So first of all the Switch has hit 10 million sales! Congratulations to Nintendo. I hope they have a great year if not better for 2018 both sales wise and release wise.

Today I'll be sharing my predictions for 2018's releases as well as games that will be announced for the year and why we really have nothing to worry about for 2018. Keep in mind this is all opinion backed up with little to no evidence if any. Without further adieu let's begin. 

So first of all at the Nintendo Direct in January we'll see the reveal of Fire Emblem Switch's full flashy new game. We'll also see Pikmin 4 and get a solid Fall release date. ((Because it has no excuse not to come out in 2018.) Another big game I'm feeling good about seeing is Pokemon Switch. A lot of people don't know but there's a high chance early development has been in progress as early as 2015 for Gen 8. X and Y began development in 2010, before Black and White were out in America! And this entire year has been active development, just with half the manpower as normal. We'll get a trailer showing off the game and a Winter release date. Then we'll move onto another Yoshi trailer and a Kirby trailer. 

February is silent other than the new Online for $20 a year as confirmed by Nintendo themselves at this point in time but March gets Kirby onto store shelves. The April direct rolls around and they announce a brand new Ranked mode for Splatoon 2 as well as an expanded story and a new hard mode for Salmon Run. We get more on Yoshi and learn ARMS is receiving a massive update with new modes, characters, and stages. We'll also see some more of Project Octopath Traveler and some third party games like GTA V. To fill the gap in between E3 we'll see Vitual console return and the ARMS and Splatoon 2 updates go live. Virtual Console will include Gamecube Games and Mario 64, Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, and LoZ LTTP will all have an online mode akin to Super Mario 64 online.

E3 will come around and we'll get more on Pikmin 4, one last trailer for Yoshi and see Animal Crossing be announced for Switch as a 2019 release along with a teaser for Metroid Prime 4. They will also unveil a new Donkey Kong game for Switch in late 2018 and a brand new IP focusing on puzzle solving and a deep story. They'll also announced a Snipperclips expansion called Snipperclips Plus Plus which will come out later in the month.

 We'll also see a sequel of Mario Maker announced called Mario Re-Makered adding new items, stages, and all that stuff. Also slopes. Further more it'll be bundled with a Zelda Maker but only contain engines for the original, LTTP, and Link Between Worlds since those are the only ones you can realistically make a maker for that are different enough from each other.

 Finally the September direct rolls around and we get news on the new IP as well as a bunch of third party games coming to the system including three exclusives in 2019. Just when everyone is leaving a Smash ball will appear on screen with 2019. Yoshi will come out in August, Pikmin 4 in September, and Fire Emblem in November. Donkey Kong will come sometime in October. Pokemon will move systems on the second weekend of December and the Switch will reach 16 million units sold. 

2019 will be the year where system sales really start to upsurge with the release of Smash. 2018 will be when the Switch finally ends up being on store shelves regularly and easy to find as production is upped to meet the demand. 2018 will also serve as the year they outsell the Wii U's lifetime sales. 

Now let's compare this to 2017. 2017 saw 2 really big important system movers and 7 not so big games like Spaltoon 2 and ARMS. (Now I'm not saying they aren't big games just not as big as Mario and Zelda.) And also one third party exclusive in Mario + Rabbids

Obviously Pokemon is one of the big games, Kirby and Yoshi will serve as two smaller games along with Project Octopath Traveler being that big third party exclusive. Pikmin 4 is another smaller game that will be coming to the system. Snipper Clips Plus Plus can't really be counted as a small game because I'm still not sure if it's third party or not. Donkey Kong serves as the fourth smaller game. Then we have Mario Re-Makered which I personally believe is a system seller just because it includes two separate makers and is amazing. Also it is a full on sequel, not a port. There's a lot of new content for a reason. So it counts as our second big game. Fire Emblem will serve as the fifth smaller game or a system seller depending on how you look at it, basically swap this one with Mario Re-Maker for which you think is a system seller.

Now I do think we'll see one more port that could be announced at any time and maybe release in April. A port of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD bundled together. If the games hope to sell they should be bundled to encourage more sales. But what about Gamecube games being on Virtual Console. Simple, don't include Wind Waker and Twilight Princess or any other games you may want to remaster in the future.

Finally I think we'll see a remastering of Luigi's Mansion and Dark Moon in HD with a new online mode and a map editor allowing you to create gauntlets of ghosts for your friends. This could come out at any time preferably in May before the Virtual Console releases but after the Splatoon 2 and ARMS updates go live.

So look at that, that's  10 games just like the year of 2017. It also sets up 2019 with four new games that will surely sell systems like hotcakes and serves as a cooldown  year so developers can finalize the big time consuming projects and still make the year full of games. And heck if the Zelda team does decide to go the Majora's Mask route with Breath of the Wild and reuse the engine then we could see a new Zelda in 2019 too! 

But I'll save the 2019 predictions for next year. Next time we'll see Clam Blitz with a Side of Salt because it releases tonight. It'll probably be on Friday or not because I might be too depressed if we lose Net Neutrality.

Anyways thanks for reading and have a great day! Bye!