@SLIGEACH_EIRE Thanks for the other review. I didn't mean to suggest Sonic would be any good, just that Polygon are incompetent and the company behind this ( https://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/mario_kart_pie_chart.jpg ) shouldn't be referenced in any situation.

As for your comments about 2018, well Nintendo have a direct at the end of every year showing new games for the first half of the next year. They also have one around E3 time every year that, while of course showing games for the following year, always announces at least a few for the end of the current year. Right now all of their focus is on the holiday season, once again as they do every year. So realistically until at least one of those Directs come, ideally both, nobody has a leg to stand on with commenting on Nintendo's output next year.

Of course Metroid Prime 4 was announced early, it's Metroid Prime 4. Pokemon isn't a Nintendo game and correct me if I'm wrong, was announced by Game Freak first, because people were screaming at them about a Switch game when the new 3DS ones were announced. So that part doesn't relate to Nintendo at all.

I think your mistake is assuming that because they announced a couple games early, that most of their output for next year is now known. Nintendo haven't worked that way in a while now. I think they were burned by Breath of the Wild taking so long and only show games these days when they are confident in the release schedule. Games being announced, then released within a few short months has been the norm for them this year.

In 2017, Nintendo has released one major first party game every month. The exception is this month but it seems they've specifically done that to give third parties a chance, and the third party releases this month pick up the slack several times over. Yes a few were Wii U ports, but that's irrelevant because nobody had a Wii U. And even more were collaborations with third parties, but that's a really smart idea to increase their output and vary their projects. I would expect this to continue in 2018, if not step up, and can't see any less first party games than 1 per month being a possibility.

Sorry for writing as much, I'm honestly thinking aloud just as much as I'm replying to you.

I'd love to see your evidence about Pikmin 4 though! It doesn't seem believable to me because Wii U was already long dead in the water at that point, but if I've missed a comment from them saying that I'll happily eat crow!