Following its announcement the June 2024 Direct, Nintendo has today revealed that basketball will be hitting the court on Nintendo Switch Sports on 10th July in Europe and on 9th July in North America (thanks to the magic of timezones).
The new sport will come as a free add-on for the game, tipping off with a trio of different game modes to keep things interesting. There are two-on-two matches, a solo three-point contest and a 'Five Streak Battle' for up to four hoopers.
As expected, you'll be able to play basketball with both local and online multiplayer.
The basketball update will provide the eighth sport in the Switch collection after Golf came our way back in 2022. These two additions have certainly made the package a bit more of a desirable one (let's remember how small it felt at launch), but there's no doubting that it's taken a long time to get here.
Will you be trying out basketball on Nintendo Switch Sports later this week? Let us know in the comments.
[source x.com]
Comments 38
It needs more sports...😒
This was odd in the Direct. Not sure why they’re still updating this game! Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort are a lot better, and have more focus on Mii’s! Wii Sports and Resort also felt more finished/polished.
Where’s my NBA Jam DLC, you cowards!?
Interesting, with this timing it seems like the 2nd half of summer is completely devoted to Splatoon 3.
Definitely still confused why they waited so long, but I’m still pumped for it. Basketball was easily the second best Wii Sports Resort sport besides island flyover
@PikminMarioKirby Totally agree with this. I still enjoy switch sports, especially in multiplayer, but it's just inferior to sports resort. I would've rather had a port of that game with online honestly.
Looking forward to shooting some hoops!
That date is formatted incorrectly
So the grand total for Switch Sports is 8 sports. 3 from Wii, 2 from Resort and 3 original.
I put somewhere around the range of 150 hours in Switch Sports, but I don’t have interest going back to play this. Wasn’t a fan of Basketball in Resort, although the 3-Point challenge was a favorite in my household.
Give me baseball or give me...a sequel to Mario Superstar Sluggers, I guess!
Nce. This week is tue sharkcostume weekni always wanted as an avid diver. Missed that 2 years ago.
It ranks easily as one of the 10 most played awitch games. Although i agree wii sports and especially resorts is more charming. The cooperation of volleyball. Me and my daughter against the world!
Whelp time to resinstall this game. Good game but only half the sports are worth while. Soccer and Golf especially
@Kyloctopus will we ever know the total though, since this was a surprise too. I’m guessing October 25, cricket will be added.
I want Boxing or Kickboxing, not basketball. 😒
Surely after then it will be time to reconsider your review, no? Considering it was marked down as being barebones, even though it was impossible to rate the online experience. Also, 2 sports have been added since.
ive had my rough patches with this game but ive still really enjoyed it. having online is such a powerful value even if its just the 8 sports now, the perfect awkward middle child of the franchise
im still surprised by this tbh, normally nintendos a lot more transparent about post launch dlc. this mustve started development well after launch
I hear a lot of people saying they want boxing back. I honestly thought that was one of the worst sports in the series, but that’s just my opinion
I used to love the 3 point shootout mode in Resort so I’ll definitely give this a go. I don’t care much for the 2v2 mode.
@NFrealinkling I think its just nostalgic for most people
I didn't love Boxing in Wii Sports, but I still play it once in a while... I think with the JoyCons, the motion controls would be better than they were with Wii Remote+Nunchuk. So if they added it, I'd be happy. That said, BBall sounds fun!
I'm In For Basketball.
Reminder that this game sold 3.51 million units just in the past fiscal year and 13.11 total according to Nintendo's latest financial report (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2024/240507_3e.pdf, page 18) which is nothing to sneeze at and explains why it's getting such an update - what is weird is that it didn't happen sooner!
@JohnnyMind Lol, I think you dropped around 10 million from that sales figure 😄
3.51 million was just the figure for the 23-24 financial year.
I think Switch Sports is great. But as ever, the online experience has its frustrations. I would like it to be clearer when my online matches are being populated by CPU players i.e. show exactly who's a CPU and who isn't. And rather than just displaying a 'Looking for players - please wait' type message, I'd like to be able to see how many active players are online and playing each sport. Just having to wait, sometimes for a considerable time, for a sport to be chosen and populated, completely blind, is not fun.
@HatesCheese true. Wii Sports Resort is one of my most nostalgic games but I always thought the air sports, cycling, basketball and power cruising were better. Maybe people just like Matt beating them senseless 😂
@gcunit You're right, seemed way too low also to me but didn't properly check as I was kind of in a hurry, will fix it now. Thanks for pointing it out!
And yeah, while I think it's way more popular than people give it credit for (ironic that I accidentally did so myself despite knowing better) and that it's an overall good game you made a good point about some of its issues.
awesome !!! finally more content (lil late tho lmao) !! anyways @JimNorman what time ET?
Now remove the restriction for how many items you can get each week in "Trial Mode", and let us unlock stuff when playing locally too!
Thats so weird! Why did they say the release will be "this summer" and then reveal the exact date just three weeks later?
CANNOT WAIT!
There is NOTHING in all of gaming that provides an experience like Switch Sports.
Absolutely NOTHING.
I Love Nintendo for continuing to support this amazing experience. It's #2 on my Switch for time spent this year behind Zelda: TotK.
The online play is handled so well (Offline is pointless and if you are going to only play offline skip the game)
While there are some small issues I have with some of the inputs (why every video golfing game ever made makes 1 inch shots harder than 2 foot shots I'll never know), the experience is simply unlike anything else in gaming and it is so good.
I'll be throwing down some serious B-Ball this weekend!
@NFrealinkling
I'm the opposite.
I really want Boxing return but I hate soccer.
I enjoy the games they have but I haven't gotten much legs with this game. I bet I have played in total around 5 hours
I really do not understand the complaints. People are actually upset that we are getting more/free content? It is a little strange that we’re getting it so late but I really enjoy this game especially when I’m playing co-op locally with friends/family. Will absolutely be trying Basketball on Wednesday.
I actually wish we had gotten more updates. I feel like boxing baseball and maybe even ice hockey or lacrosse could have been other worthwhile updates along the way.
Have they added a way to play standard bowling (like how it is on Wii Sports)?
> Surprise! Basketball slams onto Ni-
We know because of the Direct, we just didn't care because of the other content in the Direct.
@Anti-Matter that’s cool. Everyone has their own tastes I guess
I’m kinda surprised enough people bought the base game to warrant this.
@Chibi indeed, they completely misunderstood volleyball too, maybe partly due to the lack of online, and that has been updated too
(and don't forget the football update too, even though i don't really play that)
@PikminMarioKirby
Wii Sports and Resort are definitely the better, more polished games, imo, but this one is still plenty fun and, at least for me, improves quite a bit with this recent addition. The 3-point challenge was my favorite mini-game in Resort.
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