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Is Fire Emblem Switch In Danger of Having Sales Cannibalized by Smash Switch?

A game that many people expected to see at yesterday's Nintendo Direct, but which did not appear, is Fire Emblem Switch. It now looks increasingly likely that the game is a holiday title that will be revealed at E3.

But is that a good thing for the franchise?

Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates Birthright and Conquest benefited from February releases, a month that typically sees few worthwhile games hit the market. In contrast, Fire Emblem Switch will likely hit during the heaviest competition period of the year.

Fire Emblem certainly has its dedicated fans, but a lot of them are newer fans who have gotten into the series through the 3DS titles. Now, Fire Emblem will be competing with Smash for peoples' holiday money, and you can be certain that most people will gravitate towards Smash if they only have the money to buy one game.

Of course, you also have to consider games on other systems around the same time, but Nintendo fans are very much their own group and still support the major Nintendo releases, regardless of what the competitors put out.

Anyhow, is Nintendo compromising Fire Emblem Switch sales by not announcing it already and saving the release for later in the year or is Fire Emblem big enough of a franchise now to stand on its own two feet during the last few months of the year?
 
Well Splatoon 2 cannibalized Arms so Nintendo often do that to themselves.

Theyre pretty different IPs... so maybe it wont matter too much and it depends how many months between them there are.

I think FE will be okay since its established where Arms wasn't.
 
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It should be fine, I'm expecting a Mario Odyssey/Xenoblade Chronicles 2 situation. Mario Odyssey was obviously the bigger of the two, but there was enough space so that a lesser-known franchise like Xenoblade was able to still really shine and grow (sold 1 million units in a month, crazy good for Xenoblade). I'd expect Smash later in the fall to compliment Nintendo's new online service, with Fire Emblem at the tail end of the year to finish off 2018.

I don't think Fire Emblem has anything to worry about regardless, it's really taken off lately and I don't see that trend discontinuing with a wildly popular console like the Switch.
 

YIGAhim

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Yes. Nintendo did this before on the Switch.

However fans of FE would certainly get it, but newcomers would most likely hop on the Smash wagon
 

Fig

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Definitely the lack of FE Switch news was disappointing as it's been almost a year and two months since the game has been announced. I feel more than likely it will be a fall release in 2018 or it will be one of the first games of 2019. I don't think FE Switch will be cannibalized by Smash Switch since Nintendo has released multiple games at the same time prior (SM3DW and ALBW, albeit they were available on two different consoles). Veteran fans and fans that started with 3DS FE will be still interested on FE Switch since this will be the first console title since Radiant Dawn. FE Switch in no doubt will permanently change the franchise for better or for worse.
 

Rubik

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SSB is a system seller. A holiday or pre-holiday release for Smash increases the chances of people buying Switches during the holiday season.

While it might make current switch owners marginally less likely to buy competing games on launch, I imagine a lot of that being offset by all the new Switch owners who want more than one game for their new console. Not to mention the fact that Smash is essentially free advertisement for all the franchises featured in it. People seeing FE characters in Smash will likely cause a lot of sales for whatever the new Fire Emblem game is.
 
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Is FE Switch a 2018 title?

I believe it was officially revealed as being released in 2018. We haven't heard anything since, we know literally nothing besides the fact that it's a Fire Emblem game for the Switch. A delay wouldn't surprise me at this point given the lack of information, but I'm holding out for a full-blown reveal at E3 and a release very late in the year.
 
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I believe it was officially revealed as being released in 2018. We haven't heard anything since, we know literally nothing besides the fact that it's a Fire Emblem game for the Switch. A delay wouldn't surprise me at this point given the lack of information, but I'm holding out for a full-blown reveal at E3 and a release very late in the year.
If it was officially announced as 2018 then it should be 2018. Sure you say delays and that's a valid point. However every single one of the 1st party and 2nd party (like Monolithsoft) games all hit their release dates. Not a single delay. Quite extraordinary. That has got me thinking that if Nintendo believes it's 2018, then it'll actually be 2018. I do think late 2018 looks quite likely though.
 

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