With December finally upon us, our minds have been drifting to the past 12 months, recalling what has been a surprisingly packed year of gaming. We've had surprise drops, indie hits and more than a few big names to tide over the Switch in its twilight year, but we can't help but feel that something has been missing: where were the Directs?
Okay, we understand that, behind the scenes, Nintendo's big guns have likely been full-steam ahead on 'Switch 2' for the majority of the year (something confirmed by a glance at the list of developers for this year's first-party line-up), but the showcase scarcity has been... noticeable.
Take this final third of the year, for example. Nintendo has given us a September Direct every year since 2017 without fail, but 2024 broke the chain. October was busy with surprise Alarmo, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition and Nintendo Music announcements, but these were only a faint whiff of a showcase that never materialised. Even November, a month where a Direct or even an Indie World felt like a no-brainer, came up empty-handed.
In fact, Nintendo has kept uncharacteristically schtum all year. 2024 brought us just one full-blown Direct in June, with a Partner Showcase grabbing the usual full-fat February slot and a standard April Indie World cropping up before the pair would team up for a back-to-back presentation in August. We've also had a couple of generously labelled "Directs" in the shape of the August Nintendo Museum tour and November's Super Nintendo World highlight, but nobody's really counting them, right?
Compare that to last year's three Nintendo Directs, two Indie Worlds and two special presentations for The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and things certainly start to feel a little more thinly spread.
And so, like Leia Organa to Obi-Wan Kenobi, we're looking to December as our only hope. Some kind of announcement isn't a complete pipe dream. A December Indie World was a mainstay of the calendar year from 2019 to 2021, and we've even had less formally structured announcements like 'Inside the House of Indies' in the past, too. Sure, 2023 didn't cough up anything substantial in its final month, but that's not enough for us to turn our backs on 2024 completely.
Naturally, the 'Switch 2' announcement is the biggie that we're all expecting in early 2025 (by 31st March, at least), but there's still room for the 'Switch 1' game line-up to be padded out a little before that. So far, Nintendo is bringing us Donkey Kong Country Returns HD in January and Xenoblade in March, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends: Z-A cropping up at some point in the year too.
A hardware announcement will beef things up — though surely that's waiting until next year — but it'd be nice to have another couple of things to look forward to as we head into the opening months, no?
But what do you think? Are we finally going to get a Direct this month, or are we barking up the wrong Christmas tree? You can share your gut reaction in the following poll and then take to the comments to elaborate on your prediction.