Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

So in conclusion we have:

• Grumblevolcano observing that it is common from recent data for directs to be both one week and two weeks after splatfests. There is no particular direct date prediction there, just the observation that Splatfests don't seem to preclude a direct next week. There is an implicit conjecture that Splatfest scheduling and directs might be causally correlated for internal Nintendo scheduling reasons, but the conclusion is independent of this conjecture.
• FreasurePlanten is making the explicit conjecture that Splatfest and Direct scheduling are independent. This is harder to prove, but is a not totally unreasonable conjecture.

So both parties are in agreement that Splatfest data does not preclude a direct next week.

We don't have many other looks onto the Nintendo Calendar but the first party release schedule certainly doesn't preclude a direct either since it is empty right now.

So basically we have extremely little information other than the broken-last-year existence of February direct pattern. And the lack of many upcoming games with release dates.

State of Play got announced for tomorrow at 2pm pacific/5pm eastern/10pm UK time.

https://blog.playstation.com/2025/02/11/state-of-play-returns...

@Grumblevolcano Is there anything else relevant which happens around February? Or is the calendar clear until Pokemon Day?

@FishyS Depends on how the State of Play is handled, Sony could announce a State of Play in the State of Play like last year (January State of Play announced a February Rebirth State of Play). There isn't an equivalent to Rebirth at the moment (big PS5 exclusive nearby) but the State of Play could announce something like if Ghost of Yotei ended up getting an April release date, there could be a separate Ghost of Yotei State of Play nearby.

Nintendo's released the trailer for the DKC Returns HD Tetris 99 event.

I hope Sony reveals more info about the Nintendo Switch 2 in the next State of Play!

@VoidofLight legend of zelda movie on switch 2 confirmed

It's 3pm UK time and there's no announcement so it's not this week.

For some reason I don’t really expect them to do a February Direct in-between the wait for the April Switch 2 Direct. I don’t know, having two directs kind of in quick succession with each other sounds like something they wouldn’t ever do.

If they were, I’d expect maybe a Partner Direct or Direct Mini, kind of acting like an appetizer before the main course in April, and from what some others think, they are all expecting a smaller direct in February (if it happens). Plus, I think there are rumors that Planet Robobot will get a Switch port, and if that is true, I’d maybe expect an announcement prior to April, and maybe they’ll show it off in a hypothetical February Direct, but I think it’s too early to tell.

I initially expected them to do a February Direct before they announced the April Direct, but I don’t expect anything besides maybe a shadow-dropped game announcement for something.

@Dev-N Yeah, it might be like that, especially if we don't see anything next week. But hey, Nintendo is capable, and kinda eager, to do anything. I still feel like Metroid Prime 4 needs special attention, and I'm convinced that Prime 2&3 have to be coming in some way.... right, please?

I'll double-dip Prime 2 if it got the Remastered treatment, at least. Still need to play Prime 3 on Prime Trilogy on my Wii U.

Considering I think Switch 2 will release in September, a general Direct still feels likely as they'd need to fill up Spring/Summer somehow. There was also a 3DS Direct 1.5 months before the Switch reveal and despite the January Switch 2 reveal, we know much less about Switch 2 currently than we knew about Switch in October 2016.

Surely they can't be quiet all the way to April. Switch is the most popular console out there, they won't leave us hanging even while we wait for the successor. Surely...

@Novamii I agree Metroid Prime 2/3 and Robobot seem very likely to happen at some point this year, but I still think they’d be in a Direct over a social media drop.

Recent rumors are suggesting perhaps a Direct mini, and that seems like a good move to continue support for Switch a little bit more while not putting a huge focus on it.

I think we just got our Partner Showcase for Switch 1. Thanks Sony

Shinobi and Sonic Racing both look great, and looking forward to Onimusha 2.

That was the best non-Nintendo-sponsored Nintendo Partner Showcase, it's true.

@FishyS How's the weekly eshop listings looking?

Normal or even slightly high, but there are so many bundles which Nintendo used to remove from their curated weekly list that I'm not really sure how to count it accurately anymore so I am not confident in my numbers.

Does anyone here have a handy cvs file of all previous Switch eshop releases and release dates so I can re-run my numbers? I wonder if NL would be willing to share theirs.

There is a Nintendo Switch eShop maintenance tomorrow, doesn't necessarily mean anything but sometimes they do kind of relate to Nintendo Directs.

@NinChocolate You don't think it's worth putting resources into selling games to an audience of about 129million? Interestesting.

@GrailUK A third party focused Direct makes sense to do. A lot less resources needed for that. But I don’t think Nintendo are going to announce any new games and I think Xenoblade Chronicles X is gonna be shadow dropped trailers. Any new games will be held back for April.