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Will ARMS be an annual IP?

I've been thinking about ARMS a bit since the last update.

ARMS released in June and since June we have had a steady flow of free content made available to us which included characters, stages, online events, new arms and an achievement system.

It was recently made public by Nintendo that the 5.0 update would be the last update the game would recieve (bug fixes and balance patches not withstanding).

This is interesting to me since they said Splatoon (Nintendo's other online focussed IP) would be getting two years worth of support. So why did ARMS only get six months? It sold over 1 million copies so it wasn't a complete failure, it'll still be selling now given the holiday season and the success of the Switch...

There was a datamine too which revealed unused code names for characters and stages, and as far as i know there are still code names that havent been lined up with the newly added characters from the updates we got which tells me therr is still unused content ready to be used...

So... what if ARMS is going to be annual?

ARMS released in June and had six months of updates, we're six months away from June 2018 so could Nintendo be funnelling six months of content into ARMS 2 to have it release in June 2018?
Will ARMS 2 have another six months of free content followed by another six month break and another release etc?

ARMS doesn't have a single player campaign like Splatoon so no tine needs to be taken in designing levels, hell, ARMS doesn't even have unique cinematics for any of its characters in the single player Grand Prix mode...

All ARMS 2 would need are perhaps a couple of new modes and it'd earn its sequel status...


Do you think ARMS could become Nintendo's annual IP?
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
I seriously hope not. Most of the annual games end up being barely updated versions of the previous year's games. Nintendo are best sticking to one game a console to give more time for the developers to amke a good game, not just a quick cash cow.
 

Turo602

Vocare Ad Pugnam
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Location
Gotham City
I highly doubt it. ARMS may have done well enough for itself, but it's no big hit like Street Fighter II, Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed. Splatoon on the other hand is more dependent on its online player base, so it makes sense for them to keep the game relevant and active as long as they can, or at least until the next starts rolling in. You could only do so much with fighting games, especially when they're as basic as ARMS.
 

Lozjam

A Cool, Cool Mountain
Joined
May 24, 2015
Nope, not at all.

Nintendo really doesn't do annual games, with the exception of Pokemon. They may have games in the same franchise come out, but they would be vastly different gaming styles and what have you.

Nah, the main reason ARMS is ending adding new characters is simply that, making new content, for the amount of sales wouldn't be profitable. ARMS did extremely well for a new IP, having a 1 million seller is nothing to sneeze at. However, it did not catch the world on fire like Splatoon did/does. Splatoon sold gangbusters, so obviously they could keep supporting it to get more publicity and more sales. ARMS updates did not net it that many more sales. Actually, it kind of stopped selling after Splatoon 2 came out. People forgot about ARMS, for better or for worse.

We should also be aware. The developers who made ARMS are also the developers who make Mariokart. So they probably ended support so that they could make a new game. Perhaps to get started on a Mariokart 9, or maybe they are working on something else thay is completely new.

We will see ARMS again, I assure you. But it will be a while until we do. ARMS is not going to be an annual franchise at all.
 

YIGAhim

Sole Survivor
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Location
Stomp
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Male
Too long away from a game means you forget about it. ARMS won't be played for long without constant support
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
Actually, it kind of stopped selling after Splatoon 2 came out.
That's the killer. It was so obvious. Having Splatoon release so soon after really killed ARMS. Everyone knew this. It was so captain obvious. I believe Nintendo caused this by the poor release timing on ARMS. We all realised this long before the release of both games.
 

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