Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@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.

Yeah, I wasn't surprised we only got a Partner for this reason. They already had a stacked first half of the year, they probably didn't feel the need to reveal much in the near future. The question marks are more for the 2nd half of the year, and they probably feel that can wait until June.

@FishyS, oops, pardon my memory, I completely forgot about the Splatoon spin-off. I suppose that would be somewhere in late Summer or early Fall, think August or September. If they did that, they'd probably not do Kirby, Zelda, or one of the Switch 2 Editions.

@Nep-Nep-Freak Zelda is definitely happening; they aren't 100% skipping the 40th anniversary even if it's just a port. And Hal has been fairly quiet since 2023 so I feel like either they give us a game this year or some big 3D Kirby is coming next year.

Technically Nintendo hasn't said Splatoon Raiders is 2026, but it would be a bit surprising if it wasn't. If it is a smaller spinoff and not meant to be one of the main Splatoons, I could imagine it getting stuck in December or during a month another game is also coming out.

It'll happen when it happens and there are games to show.

@Bolt_Strike I think for the 1st half of the year they're treating these as the big release for each month:

• January - FFVII Remake
• February - Resident Evil Requiem
• March - Pokopia
• April - Tomodachi Life Living the Dream
• May - Indiana Jones
• June - FFVII Rebirth

@Grumblevolcano Yoshi not considered big? I would assume the release date is announced before the movie and it was previously announced as "spring". May seems perfect if announced on MAR10.

@Grumblevolcano That lineup is relying a lot on third parties and not enough on first parties. If that was true that would be thoroughly unexciting, the first parties are a bigger draw.

@Bolt_Strike I agree with you, Nintendo is relying a bit too much on 3rd parties so far this year. Give us Zelda, Mario and Splatoon Raiders

I don’t mind them relying on 3rd party games provided they’re up to snuff. I love that RE9 and Pragmata are day and date releases. Rebirth and Indiana Jones are great gets and they look like strong ports. There’s still a good amount of low end and mid-tier releases.

If anything Nintendo themselves are the ones who need to step it up. Their output since DK has kinda been lacking, relying too much on spin-offs or Switch 2 Editions(Kirby is the only one that feels substantial, with the rest being either underwhelming or better off as free updates). Like this year the only game that really excites me is Fire Emblem, but the rest don’t do much for me. Yoshi looks cute but I don’t expect it to be on the level of a new Mario(let alone Yoshi’s Island). Miitopia is a Switch 1 game, I kinda need something more. Pokopia does nothing for me. Even with rumors of Gen 10 Pokemon coming this year, Pokemon is the one big Nintendo franchise I’m most lukewarm about. I don’t want to be that guy who goes “lol casual vs hardcore games”, but I need more than spin-offs and casual/cozy games. I want to know more about Duskbloods, I want to know more about Monolith’s next game, or Bloober Team’s collab with Nintendo, more revivals of more hardcore franchises like F-Zero, Star Fox, Punch-Out, Golden Sun, S&P, etc. The next 3D Mario, the next Mainline Kirby. Even if I don’t expect the next major Zelda, I’d love a remake of ALTTP or the GBC games. I might be complaining a lot, but remember the Switch 1’s first year had BOTW, ARMS, Splatoon 2, FE Warriors, and Super Mario Odyssey, along with enhanced ports and Smaller titles like MK8D and Snipperclips, around this point had announced a new Super Smash Bros, it really felt like they were firing on all cylinders. I’m just not feeling that here.

@RobLife1 I think considering the message Nintendo's been sending for Switch 2, they'll treat Indiana Jones as the bigger release as a good port is more evidence Switch 2 can get more demanding 3rd party games.

Anyway we don't know Yoshi is releasing in May. Could be late April, could be June, could be delayed.