Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

I think the launch will be on May or June, with June being the most likely option. July seems impossible, as a lot of people are already on their summer holidays, a period where nobody has gaming as a priority, and their wallets are already sort on money due to the holidays expenses. July - August are possibly the 2 most quiet months out of the whole year for gaming. On June, people are still firmly grounded in reality, and way more likely to spend some money on their hobbies.

It's only 3 weeks left at this point, I just cannot wait for the direct and the months that will follow until the release. Once the floodgates open with the Direct, the few months between the direct and the launch with be full of exciting news and discussion about the console and the games.

Mari Kart X, Switch 2 showcase and what features they have and 4K BOTW. And how DLSS works on next gen and if current games will get 4k updates.

Two weeks.

13 days to go.. 🤩🤩

@Artonide Just for saying that, it’s now 31 days to go. Please understand.

Let’s hope the Switch 2 Direct will not be as disappointing as the Pokemon Presents we just had.

@Don It won’t be. I imagine every single publisher wants to get their game in there. Nintendo can quite literally pick the cream of the crop from third party games to showcase on top of their own games.

@FragRed
True, but I really don't expect more than a few minutes of a sizzle reel for most of the 3rd-party stuff. Like you said, maybe they pick a few like DOOM or (my guess) the Final Fantasy VII Remake to highlight separately.

I think this is gonna be a majority of the time focused on the hardware itself along with software-connected items like backwards compatibility, NSO, eShop changes, etc. And the other "majority" of the time will be whatever the major Nintendo launch game is (MK9).

My hunch is that this Direct is only meant for the immediate Switch 2 launch, so like 4ish months tops if it launches May/June. I really don't foresee a lot of software until we get the September Direct.

I am also expecting the Direct to be hardware focused since some of the features on the console haven’t been elaborated on or confirmed. I know for sure they said that they would talk more about backwards compatibility in the Direct from an article NL said, and I also expect a release date reveal. Maybe showcase a few new games, but not a lot. I feel like more Switch 2 games will be announced and talked about more in a game-centric Direct, which makes me wonder what they’ll talk about in a June Direct if they get the Switch 2 out before then. If I am being honest, I’m more interested in finding out the console’s features before they start announcing more exciting games.

It's Nintendo, hardware comes second. I expect the vast, vast majority of the Direct to be focused on upcoming games for Switch 2. Some time will obviously go to hardware sure but they're not going to get into the weeds. The trailer we've got already is your hardware overview

There will be a bit of time expended on NSO and BC I'm sure but beyond that it's going to be H2 2025 software lineup

@skywake
I highly doubt this Direct is going to have the majority of its time on software.

They need to tell us about the machine, and within that is the related stuff I said above: backwards compatibility, NSO changes, eShop changes, etc.

The two-minute trailer that showed us a larger Switch dancing around on the screen a couple months ago doesn’t count as the “hardware overview” lol

@rallydefault I mean, I'd personally speculate they spend a little more time on software than hardware, just cause there's more to talk about there imo. For example, if it's an hour, I would guess it's something like 40 minutes on software, 20 on hardware maybe? I've got no evidence for this, just more of a gut feeling.

Nintendo are always coy about the technical details, and I'm not expecting any change there. Most of what we know about the Switch in the regard even, is due to it being leaked or from third parties examining it after launch.

They will surely focus some attention on changes to the user-facing parts of the hardware, but it'll be the games themselves that stress the generational leap that it represents.

@rallydefault
Go back and look at the hardware overview for something like the 3DS or Switch. They don't and haven't really ever spent much time talking about the hardware. It's purely there in service of the games. Even that Switch presentation in Jan 2017 which did cover hardware somewhat it was really just HD rumble and the IR camera... which then they then used to segue into 1-2 Switch in an otherwise very software forward presentation

Also the only time I remember them burning a lot of an initial console presentation on OS features was with the Wii U. Presumably because MiiVerse was a central component of the Wii U sell and they didn't have that much else to talk about

I honestly wouldn't be expecting much at all from them in regards to this kind of stuff. It'll be there, but they'll breeze past it. Maybe they bullet point the screen size and some of the input options but I don't think we'll see much more. I expect, as we always do with Nintendo, you'll have to wait for people to get their hands on it before we see much more than we already have (ignoring all of the specs we already know)

@Bigmanfan
Same in terms of me having no evidence, just a gut feeling.

@skywake
I'm just guessing - maybe. But I'm thinking maybe not.

So, we don't know how long this thing is gonna be, right? I see people saying an hour. That seems excessive. I'm thinking this is 30-40 minutes, tops. Out of those, I'm expecting 20ish minutes on the system, NSO, eShop, controllers, and backwards compatibility. Sticking with that purely hypothetical timeframe, I'm expecting 10ish minutes of the first-party Nintendo games (MK9 and whatever their secondary games are gonna be), and the remainder to be that sizzle reel of 3rd-party stuff with a few minutes to highlight a handful of extra-big 3rd-party inclusions. After all, the big games Direct will be coming at the end of the summer, most likely in September as always.

I'm not saying we're gonna sit through a solid half hour of them showing us what a Switch is all over again. But there are A LOT of chances here for them to show us some cool stuff and improvements over the biggest complaints people had about the Switch hardware and ecosystem.

@rallydefault
I think it's fair to say the Switch January 2017 presentation is probably the closest analogue to what we're going to see here. I don't expect it to be exactly the same to the letter at all but if we want to set expectations I think that's probably close. Breaking that presentation down:

~2mins: Price, Date, Removal of Region lock, Online
~3mins: how the Switch is an evolution of what came before it
~4min: slick pre-rendered hardware features trailer
~7mins: JoyCon overview
~40mins: Games, mostly first party, not going through all of them....
~5mins: Wind down and summary, reveal of Pro Controller, when you can get hands on etc
~5mins: New BotW trailer

@Bolt_Strike I'm pretty sure they were talking about about the 2017 Switch presentation, not the upcoming one for the Switch 2.

@BrazillianCara Oh right, you're right.

Anyway, if I had to guess the structure of this presentation, it's probably something like:

-Opens with an overview of the Switch 2, including basic hardware features, release date, and MSRP
-Talks about improvements to online, NSO
-Talks about the mouse functionality and C button
-Then transitions to the games and opens with the party game and shows how it uses the mouse for its minigames.
-Then discuses the following games (in no particular order):
-fully reveals the new Mario Kart, giving the name, release date, a few new gameplay mechanics (24 racers? larger/more open world tracks?), and a few of the tracks
-full blowout on Metroid Prime 4, confirming the game is cross-gen, giving us more details on the plot, planet(s) and some of the areas we'll be visiting, new gameplay mechanics, overviewing some of Samus' abilities, and the release date
-reveal of the BotW port or whatever they're doing with Zelda to tide us over until the next flagship entry
-Pokemon may get a segment that could reveal that Z-A is cross-gen and what enhancements the Switch 2 will bring to it, a teaser for the Gen 10 Pokemon games similar to the one for SwSh in E3 2017 ("we're making a new core Pokemon title on Switch 2), and/or a spinoff game coming to Switch 2.
-a few major third party releases peppered in here and there and a sizzle reel of some of the smaller third party games and indie games coming to Switch 2
-Closes with reveal of the rumored open world 3D Mario game

@Bolt_Strike I have to say, I agree with pretty much all of that!

I know this isn't exclusively a you prediction, but I just can't fathom Nintendo re-releasing Breath of the Wild when it's already backwards compatible even if it did look like a million dollars.
I still think that alleged Gamescom 2023 demo wasn't an indicator of any sort of release but I suppose another thing to consider would be whether they'll mention any improvements/benefits Switch 1 games will experience when being played on Switch 2.

It would be very un-Nintendo for them to talk about frame rates and possibly even resolution upscaling in a presentation like this (unless they called it something like 'Nintendo Magic' idk XD)
But in the case of Zelda, I do feel like a full-on-all-guns-blazing remake of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is more likely.