download some games. The way Ouya handled it was there was a first party store and you could get the other stores.

I'm sure any info now would get lost among the holidays. I think a stable and coherent marketing and hype plan starting in January leading up to release would behoove Nintendo, so while I'm disappointed we won't hear anything from Nintendo itself, I understand the reasoning.

Also,  a really good point. Anything immediately after the holidays at this point would be better than before the holidays. I said February at the latest. I see no reason not to start hyping it up in early January. If it's going to be out in March the beginning of February is the latest to have a hype train pull out of the station.

See that line of thinking is just baffling. Sony was very quick to get all the details on the PS2 out early enough before the Holidays to stop people from buying a Dreamcast in order to talk them into waiting, that worked really well for them, why wouldn't Nintendo want to try the same thing, come out now with all the goods and say don't you dare waste all your holiday money on Microsoft or Sony crap we have an amazing product just around the corner. Well because there is probably some really baffling, head scratching Nintendo move coming that is going to deflate the hype train and they are better off holding that until closer to launch when they get people sold on hype and promises. Except that isn't the smartest move.

Even making the excuse they don't want to cannibalize their 3DS sales this holiday is false, again Sony had no issue putting all the juicy bits out about PS2 to strike the Dreamcast even though they were still very much supporting the PS1. Nintendo is just being Nintendo and my fear is the really hard to swallow piece of news that steals all our hype and crushes all our dreams is the real reason they are holding back.

You're not just talking about cannibalizing 3DS sales, you're also talking about letting your other hardware launch (NES Mini) get lost in the media shuffle.  You're also talking about muddling your messaging with games in the mobile space.  You're also talking about not raising the question of "Will I need this to play the new Pokemon?" or something of the sort.

Easier to do the Switch marketing blitz when it's the only thing you've got going on.

NES Classic is not going to need a marketing blitz though. It will sell itself, how many of those Sega consoles and Atari consoles do you see advertised? None ever. Nintendo knows this. Youtube is all the marketing they need to do, that is done. NES Classic is not at all aimed at the same gamers who will save their money to buy a Switch instead it is squarely aimed at the casual gamers that just want a few random NES games to play and the hard core collectors that will buy it anyways.

They seriously can get away with spending zero dollars advertising and still sell out their entire inventory. It isn't a new console launching it is a side toy they are putting out there for the collector market and those casuals who don't keep up with gaming.


Also Switch won't really affect 3DS sales much at first, as there is always a year or two transition from old console to new, and how is it different from them revealing the GBA Micro the same time they revealed the DS. It's basically the same scenario only this time both handheld and console are performing worse than their respective counterparts were at that time.

The idea of Nintendo letting a product which is effectively an earnings stopgap affect how they market the Switch is really frustrating. I get it; they have investors to please and investors are decidedly focused on the short term (and little else). But that sort of short-sighted focus is what led to the 3DS launching way earlier than it should have and getting off to a rocky start. Whatever their reason is for holding back any significant news until early next year (if that indeed ends up being the case), I have to believe it's much better than that.

NES Classic has the potential to do Amiibo sales figures, Nintendo knows this. Don't under estimate the demand for retro NES crap. Regardless of sales potential, that thing needs zero marketing, the entire internet is already talking about it, and if you do come across one in a drug store it's an easy sell, almost an impulse buy. The real issue is if they understimate the potential and create a situation where scalpers are the only ones making money. Unless of course the scalpers all work for Nintendo under cover and that is how they stretch their dollar just a little further.

Not from Nintendo indeed.  I fully expect to see the Switch name come up in at least a few Game Awards trailers.