I have some bad news, Star Fox Zero has been delayed into 2016

Another 2015 game has been delayed into 2016. This game needed it though. The graphics need to look better and so that the game can be polished.

http://gonintendo.com/stories/242926-starfox-zero-delayed-into-2016-to-allow-for-more-development-time

A Message from Mr. Miyamoto Regarding Star Fox Zero

I made a big decision last week.

We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year. Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes. While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play that we are proposing.

To the people looking forward to the launch of the game this holiday season, I am very sorry.

Star Fox Zero is going to bring new game play and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64. All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations. And the game will not be delayed for a very long time – we’re aiming to launch the game in Q1 2016. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

if it wasnt for splatoon and mario maker this year would be the worst ever year.

but those two games are so awesome.....

so i guess xenoblade will be the bread and butter.

This is probably a good thing. I was surprised when I saw the story but then when I thought about it, wasn't that surprised. The game was going to feel rushed if it came out and wasn't very good.

The thing that is nuts is that Nintendo really doesn't have a "mainstream" holiday release. Xenoblade is my most anticipated game in a long time but even I know this game will not appeal to the masses. Now the game may get some additional marketing push by Nintendo so they don't have a flat holiday. I'm sure we'll still see them push Mario Maker and Splatoon as well.

Crazy stuff!!

This is very surprising. Now Xenoblade is their holiday title, which seems weird since it already came out ages ago in Japan, and is a niche title.

But at the same time, the game didn't look like it was in very good shape. So in a sense, this isn't surprising.

Surprisingly, I have seen more commercials the past few weeks for Mario Maker than I have ever seen for the Wii U since it was released. Actually I've never seen a commercial for the console.

Star Fox wasn't going to move consoles this holiday season. Some type of price drop or other promotion is needed to fill the gap.

Yeah, I totally agree with you there.

Thank you for working on the dual screen feature, its one i was hoping would be implemented.

I have been interviewing for better jobs the last month to pay the bills but also be able to afford more Wii U games. This delay gives me more time to budget for everything. I have a fairly large backlog of games to get and there are 5 more games I want that are releasing from now until December, not including Star Fox Zero. We are just going to get a higher quality from the delay as they fine tune it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will re-release the Star Fox Amiiibo again for the game. Maybe a Star Fox second edition with a slightly different paint job? I know it probably isn't going to happen, but it doesn't hurt to wish.

Good. It needs much more polish.

So the entire year and no titles worth having this year outside of maybe Mario Maker?

That's a very hard season for Nintendo up to now. Xenoblade is their last shot at worthwhile software this year.

On the other hand if it's spring it means they start the year with a semi-notable franchise.

I think this news all but confirms that Zelda wont be a Wii U title. If they're having this kind of trouble with a third tier franchise there's no way a second tier franchise like Zelda is close to being ready

It needs much more everything. The E3 video completely drained any excitement I had for the game from me. Hopefully they're delaying it to make it better and not just to finish a game like what they showed. I want something more than a SF64 clone with poor graphics and environments.

At least there's still the new Fatal Frame and Xenoblade Chronicles X.

XC might be worthwhile but the sales will not be anything to brag about. This title is 100% niche and not something your average Nintendo fan will play or even take notice of. Yoshi is coming next month after years of waiting and months after release in foreign markets but the green dino will not sustain sales in October, November or any month. The year has been poor and the holiday season looks like one to forget for Nintendo.

@Collie_Lover: what about a new star fox amiibo line with falco, slippy etc. That would be awesome.

Sure, they could do it. They made the Super Mario Line for Mario Party 10. It would be awesome to get Fox, Peppy, Slippy, and Falco for the new game. I have already predicted that Star Fox Zero will be a million+ seller. The trolls/fanboys of the other consoles are in denial. Nobody saw Splatoon coming-it was completely off the radar. Splatoon is a wrecking ball to the theory that the Wii U is dead. It is new Nintendo IP. Then we got Super Mario Maker-it is selling consoles. The trolls/fanboys of other consoles are posting in the Nintendo forums because they are worried the Wii U is picking up momentum, and they want to kill the momentum. It is so obvious how hard they are trying it is pathetic.

The mistake Nintendo made with the Wii U was agreeing with 3rd parties to delay big Nintendo titles for the first year so that 3rd party games would have a chance on the Wii U, and then the 3rd parties (like EA) quit making games and abandoned Nintendo in the middle of development to program for Sony and Microsoft.

XCX is going to be a very big game and it will have so much content that you might get overwhelmed.

@GameboyTroy: I didn't get a copy of the last Xenoblade they made for the Wii. XCX looks amazing, and I am not going to make that mistake this time around.

@GameboyTroy said:

XCX is going to be a very big game and it will have so much content that you might get overwhelmed.

I am so ready for this game

Here's footage from the Japanese build.

http://www.twitch.tv/silentsakia/c/6659802

Understand my skepticism because we have heard that every big name release on the Wii U (before actual release) was going to change the tide but the outcome was not changed in the least. Furthermore, XC is not in the same league as well established and easily recognized games like Smash, Kart, Mario World, etc.., It's niche. Do you know the definition of the word? If you think the game will sell as if it is on fire and will move consoles, I'd like to hear why.

Of course its niche. I've probably never heard of this series until the Wii one. It also has a very nice presentation, nice gameplay, online co-op play and has a story. Its not that hard for me to defend this game. I think I've said enough.

http://www.twitch.tv/silentsakia/c/6659802?t=1m29s

I don't think you understand what niche is.

He and I are saying that most Wii U owners wont be excited that Xenoblade is the only holiday game this year. Niche means having specific appeal.

People buy Nintendo hardware for a certain sort of game. Xenoblade isn't that game and you didn't list any real reasons why anyone would think differently.

This is what the conversation you are currently in "What does Xenoblade do that mainstream Nintendo games also do and how are the mainstream people going to see this and buy the game?"

People are excited for this game. Of course I did list reasons why people would want this game. You want more? Okay, you can create a character and you get to customize your character and the characters that are in your group. Did I already mention that it has an open world? This game should get a 9/10 here. Was I talking to you Jayson? No.

Well, should boost Xenoblade X sales I guess. Hopefully they'll put a fair amount into marketing it now. Gotta make the most of that holiday season.

It's only bad news if you were expecting this game to drop this year. Who ever believes that NIntendo will put a game out when they say they'll put it out?

@GameboyTroy said:

XCX is going to be a very big game and it will have so much content that you might get overwhelmed.

Bring it!!! :P

Booo! about the Starfox delay though. :P

This is a pretty late delay announcement. Usually the delay is announced far more in advance.

OK, it's clear you don't know what niche means

I'm off, I don't want to have a conversation where only one of us understands all the words.

Catch you in the next thread and we'll hope for better results

Have a good day

Certainly you are entitled to your reasoning but the game will not suddenly excel where well known and well established titles (Mario, Smash, kart) have failed to rejuvenate the fortune of this console. Niche means it is a very small and specific part of the market. It wouldn't be niche if it had the following and buying power you seem to suggest it will have.

We'll just have to wait and see how well it does. This series is not well known or well established but there's nothing small about this game. It caught a lot of people's attention months ago and people are following it. The people that don't know about this game are mostly casual gamers.

I love starfox, but the delay will give me more time to focus on Xenoblade and boy am I gonna need it! The scale is completely mesmerising.

@superbuuman said:

@GameboyTroy said:

XCX is going to be a very big game and it will have so much content that you might get overwhelmed.

Bring it!!! :P

Booo! about the Starfox delay though. :P

I agree. It looked like crap in the E3 showing. The project started off as a Wii game and it shows. There was nothing there for me to get excited about.

@Collie_Lover: you're comparing Splatoon which is heavily multiplayer-focused to star fox which was shown to have hardly any content. Sales will be terrible unless they add more, looks like they might be. Turning it from a one time single player railshooter game into a railshooter game plus a great multiplayer will add value and replayability to the game- then I could see it selling like Splatoons numbers.

After watching the XCX videos I think it is going to be a pretty good game, even though I prefer platformer games. I wonder if TV commercials would capture the interest of Final Fantasy gamer-types.

@jcrame10: I think a multiplayer for Star Fox Zero would be fun too. I am predicting that the game will sell 1 million+, but not necessarily as much as Splatoon. Though we have not had a Star Fox game on a home console for a very long time. I think Star Fox Zero has the potential to attract allot of retro gamers like Super Mario Bros. Wii did.

@Collie_Lover: aren't the majority of wii u owners nostalgic and retro gamers anyways?

@jcrame10: Maybe-I know retro and nostalgic applies to me. I don't know what the Wii U demographics are: casual; hardcore; young, middle, adult; male or female; eastern or western; retro; nostalgic; platformer; or just simply Nintendo fans.

@Collie_Lover: After playing the HD remaster of Xenoblade for 3DS of the Wii game ... I doubt it. The world is huge but feel empty. You only really control one caracter ... it reminded me of FFXII. I dunno it didn't move me that much.

Star Fox looked rough, a delay can only do that game good.

@Coco_pierrot: Well that's two fold,first the limitations of the Wii. Second for a story standpoint, it was untamed wilderness, you cant expect to see anything outside of the wild animals.

@Collie_Lover: probably a little bit of all the above.

@Coco_pierrot: RPGs are probably 4th or 5th in my genre preference, but after watching a couple of gameplay videos I was impressed. My wife likes RPGs and has played many Final Fantasy games, Xenosaga series, and .Hack series among others; and she thought she would like XCX. She likes how you can customize eye, hair, and skin color; and the story seemed interesting. She thought the soul voice concept was cool. I am more of a casual gamer, and more easily impressed than many on the forums.

Glad to see Xenoblade Chronicles love in here!!!! Only a little more than 2 months to go!!!!!!

@Collie_Lover: RPGs are probably my fav style of games and I just didn't like it. I also played Tales Of ... and they also bored me. I'm just not into action RPG I guess

Well, there isn't a lot of options for the Wii U 1st party this year, is there? It's been a rough year for Wii U 1st party releases now especially with Starfox getting delayed.

May as well get whatever is coming, even if it's not your style.

If you like JRPGs, Xenoblade was good. Many female gamers I know love JRPGs. The genre isn't twitchy nor does it require a lot of hand eye coordination. On top of that, the girls i know love to customize characters (dress up). The stories are of course, also a bigger seller for the girls I know. I read the new Wii U Xeno Chronicles X that already released in Japan earlier this year isn't as good as the Wii game. Oh well, I'll grab it to complete my collection.

That JRPG genre is a big turn off though for some people, so maybe you'd be better buying Xenoblade or even older classic JRPGs to see if you like those games.

I enjoyed Xenoblade enough to buy two of them back then.

@SolidTy: hehehe..I did that too..bought 2 copies of Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)..and gave one to my bro in law..but the prices in AU was not as crazy as in US. :P

@SolidTy: I am not one of the people that have options problems for the Wii U. If you look at my game collection in my blog you will see that I have plenty of games to play at this point (16 total). I am unaffected by any droughts that others are experiencing. My problem is the opposite of a drought, in that I am trying to find a way to buy all of the games I want before the Wii U is not longer supported. Some games on my wish list are:

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival 59.99 (12/31/15)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Disney Infinity 3.0

Disney Planes

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Fast Racing Neo (?)

The Legend of Zelda Wii U 59.99 (?)

Mighty No. 9 (12/31/16)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted U

Pikmin 3

Rayman Legends

Snoopy’s Grand Adventure Wii U (11/03/15)

Star Fox Zero (11/20/15) (1/01/16)(Q1)

Xenoblade Chronicles X (12/4/15)

Yoshi’s Woolly World (10/16/15)

There are a few Virtual Console games that I want that are not listed there like Golden Axe for example.

Like you, I will be getting a regular copy of XCX to play, but also as a collectable. Also, XCX looks good to my wife.

@Collie_Lover: My post was about 1st party options being limited this year, but I see posted a bunch of 3rd party multiplatform games (some older ones too). I do see a few 1st party games there of course, like Pikmin 3, which I also own. It just seems you altered my 1st party point and padded your list with some 3rd party games (some even being older). There is older fun games from previous years, for sure, but I was talking about a specific time frame of this year and I brought up 1st party games as well. Your post was fine though but it just sort of went off the path a bit. :) Since you brought it up though, I will address 3rd party games below. BTW: My lady likes the Pikmin series when she isn't playing a JRPG. However, the 3rd party games is not the same thing I was talking about. Still, I can see you have games you want on Wii U which is good.

Yes, I'm not surprised the wife is interested in Xeno X as I said in my experience that makes sense.

I noticed you said, "I am trying to find a way to buy all of the games I want before the Wii U is not longer supported".

It got me thinking...

It's a shame there is talk and worry about the Wii U no longer supported. The Wii U only came out a year before the two new machines which was Nintendo's choice. I was there at launch 2012 and bought it. Even for 3rd party multiplatform buyers, it means a lot of 3rd party games just won't be coming to the Wii U machine as we've already noticed, as even developers skip over the Wii U for the same concern us gamers have noted, the dying support.

If you really want a great 3rd party game, like say, Need for Speed 2015, Madden series, Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Metal Gear Solid 5, Street Fighter 5, FIFA 2015, PES Soccer, or Project Cars (Project CARS cancelled for being "Simply Too Much For Wii U") and you see they just don't come to the Wii U, what do you do? Do you buy another console that has the majority of 3rd party games, or just not buy the games? I see you support multiplatform games, but you could have a much grander selection on a different machine. I just wondered what you think about award winning 3rd party games that don't release on the Wii U. Do you skip them? For instance, I see you listed a NFS game for Wii U, which tells me you are interested in NFS (Need for Speed), but the newer NFS games aren't on Wii U, so do you not want to play them? It seems like if the new NFS games did come to the Wii U, you would buy it, but if the NFS games do not come to the Wii U, you don't have interest in playing them?

The Wii released in 2006 the same year as the PS3. The Wii was a very popular and good machine, but didn't last as long as I think it should have.

Now there is a concern about the Wii U support fading for the NX. Even the Gamecube I think should have lasted as longer as it's rival, the PS2 released a year before the Cube. It's kind of interesting how much money I've thrown in support of Nintendo over the years and even then, options seem like they are getting narrower when it comes to 3rd party purchases.

I guess this has me thinking about the NX. Are we Nintendo supporters prepared to go through this 3rd party issue again? Obviously, we hope that it doesn't happen, but in a worse case scenario are we prepared? Especially to those that refuse to buy other hardware, are they prepared to miss out on some huge and award winning 3rd Party games over the next half decade?

Just some food for thought.

@SolidTy:Yes, your right. You did say 1st party-sorry about that. I had just got done playing Splatoon for 6.5 hours and I was really tired-lol!

Yes, the Wii U is going to be only 3 years old in a few months, and it is a sad that we are talking about the next console. I agree with your thoughts about gamers and third party developers skipping the Wii U because of the talk about the NX. I could be happy with the Wii U for another 4 years without a new console…

I like the racing genre and like to have a game with realistic looking cars in addition to Mario Kart and a futuristic racer. I will pick up Fast Racing Neo when it is ready. Of the 3^rd party games you listed I am only interested in NFS, but I read somewhere else about future installments of that game being Always Online (AO). In that case, I would not be interested in it anymore. Maybe Nintendo could get a 3^rd party for the NX that would make a Test Drive type of racer.

I only buy one console per generation, and will probably only buy Nintendo consoles from this point forward in my life. I didn’t really know what I liked when I was a young adult, and I acquired like 250+ games for one console across several genres. That is to say, that I bought too many games.

Over the years I discovered that my favorite games are platformers and cart racers, and Nintendo makes my favorite platformers and racers. But I do like others as well, and I always try to get a golf game and a fishing game. Nintendo seems to have a good business relationship with Activision, Namco, and Disney; who also make games that I like. Wii Sports Club is the perfect sports game for me. Hopefully, Nintendo will make a Sports Club game for the NX. I would like Capcom and Sega to keep making games for Nintendo, but off of the top of my head I don’t really need the big PC, Sony or Microsoft titles. I do realize that other Nintendo fans want them though, and I am not opposed to that. The other consoles need their own big award winning titles to stand out.

It is a painful and difficult decision to make, I think it is a good thing. Dissapointing, sure, but not as dissapointing as if the game turned out to not live up to it's potential, because of it being rushed. A few months can mean the world of difference to a game.

I'd rather the game be delayed til next year and come out actually good than be released how it was looking this year.