Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Yeah I think Prime 4 might double up with Kirby and be an early November release. As for Age of Imprisonment, I fully expect that to be a February release (still Winter!).

So something like:
August - Drag x Drive, Kirby Forgotten Land S2E
September - Nothing? Maybe a S2E with some 3D All Stars type turnaround?
October - Pokémon Legends ZA
November - Metroid Prime 4, Kirby Air Riders
December - Nothing
January - Rhythm Heaven Groove
February - Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, Pokémon Champions
March - Tomodachi Life
Q2 2026 - Splatoon Raiders

Hopefully we'll still get the new Professor Layton game this year, though I dunno which month would work best for it.

Gamescom's Prime 4 demo has been revealed to be the same as the April/May one from the Switch 2 experience events. Safe to say at this point between this, Prime 4 being absent from PAX West and Star Crossed World releasing next week that there's no Prime 4 news until September at the earliest.

At this point I feel like I would expect Prime 4 to be delayed another year. No news currently mixed with an old demo being brought to a show makes me feel like it still has a while to go before it’s complete.

@Grumblevolcano Which also probably means it's not releasing until November at the earliest. There's still a lot we haven't seen of Prime 4, they're continually only showing the tutorial and early game areas and nothing mid/late game at all. There's clearly something big that they're polishing behind the scenes that isn't ready to show. A delay feels more and more likely.

SO are we saying no direct until September? ???

I mean, next week is the last week in August and there is a new game releasing next week so it seems pretty unlikely we will get yet another direct until September... but that's only 2 weeks from now.

@Fabilous This month is almost over and September is next month. So yes, there's not going to be a direct until next month most likely.

I'll predict we either get a general direct in early September or we get a Mario anniversary direct in early September and a Prime 4 direct in later September.

Just looking back, it's kind of insane how dense the direct and game release schedule has been lately.

Not counting various types of other events like the Drag x Drive demo or the mysterious playtest, we've had:

• July Week 3 - Bananza release
• July week 4 - Mario Party S2 DLC + Pokemon Presents
• July week 5 - Partner Showcase
• August Week 1 - Indie World
• August Week 2 - Drag x Drive release
• August Week 3 - Kirby Air Riders Direct
• August Week 4 - Kirby & Forgotten Lands S2 DLC

Surely we'll continue this 7-week streak and have a direct the first week of September right??

@Bolt_Strike
Echoing what @FishyS said above, the releases to this point have been pretty dense. The specific timing of the Switch 2 release seems to have mostly been an attempt to build up stock not an attempt to get games ready. I expect that some of the games releasing now, especially first party stuff, has been sitting on the shelf for a long time. I've seen no evidence to suggest Prime 4 isn't one of those games

They're curating their announcements for sure. But to this point and for the next month or so where would a Prime 4 release have fit to this point without stepping on the toes of or being overshadowed by some other title?

@FishyS Gamescom gave very few answers about the 3rd party lineup so if there's no general Direct in early September, I think there needs to be another Partner Showcase soon.

@Bolt_Strike i feel like honestly with all the exhausted hype around the game, nintendo does not NEED much marketing for this one. this is probably gonna be the best selling metroid game of all time because of the eight year wait. the internet would go crazy if nintendo just shadow dropped it, or said “coming in a week!” with even more of a wait until november, i feel like it would be less hype.
@FishyS yeah its kinda crazy and we still dont have all the information we want 😅 hopefully youre right about a first week of september direct, i wouldnt be surprised!

Silksong is confirmed for September 4th release, seems we can rule out a Direct for that week then.

@Grumblevolcano Pretty sure Nintendo isn't going to plan the timing of a Direct around the release of an indie game, even one as big as Silksong

@IceClimbers I'm thinking more about shadow drops as that's one of the main signature features of Directs. Would you want to shadow drop something a day before or on the same day as Silksong?

If there's no shadow drops, there's no need for the Direct to be on that particular week.

@OctolingKing13 Sure, dedicated fans are going to come out of the woodwork for this one, but as we've seen that isn't much. Probably not as much as Nintendo would like. It's going to need to reach fans that haven't played a Metroid game before I think. And IDK that they can really do that if no one know much about what the game actually has to offer.

@Bolt_Strike to corroborate this, I have yet to play a Metroid game. Even the gorgeous, 40 dollar Prime Remastered hasn't made its way into my hands yet. So yes, there will be fans--but there will also be slackers like myself who just can't bother to drop 70 bucks on this game.

maybe a general direct with release dates for known games, a mario 40 segment, and a teaser for something big in 2026 (that would be their best hope against gta 6) on Wednesday september 10th? this week seems unlikely because of the Kirby Air Riders direct last week and kirby switch 2 edition releasing this week. and now we have silksong next week, which will make a huge splash. or maybe they just skip to october, and dont do anything in september. we nintendo fans have been getting greedy for more haha

SwitchForce and VGC are claiming a general Direct on September 12th. I'm getting my salt shakers ready, but I certainly wouldn't mind it being true! 🤣