Pandemic or no, you can't say the optics aren't bad. Microsoft and Sony are both full steam ahead on releasing brand new consoles, never mind simply games. Even if you argue that most of those games are pegged for 2021 or later, at least they're being upfront about what those games are and their expected release windows. Nintendo, by comparison, continues to avoid discussing their games until shortly before release, which makes them look bad even if they have comparable development/release schedules. Maybe it's unfair to expect more in this crazy year, but I don't think we're wrong for thinking Nintendo has done a poor job messaging to fans compared to its competitors.
This 100%, it is entirely fine to point out how Nintendo has handled their communication when compared to, not even western companies, but even japanese devs specifically have been way more transparent since the state of emergency lifted over there in Japan. Nintendo made bank this year either way, they have no reasons to worry themselves in that sense, but it doesn't mean we have to stay quiet and not complain about the elephant in the room that has been Nintendo's communication with their consumer base. This has NOTHING to do with GS specifically, it just happens to be one of the things that could have been shown by now or should be shown in the not so far future, but I have said many times that I'm totally fine with whenever GS is decided to come / be announced. At the very least my biggest fan wish is actually to just see it getting announced, cause it's been already long enough since it has been in development, and if Camelot has announced stuff from them to come like 6 months after or so, then it's really weird we haven't seen a teaser trailer at least for a game they have been developing for this long. But even whenever Nintendo/Camelot decides to announce it, in general they just NEED to be better when communicating with their consumer base overall, there's literally no excuse. Even with the pandemic, every other japanese dev this year have at least communicated better, whether their games have delays or not, at least they properly / decently communicate with us.
We as consumers have the right to complain, it's not entitlement at that point, that's how companies grow, through feedback, trial and error, and changing strategies that keeps their consumers more engaged. Our best hope is that Nintendo eventually realizes this and starts communicating better with everyone. Literally the majority of people who have been following Nintendo for years agrees on this. We can only hope and keep asking for better communication until they hear us and want to have a better relationship with their consumer base. You can easily say "they don't care, they made bank, they won't change", but that doesn't mean that we have to stop believing they could be better at transparency.
This month, September, has been the most transparent Nintendo has been in literally almost a whole year, and while it's still not as good as they used to before… at least it's a START. They have been behaving like this even before the pandemic started, so pandemic is definitely not the issue at hand, it's their own way of being when communicating.
If there's a group of people being beyond unreasonable, then by all means, I agree they should think things more properly and reasonably, but the rest of us still have good reasons to complain about Nintendo's lack of trasnparency, which has been noticed beyond forums like this one. Almost every Nintendo fan out there who are feeling frustrated about the very same, have voiced this complaint somewhere else as well.
P.D.: I have already said before that the way I would want GS revealed is by the regular means like a direct or something,not even shadow dropped on twitter or whatever, let it have some good marketing for once… so my comment previously on this page was obviously a joke, in case that wasn't obvious lol.