The recent announcement of Paper Mario: The Origami King took fans around the world by surprise, but they should get used to it, as Nintendo will be doing more surprise reveals in the future. Nintendo has earned a reputation for announcing major games within the same year that they are released, rather than promoting something way in advance and stringing the fans along.
Nintendo usually promotes its upcoming titles in livestreams called Nintendo Directs, and fans have been expecting a new one for a while now. There are rumors that a planned Nintendo Direct for June was cancelled due to issues caused by the coronavirus. The fact that many video game developers in Japan have had to move to remote work means that production has slowed down on many upcoming titles, so Nintendo might not want to promote games which could miss their release window due to COVID-19.
Nintendo recently announced Paper Mario: The Origami King on its social media channels and YouTube page with little fanfare. It seems that these kinds of announcements will be the norm for the near future. This comes from Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat on Twitter, who has a great track record with predictions and leaks. According to Grubb, there are no Directs planned, but Nintendo will be announcing other games in the future.
The Switch's release schedule for 2020 is looking bare, which is why many fans have been expecting a Direct to fill out the blanks. There are Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition at the end of May, Paper Mario: The Origami King in July, and the upcoming DLC for Pokémon Sword & Shield, but there isn't much else in terms of exclusives for the system. There are games with loose or unknown release dates, like Metroid Prime 4 or Shin Megami Tensei V, but fans are losing hope that these games will be released anytime soon.
It makes sense for Nintendo to focus on smaller announcements for games with concrete release dates rather than trying to put together a Direct in the current global climate for titles which could easily be delayed. The cancellation of events like E3 and the Tokyo Game Show means that lots of upcoming games will be announced in a similar fashion throughout the rest of 2020 by different developers and publishers. Players should just hope that the hints of a new Metroid game in the Paper Mario trailer are legitimate and Samus can help keep Switch fans entertained until the end of the year.
Paper Mario: The Origami King will be released for the Nintendo Switch on July 17, 2020.
Source: Jeff Grubb/Twitter