New Joy-Con With D-Pad Coming Your Way!

HORI is set to release a new Left-side only Joy-con

How did this happen? Is it true that Nintendo is REALLY listening to their fan-base? It would seem so ladies and gentlemen, because this summer a L-Joycon(left side) is coming your way this summer. Slated for a July 2018 release, no exact date was announced by third-party manufacturer HORI just yet. It seems as if some pressure is being felt by Nintendo…or maybe this is just another great PR stunt. It seems like more than just a coincidence that this is coming out in the summer after the enormous hype for Nintendo’s last major Direct that happened not too long ago. You know, the one with all of the new 3DS titles coming out, and the same one that had the surprise announcement of Super Smash Bros. 

That’s the one! Allow me to break it down for you a bit and show you why I think this isn’t a coincidence:

• Nintendo, along with their fan-base, orchestrated a monstrous amount of hype around their Nintendo Direct
• Most of the titles people were looking forward to weren’t even mentioned(Pokemon, Metroid, Animal Crossing, etc.)
• No mention of the online service coming to the Switch in September
• No talks of Virtual Console
• Only thing worth mentioning was Super Smash Bros.(unclear if the game is a deluxe port or a brand new game)

Ok. So you’re probably thinking “That’s nothing Chipz. It wasn’t the best direct, but there’s no ulterior motive behind any of this. It’s just what Nintendo does every time they have a Direct!” Yeah yeah that’s all well and good, but peep this:

The developer for Bayonetta 3 tweeted this right before the Nintendo Direct. So here’s where the plot thickens – he made the “demand” for getting a new Joycon with a D-Pad…. and then  BOOM! Not even an entire month goes by and HORI announces on their website they’re releasing a new Left-side Joycon with a D-Pad for the Switch. This isn’t an ordinary Joycon folks, there’s a catch to this. They list exactly what’s coming with this new Joycon on their website, as well as the price tag for it. Click on the link above to see what it is, but below is a little snippet of what you’ll be getting

In my opinion, this is a welcomed trade-off. There are plenty of games on the Switch’s e-shop right now that will greatly benefit from a D-pad. All of those retro arcade games, a few indie titles, and even some of the fighting games that’ll come to the switch if they’re not already on there, a perfect example would be Street Fighter Collection. To play those games now on the go, with just the directional buttons is not only complicated, but irritating. I’m actually looking forward to getting one since I’m always on the go. Whenever I’m home I’ll just use my pro controller…whenever I get it.  That thing is expensive! This Joycon will retail somewhere around the $30 mark, so keep an eye out for this because HORI usually makes good products.

So with that said, what are the chances of that happening all in the same month? I’d say it’s pretty slim for it to be a coincidence. This was all planned out. There’s two things I can see happening after this:

1. HORI makes a huge amount of money in sales, and eventually Nintendo may make their own version of this
2. We finally get Virtual Console

Yup. I’m going on a prediction binge here. Call me Chipz-stradomus. I think Nintendo has been secretly listening to their fans and just playing it off as if they’re not. Look at the Nintendo Direct Mini and how much hate that received. Labo?? Who cares?! They are trolling us people. They added in Super Smash Bros. at the very end and played it off as if it were another update to Splatoon 2. You know…it worked. It worked very well, and it’s been on everyone’s mind ever since.

People are making up all kinds of theory videos as to what they think this next game will be. It feels eerily familiar to when Robert Downey Jr. tweeted Marvel asking to release Avengers: Infinity Wars a week early for his “friends”. I’m sure there’s a lot more evidence to support my predictions, and I’ll happily talk to you guys about it in the comments below.

Do you think we’re going to get Virtual Console? Do you think it’ll be announced at this upcoming E3 convention in May? Comment below and let me know what you guys think!