Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

Nintendo is not going to hold back for the Switch 2 Direct. Much like with the January 2017 Switch presentation, I expect Nintendo to announce almost every relevant first party Switch 2 game releasing in 2025 during this Direct, regardless of whether those games are playable at the Switch 2 Live Experience events or not.

@FishyS The January Switch Presentation revealed the following 1st party titles:

• 1-2 Switch
• ARMS
• Splatoon 2
• Fire Emblem Warriors
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Xenoblade 2
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (in a sizzle reel)

That's 7 1st party titles on top of a new BotW trailer. This time around there should be much stronger 3rd party support, but there's no reason they shouldn't have multiple 1st party announcements plus a trailer/blowout for Prime 4 in the April Direct.

@Bolt_Strike
Ah, I agree, but I specifically stated “weeks” because Nintendo indeed has had some excellent launch windows (which most people give 3-4 months), but not really immediate launch weeks.

Personally, I thought the Switch’s initial weeks were excellent. BotW being such a huge game certainly helped, but I also enjoyed Snipperclips and even some of the initial third-party stuff like Bomberman. But the community at large doesn’t seem to think that.

And yes, agreed, September-November is too short on marketing for some of your biggest games, which is why I expect some teases for the forthcoming 1st-party holiday/2026 stuff in this Direct, but nothing on the level of 3-minute run downs quite yet.

@skywake
They’ve been pretty big on posting stuff online to continue their trailers and stuff these days, even for the “big” final Switch games. So, hardware and software can be given more time that way.

@westman98 @IceClimbers The Jan 2017 presentation revealed or mentioned almost every Nintendo-published 2017 Switch game, a couple new third party games, and a bunch of third party ports. But the direct a month after release had a lot more information about some of those games as well as some more third party games and 3DS games. It wouldn't shock me if they did the same thing but since the move from Switch to Switch 2 will inevitably be different than the move from 'not many Nintendo being sold' to Switch, I could also imagine them dribbling out big announcements a little more. We'll see soon.

@Bolt_Strike @Grumblevolcano I don't think it makes sense to split games between two Directs like that because then there's less games in the April Direct which leads to two scenarios - either they confirm the June Direct right away, and people are frustrated that they're being made to wait even longer to get the full picture, or they don't confirm it and people freak out and complain at a lack of 1st party titles in the April Direct, leading to a "Switch 2 has no games" meme/stigma, which will negatively impacts sales momentum in the long run.

First impressions matter. They want to catapult the Switch 2's momentum, and you do that by doing a blowout in the April Direct, not by holding back announcements for the sake of having a June Direct.

Ah okay, this makes much more sense. I could see something like this, I don't think we're going to see a huge overview on games like the 3D Mario or anything else not currently confirmed, but I do expect most if not all of the Year 1 lineup to be revealed in this Direct. Teasers might make more sense for some of the later games, and that's kind of what they did with Odyssey on the Switch. We didn't actually learn much about Odyssey until E3, we saw a few gameplay clips showing the general plot and some of the areas, but we didn't learn about details like the Capture mechanic until E3. I could see the 3D Mario reveal being similar to that January trailer while we're waiting until June/September to get more details.

@rallydefault
Sure, they can throw trailers for games on their YouTube channel out of the blue. But they can also do that with OS/Hardware stuff. IIRC the Switch parental controls video was posted on YouTube without being in a Direct. Actually, easier to just look at Nintendo's YouTube Channel and go back and look....

These were not part of a presentation, they were just thrown on their YouTube channel. I think that's generally a more appropriate way to handle that kind of information. The main Direct presentation should be for the significant announcements and messaging. Which would be the games

@skywake
We'll find out soon. I just don't see it that way.

I think they're bringing back a Street Pass-type thing, personally, and they're gonna spend some time on that. The mouse thing is... not interesting to people like me, which is why they're gonna show it off for a couple minutes. And NSO is gonna see some changes, which they're gonna need to explain for people.

That's only the hardware-adjacent stuff and not counting the UI and eShop, both of which really need some sprucing.

And over it all, I know most people around here are feeling confident, but they need to really explain why people should bother getting a Switch 2. And I know your answer to that is "the games," but I've disagreed with you on that for awhile. Games are part of it, but the machine itself is quite important - the machine itself is why the original Switch took off the way it did; it certainly wasn't because it launched with a game that was also available on their other console (BotW), or that it got another great game (Mario Kart 8) a month later that was already available on their other console. It was the form factor, the machine, that made all the difference.

I firmly believe this is a Switch 2-centered Direct, not a games-centered Direct.

@IceClimbers I get what you're saying but the same is true even if they went all out in April. We've seen plenty of times about how rumour/leak culture shapes people's expectations so all it takes is an insider to rumour that something like Smash 6 is present and then it doesn't appear for people to get frustrated.

@rallydefault
I hope the changes that NSO is gonna see include option to buy games and the addition of GameCube and DS games. I would literally go on a mad buying spree of retro games if they implement this change.

@FishyS
I don't expect Nintendo to do a deep dive for every game announced at the Switch 2 Direct, but I do expect them to announce all relevant Switch 2 first party games releasing in 2025, even if each announcement is just a 90 sec to 2 min trailer.

TBH I'd rather they focus on filling out the GBA library first before adding more systems.

@IceClimbers Ehh, I really don't think there's much missing from the current systems in general. There's a major gap in the form of the main series Pokemon titles, but beyond that they have most of the major games covered. And most of what's been releasing on NSO recently has been niche titles, when was the last time we got a major first party game on NSO? It seems like they've exhausted most of what they can for the current systems (there's a few here and there, I'd love to see the GBA remakes of the DKC trilogy), but for the most part they do just need new systems.

@Bolt_Strike There's plenty missing like:

• Mario Golf Advance Tour
• Mario Tennis Power Tour
• Mario Pinball Land
• Mario Party Advance
• DK King of Swing
• Yoshi Topsy Turvy
• WarioWare Twisted
• Fire Emblem Sacred Stones
• Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land
• Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire
• Polarium Advance
• Drill Dozer

That combined with N64 omissions like Smash 64, DK64 and Nintendo's ability to get 3rd party games on the service there's more than enough N64/GBA games to hold off adding a new system to NSO until like 2027. On the base NSO side of things, GB doesn't even have Wario Land 1 and 2 yet meanwhile Nintendo continues to find plenty of 3rd party games to add to the lineups like the upcoming Koei Tecmo SNES games.

If they're adding in GCN NSO so quickly, it's likely about BotW Remastered being the 2025 Zelda game.

A couple weeks ago? They just added a popular mario spinoff which sold 3 million copies.

Regardless of major first party gaps on NSO, GB and GBA NSO also just have very few games on them compared to the deep and interesting cuts SNES and NES NSO have added. They could easily be planning to add 100 more games onto those.

That said, I'm hoping they add DS NSO.

@Grumblevolcano Most of those titles have sold less than 1 million. Again, probably some niche titles that isn't really drawing in new subscribers and maybe not even hold the attention of existing subscribers so while in quantity they do have some games left to port, in quality the well is running dry for existing systems. GC would refresh that a bit, as there's multiple multimillion sellers that would do a better job of keeping people playing. Granted, there's already a lot of GC remakes/remasters on Switch already, but there's still multiple that aren't, and even the ones that are might still see some popularity just by virtue of not having to spend $60 for one game that often isn't that different from the original version. NSO subscribers would be far more interested in playing games like Melee, Double Dash, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, the Mario Parties, and Pokemon Colosseum and XD than most of the games you just listed (maybe Smash 64, DK64, Nightmare in Dreamland, and Pinball RS, but everything else? Nah).

@rallydefault
The Switch 2 isn't that different from the Switch 1, the biggest difference (aside from mouse controls) is that the it is way more powerful, and the best way to show how much more powerful it is would be to showcase new better looking, more ambitious games or ports of existing PlayStation/Xbox/PC games that aren't already on Switch 1.

Sure, the eShop and UI may be different, and the rumored C-button that may tie into a new feature, but the vast majority of people don't care about those as much as they care about seeing games. It would be way better to show those ancillary things in a YouTube video a month or so before the Switch 2 launches.

@Don
Yea, that would be awesome. I collect SNES and Gameboy physically, but everything else would be very welcomed.

@westman98
See, if we were talking Xbox or PS, I would agree. But with Nintendo it’s never about the graphics. So… honest question: when you saw the Mario Kart 9 footage with the Switch 2 announcement trailer, were you wowed by the graphics? Did that footage show you something the original Switch could never do?

Yeah, hard disagree there. We'll see next week but I really can't see it playing out like this

If they bring back something like StreetPass or MiiVerse I could see that taking up some time sure. But I'm not holding my breath for them going down that road again. If we do see something like that it'll be entirely new but almost by definition almost impossible to predict. We'll see

The mouse mode, whether you think it's interesting or not, is something they've already highlighted. I think it's already clear it's one of the main differentiators between Switch and Switch 2 outside of raw performance. I would be very surprised if it doesn't feature but I would expect that they are going to have a game they can use to highlight it. Because just saying "it has a mouse" isn't that compelling on its own. Saying "it has a mouse, and here is this game that uses a mouse-like input in a creative way" is. Mario Paint is the guess, Wario Ware probably fits better, maybe something else entirely. But I think a game here is a fairly safe bet

NSO probably gets some changes sure. Especially since they've started to retire things like the Gold Coin rewards and there's also the all-but-confirmed GC NSO. Are these things for a "Switch 2" Direct but? Maybe. I don't know. To me it seems more like transitional busy-work. My gut feel is that having this kind of stuff in this presentation would be kinda like if a Real Estate Agent in a home open walked around showing you how to use the built-in appliances while talking about the bin schedule. Important details sure but..... maybe save it for later.....

And the UI, eShop and other such things. Much doubt. Those are definitely things you just drop on website or on the YouTube channel specifically for the people who are going to look at every detail. Most people aren't going to care. Perception is king, throwing stuff like this in your major console reveal I would argue says to the viewer "we don't have much else to talk about". Not good

As a side note, the most hardware and OS centric console reveal I can remember Nintendo doing was for the Wii U. When they burnt a hell of a lot of time talking about MiiVerse and related features. And as much as I have fond memories and love to still love to occasionally meme on nonspecific action figure...... I think it's fair to say that was a missfire. And, you're right that this is going to be my response, those presentations needed to spend far, far more time talking about games. Of course for the Wii U that wasn't possible for other reasons but still, wasn't a good start regardless

Nintendo doesn't tend to promote the graphics that well. They show them through some exciting/interesting looking gameplay clips, but they tend to not call too much attention to them. They will probably promote other aspects of the games that are improvements over past games. They'll probably show games that are bigger, more complex, and/or have an interesting gimmick that do things that past games didn't, and it'll probably be different depending on the game. For Mario Kart, we can see hints that the game is larger and more open than previous entries, has larger tracks or possibly even open world, and seems to hold up to 24 racers. Those are selling points to show that it's bigger and better than MK8D, and you can potentially believe that only the Switch 2 is capable of that. I'm also with @skywake that there's probably going to be a "here's a game that shows off the mouse gimmick" moment (my guess is that the Wii Sports/Nintendo Land/1-2 Switch equivalent will do that in this particular presentation and we may get more games that use the mouse later on). There's rumors about open world 3D Mario that they can use to sell that it's bigger and better than Odyssey and Bowser's Fury. Stuff like that is probably what they're going to use to sell you on the Switch 2's games.