Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

So basically this presentation was just a way to say 'Switch 1 support isn't ending immediately!' since most of the titles were for next year. Anyways, Rhythm Heaven was a good announcement for me, as well as surprisingly that Marvel game.

Lol this was one of the weirdest Directs of all time, probably the worst general one in recent memory. Perhaps they made this Direct intentionally bad to make the Switch 2 one look that much better?

I was expecting something a little more, especially as there was those rumours of Kirby and Fire Emblem going around but I think everyone needs to chill out when they say how bad it is. It’s the final Direct for a console that’s no longer the focus of either Nintendo or most major third party publishers. All the big hitters will be coming to Switch 2 and next week will likely be when that all start to be announced.

One thing I don't get is that I thought the purpose of the Direct was to fill in the rest of the year with Switch games, but the only 2 games they announced are 2026 and Z-A/Metroid had no release date update. I actually don't get the point of this Direct besides to get people more desperate for the Switch 2 Direct.

I don't think they decided to do this direct until recently and then threw it together in a rush... Metroid, Rhythm Heaven, and Tomodachi Life trailers felt choppy, third party support felt like more of a shovelware fest than usual, and opening with a Dragon Quest trailer without so much to add as a release date... seriously?

@PikminMarioKirby I think the main point was probably to remind everyone about the Switch 2 Direct next week and show off stuff like the virtual game cards and phone app. I doubt they'd have bothered otherwise.

i feel like nintendo today and the game cards is something they could save for switch 2 direct. its just so odd! @BenAV i feel like everyone was reminded enough by the press, wont it be a danger of distraction from the switch 2 direct?

@OctolingKing13 Nintendo clearly doesn't think so

Where is Layton?

@OctolingKing13 I guess the switch 2 has better and interesting features (totally not getting my hopes up) so they probably added the virtual game card part in this direct to able to feature more stuff in the upcoming direct

That Marvel game was cool. And Metroid looked good. Pokémon actually looks decent too, no doubt thanks to being in the Arceus line.

That virtual game card thing is actually dope. That's more than PS/Xbox have come up with all these decades later. We'll, Xbox One had a game sharing plan originally but it required constant internet connection. With this you just connect when "inserting" the card, then you can play offline all you want, even on the system where someone is borrowing it. It's a good solution. Props to them for caring enough to go out of their way to provide a digital game sharing solution. They didn't have to but they did anyways.

So what was grubb hubb referring to? I can't pick one thing from the direct that would make sense.

@NintendoByNature Probably Patapon and Everybody's Golf as they're Sony 1st party franchises. There's 2 potential big discussions:
1. What's next for Sony supporting Nintendo hardware - Astro Bot on Switch 2? TLoU on Switch 2? etc.
2. Both Patapon and Everybody's Golf are skipping Xbox leaning further into the concept of Xbox's future being PC

@Grumblevolcano ok got it. Didn't see like that big a deal if I'm being honest. I thought it would be some big Capcom or EA game if anything.

I didn't see anything that matched Grubbs prediction either. Overall pretty lame Direct. There were quite a few games I'm interested in but none that got me super hyped (except Metroid Prime 4 but that was already known). I expect more Switch announcements at their e3/summer Direct though.

For now I have DCK Returns HD and Xenoblade X, knowing Metroid Prime 4 and another Pokémon Arceus game are coming this year. That's fine with Switch 2 coming. Besides which my Switch backlog could last me decades at this point.

I am curious where Planet Robobot, Kid Icarus and Fire Emblem 4 are. Perhaps those are being retained as the summer reveals, otherwise they may have nothing to show for Switch this e3 season.

Very odd and weak Direct. They announced two new 1st party Switch games... both are 2026 releases. They showed off two 1st party titles for this year... but it's the two we already knew about and no dates were given.

Biggest takeaway is that I'm 100% convinced Switch 2 is launching before the end of June, otherwise Nintendo would be releasing zero games for an ENTIRE financial quarter.

Anyways, Metroid Prime 4 looks absolutely fantastic.

I think the Direct was fine given the context - my take-home here is that the Switch is still receiving decent (and surprising - see: Patapon and Everybody's Golf) 3rd party support, and Nintendo have mostly (but not entirely) shifted their focus to the Switch 2. My only disappointment is that we didn't get one of the highly-requested ports, e.g. Kirby or WW/TP.

Honestly I think it would've been a mistake to announce any big 1st party titles today. Save that for next week.

@Dev-N "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games"

Upgraded Switch 1 games confirmed?

@PikminMarioKirby I think it's about what @Dev-N is saying about Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games. Announcing a bunch of new games with a vague 2025 release would look suspicious but so would giving specific release dates but not putting them up for preorder because there's Switch 2 versions being announced in 6 days.

My guess for the purpose of the Direct is that Nintendo didn't want to spend much time on Prime 4 and Legends Z-A in the Switch 2 Direct.

The direct honestly wasn't as bad as I thought at first. (Especially now that I learned there's an opt out for the virtual game cards, thank goodness) Prime 4 looked awesome, and that's kind of enough for me. There definitely hiding something about the game still, that's for sure. Hopefully we see more next week. Also happy to see Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi Life, but I can't really be excited for either yet since they aren't releasing until 2026. Definitely shows the Switch 1 is still going to be supported for a while though. Now for the real excrutiating wait to begin...