In theory, Nintendo has a bevy of major games lined up for the year—Yoshi’s Crafted World, Daemon X Machina, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Animal Crossing, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Pokemon 8, among others. However, in reality, only Yoshi has a release date, and that’s two months from now. In terms of concrete confirmations, Nintendo’s 2019 slate looks worrying right now, especially after the recent delay of Metroid Prime 4, leading to concerns that 2019 may end up being as back loaded as 2018 was.

However, according to Daniel Ahmad, analyst at Niko Partners, there should be no such worries. Speaking on ResetEra, Ahmad noted that Nintendo has a very varied slate of first party games lined up for this year, and that we should be hearing some concrete release details from them very soon.

“I don’t think people should be too concerned about Nintendo Switch’s pipeline for 2019,” he said. “First quarter is certainly a bit light, but we’ll get release dates and news for other titles coming in 2019 fairly soon.

“Nintendo’s first party line up for 2019 is fairly strong and also a bit varied which is good to see. It’s just Nintendo will require all of them to be received well because first party titles are one of the main drivers for Switch [at the moment].”

He also spoke about what Switch owners can expect in terms of third party support for the Switch, which will largely be more of the same—just better.

“Third party will be more of the same. By that I mean do expect ports of older titles. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the amount of ‘new’ third parties (that aren’t family / JP games) won’t be that different from last year. Certainly a few big surprises this year though.”

A combination of a strong first party lineup, and third party ports, sounds exciting enough. Now to see when Nintendo actually unveils its plans for the remainder of the year. Just Yoshi won’t help them stay on top of the sales charts. 

While less than a fifth of all game developers have moved on to making games for the PS5 yet, according to a GDC survey, it seems like Sony’s own internal studios, at the very least, are going all in on focusing on the company’s upcoming next generation consoles. Speaking on ResetEra, Daniel Ahmad, an analyst with Niko Partners, mentioned that Sony’s internal teams have already begun to get development kits for the PS5.

That said, he also noted that for now, fans should expect no news on the upcoming console, while mentioning that this year should go fine for PS4, largely on the back of third party games, and previously announced exclusives.

“PS5 dev kits are out there and I’ve heard positive things about it. But I wouldn’t expect any information in the immediate future,” he said in one post.

“2019 will be another solid year for the platform due to the large install base, growing network sales, strong third party software, first party software and back catalog,” he said in another post. “Lineup for the first half of the year is set but second half is still in flux. Sony also has a couple of unannounced games (already existing IP) with PS4 in mind but I’m conscious that there have been discussions around making them cross gen/next gen titles. In general, most of the focus for Sony 1P is on PS5 right now. It is still early to talk about next gen but I imagine we’ll hear some whispers come out of GDC.”

It sounds, then, like Sony has shifted gears towards the PS5 internally, but that fans shouldn’t expect to hear anything about it just yet. Sony is mostly looking at winding down the PS4 by banking on its momentum, which is fair, and which is something that they have earned. Meanwhile, I have to wonder exactly what the “good things” Ahmad has heard about the PS5 will be.