Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I went to see what Fishy and Rally mentioned me for, only to discover that apparently I just hallucinated the past 80-ish months of discussions lol! 🙃

@CaleBoi25 Ironically, we were trying to get the thread back on topic and we accidentally caused it to be nuked instead. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

@FishyS this is why we can't have nice things, I guess 😂 best of luck to Mr. Dickens as he tries to fix our mess

@CaleBoi25
lol nothing bad, only good things

<looks around warily>

@rallydefault I read that in Olaf's voice haha

@FishyS should be all back now

Thank you! That was pretty weird.

Back to conversing about Directs, I have been working on a hypothetical Nintendo release calendar for the rest of 2026. I am most likely going to be wrong, but here's my calendar:

May: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (May is technically still Spring)
June: Rhythm Heaven Groove
July: Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave (July was when Three Houses came out, also Nintendo usually doesn't like having massive amounts of time between games being announced and released these days)
August: something Zelda? (Perhaps an Ocarina of Time remake because of the 40th anniversary, or ports of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD on both Switch 1 and 2. Maybe we'll even get a Link's Crossbow Training sequel starring Skyward Sword Link 🤣)
September: something Kirby? Perhaps remasters of Kirby Triple Deluxe and / or Planer Robobot for Switch 1 and 2? Kirby usually gets something yearly, with 2024 being a rare exception.
August and September are interchangeable.
October: Luigi's Mansion 4, or maybe the next 3D Mario
November: Pokémon Gen 10
December: usually has nothing, but could have a Switch 2 Edition or something

Switch 2 Editions to release throughout the year:
Obviously, Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Pikmin 4?
Xenoblade Chronicles 2? (Maybe they might end up doing free upgrades for these games?)

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure both Fire Emblem games on Switch 1 got DLC, so I could see that happening with Fortune's Weave as well.

As I said at the top of this post, I may end up being wrong. Watch them release a game starring Rosalina instead 🤣.

@Nep-Nep-Freak Really hope you're right with that predication. I'm about to start playing Cyberpunk 2077 and I also want to play FE Three Houses before Yoshi and the Mysterious Book comes out, so that should be my February-April sorted. I've just finished Wind Waker so hoping for another Zelda game in summer, although I'd lean towards Twilight Princess HD as I've not played that before. Similarly, Kirby I played Forgotten Land in October and I'm ready for another one so late summer/early autumn would fit well. And Pokémon Gen 10 I think is a guarantee for November and that would see me out for the rest of the year most likely.

Now it's over to Nintendo to give us a direct to let us know when all of this is happening!

There's a State of Play happening on February 12th so that's a potential source for more Switch 2 3rd party support info. At the least I'd imagine there'd be a RE9 demo announcement and more news on 007 First Light + Lego Batman.

@Grumblevolcano Should also have Wolverine release date, update on Marathon and Saros as well.
Maybe a Halo trailer and after Nintendo/Xbox will posted "coming to NS2"
Rayman anniversary edition is rumored, that should be on both NS1 and NS2.
Pragmata is probably shown AGAIN.
Voyager across the unknown was recently added for NS2, I believe, and could get one final update before release

I think 60 mins is typical for them but this should still be a big one with the expected games.

Probably too early for Intergalactic.

So are we saying a first party nintendo direct in feb is now out of the question????? #Itsbeen84years

Please yes, this is the kind of lineup the Switch 2 desperately needs. 3D Mario or Luigi's Mansion 4 desperately needs to happen this year, with the other one being 2027. Those are the kinds of big games that people are waiting for, that could definitely help end the "no big games" narrative.

I would love this too, Rosalina feels like the perfect solution to the demand for a Galaxy 3. Mario can't afford to be shackled by the Galaxy formula, he's way too broad and flexible a character that they can do so much more with him (see Sunshine, Odyssey, and Bowser's Fury, all very different things from Galaxy and each other). Better to hand the Galaxy series off to Rosalina and let her satisfy the demand for multiple Galaxy games because yes, I do think the Galaxy series is unique enough that it should be continued long term.

That being said, I don't think this is happening anytime soon. They have to figure out who's going to work on this. I don't think EPD8 wants to, I think they're interested in continuing what they started with Bowser's Fury. They may need to create a new team to work on something like this, and if they are interested I think they would only just be starting on something like this and we won't see it until the 2030s. Additionally a Rosalina game is a risk and they won't be sure how popular Rosalina would be as the star of her own game (pun not intended), so they may be hesitant to go through with this. As far as Rosalina promotion for the Galaxy movie, I think they find Galaxy 1+2 and Rosalina in Wonder to be sufficient for the time being and maybe they can evaluate how popular those games are to help determine if there might be enough interest in a full-fledged Rosalina game.

@Fabilous They very rarely do partner and 1st in the same month. the last week also has the pokemon direct. MAR10 is mostly likely for 1st party update (outside of Nintendo Today app).

@Fabilous
Well, they’ve been doing things a bit differently lately, but I’m on the Spring bandwagon for the next Direct. So later in March at the earliest.

@Fabilous @RobLife1 Oh it's more than that. Usually when we get a Partner Showcase, we tend to have to wait another 3 or 4 months for the next General, it's a potential signal that we may not be getting a General in Spring at all. Now last year they did have a General 6 weeks after a Partner Showcase (there was a Partner on July 31 and a General on September 12), so it's not a downright impossibility, but we should count ourselves lucky if we get a General before June. March/April could be a possibility (there are rumors about March floating around), but there's a nonzero chance we're waiting until June or even September. Don't expect one anytime soon, you'll be setting yourself up for disappointment if it doesn't happen.

A June Direct would be a Spring Direct as long as it’s not the very last week.

Here's the list of Partner Showcases followed by the next general Direct:

• Partner Showcase (July 20th/August 26th/September 17th/October 28th 2020) - general Direct (February 17th 2021)
• Partner Showcase (June 28th 2022) - general Direct (September 13th 2022)
• Partner Showcase (February 21st 2024) - general Direct (June 18th 2024)
• Indie World + Partner Showcase (August 27th 2024) - general Direct (March 27th 2025)
• Partner Showcase (July 31st 2025) - general Direct (September 12th 2025)

I figured I'd list all the 2020 Partner Showcases in the first point instead of just the October one as having frequent Partner Showcases might be a potential way forward.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, see with the exception of 2025 all of those gaps are at least 3 months. When we got a Partner in Spring, we didn't get the General until June. When we got a Partner in June, we didn't get a Partner until September. And when we got a Partner in Fall, we didn't get a Direct until Spring. That's very telling, that tells us that the presence of a Partner Showcases signals "Sorry, no general Direct this quarter" (and even with 2025, we kind of waited from Summer to Fall for that, it's just that the Partner was in late Summer and the General was in early Fall, so it was a shorter wait). Sometimes we have gotten game specific Directs in between, but usually not a General so soon.

What all this means is that most likely we're not getting a General with multiple new game announcements until at least June. We may get game specific Directs and our best best there may be a MAR10 Direct or a Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct to announce new Mario or Zelda games, but they may also just go with something previously announced like Fire Emblem or Splatoon Raiders or something and not really tell us about any new games. So it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel right now.

Maybe not those precise months, but overall that is an extremely plausible lineup, especially given the fairly realistic seeming Xenoblade Chronicles 2 leak. Luigi's Mansion 4 is purely a guess but seems plausible.

I would probably remove the Pikmin 4 S2 edition and stick in the Splatoon spinoff game somewhere (maybe December?)

Also, the fact that you could make a pretty robust looking schedule by only adding 4 games we don't know about, 2 of which (pokemon gen 10 and an anniversary zelda game) are essentially guaranteed, kind of shows why Nintendo didn't need a February general direct.