LastFootnote

Well, third parties sure seem eager to take advantage of this option. I’m guessing actual Switch 2 cards are expensive to produce, and I’ve heard rumors that the smallest size card Nintendo offers is 32 GB.

It’ll certainly push me to buy more games digitally. I mean I already buy plenty that way, but I sure would prefer a real physical copy of e.g. Bravely Default.

Look, I hate to be that guy, but I will be (pleasantly) shocked if Silksong comes out this year. We’ve already had one showcase claiming it would release within a year, and that was a few years ago. Fool me twice, shame on me.

@HammerKirby That would explain it. Damn, Nintendo is on a roll with unforced errors concerning the Switch 2. I guess maybe they didn’t want to have two successful consoles in a row.

Maybe this is just a me thing, but the fact that Mario Kart World is $10 more than Donkey Kong Bananza actually makes me worry that DKB will be a very small game. Nintendo has trained me to think that only budget games (like WarioWare) should be cheaper than the full-price experience.

@Jack_Goetz Probably not. I believe they’re basically synonyms also had lots of other games cancelled as well.

Retro just can’t seem to catch a break.

Please stop linking to X. There must be alternatives.

Interesting that Crown City is in both the Mushroom Cup and Shell Cup. I’m guessing it’ll be different depending on which cup you’re racing.

BOOOOOOOO!

But for $40, I’m fine buying it digitally.

Seems reasonable. Here’s hoping the dollar estimates are correct.

@liveswired “Forced to go third party”! Ha ha ha! That won’t happen, at least not in the next 20 years.

If sales are really low, we might get price cuts. But Nintendo has enormous cash reserves. They won’t be leaving the hardware game any time soon.

@Anakin In the US, they do. Physical game discounts here are very rare.

@ArcadianLegend99 I'm happy to cut them slack with how long it's taking. I'm not willing to cut them slack when it comes to the total lack of communication and repeatedly showing the game in presentations like this, only to miss those announced release windows.

That's a quirky little sound it makes. I like it.

@Friendly Could you please expound on the Switch’s 3-phase release? Because it seems like Nintendo put out about one first-party game per month of 2017 from the March release onward.

I don’t buy into this whole “3 phases” rumor that the headline references. I can believe that lots of devs don’t have dev kits yet, but I don’t believe that the launch lineup will only be first-party software.

If it does end up being true, Nintendo better release three games at launch, MINIMUM, and that’s not including tech demos like 1-2-Switch.

All they need to do for FF9 is speed up the load times and battle intros. Presto, perfect “remake”.

Somehow the end of the description made me think, “So it’ll be like National Treasure?”

Now I want to see Nicholas Cage as Link.

@Olliemar28 The release date has been announced via the new Nintendo Today app: March 26, 2027.

@X68000 Pretty sure they weren’t “binned off”. They opted out when Nintendo of America moved offices.

@mjhopkins81 I don't think this is how it works, though? I can play digital games on my non-primary Switch using my account, and somebody else can play my digital games (even the one I'm playing, I believe) at the same time on my primary Switch, using their accounts. There just can't be two Switches using the same account to play digital games simultaneously.

I mean the whole system still really sucks for a lot of reasons, but I don't think it's quite as draconian as you're making it out to me.

So many games we knew about shown again STILL with no release dates. Maddening.

They haven’t actually confirmed that the Switch 2 Direct will showcase any software. I mean they’d be crazy not to, but somehow I’m still a bit worried. I feel like in the past they’ve separated their hardware and software presentations.

@johnedwin In a row? Didn’t he predict a Direct in February that didn’t happen?

@abbyhitter For one thing, the rumors were that it would happen today, not tomorrow. For another thing, this was heavily rumored to happen back in February and didn’t. And for a third thing, the timing for this Direct is very weird! One week before another Direct! So I think it’s natural to be surprised.

Well, color me surprised! I was 99% certain this wouldn't happen.

No third-party games at release? That seems super unlikely. Nintendo will want to spread their releases out like they always do. They’ll have 2—maaaaaaybe 3—first-party games at launch, and a handful or two of third-party games.

I’ve been a big apologist for the rate these soundtracks have been releasing. My stance since before we even knew the release cadence has been that one soundtrack per week is the minimum they could release to feel like we’d someday have all the music available. This partial soundtrack sets a very bad precedent though.

Stop patenting game mechanics, Nintendo! It shouldn’t be legal.

@dmcc0 It just occurred to me: what if Game Pass no longer exists before Silksong releases?

"Expect nothing and you'll never be disappointed."

At this point I'm still subscribing to the theory that the devs have enough money to last them two lifetimes and will continue to add features to Silksong forever because they have no strong impetus to ever finalize and release it.

EDIT: Or, less charitably, they're sick of working on it and don't need to (due to the aforementioned money), so they're not doing so (à la George R. R. Martin).

@gcunit Sadly there are many other reasonable explanations. For example: the game is in development hell and is nowhere near releasing.

No, it won’t come out this year, or in 2026. The devs clearly have zero incentive to finish adding things to the game and release it. I’ll be surprised if it ever releases.

EDIT: Just to not be a total downer, I will say that I have faith Mina the Hollower will be out before the end of 2026, despite that not having a release date yet.

@MH4 I guess this isn't constructive, but: Cry some more!

The existing Mario sets are great, and Mario minifigs would be ugly and stupid. So many Lego fan tears shed over this asinine whining for Mario minifigs. Maybe not every Lego set has to be for you.

@LordDieALot For one thing, the Switch technically has mouse support already. If you mean that the Switch 2's Joy-Cons can be used as mice, then that's also basically already been confirmed by the reveal trailer and various patents that have been made public.

@Dang_69 Interesting! If he's super connected to Retro and getting info from them, I think we can assume he is somewhat biased toward them and toward Metroid Prime 4. That's good news as far as I'm concerned since it means that 1) Metroid Prime 4 will probably be in the Direct and also very cool, and 2) there's probably other great stuff too, and I shouldn't worry about it all being much less cool than Metroid Prime 4.

I'm actually worried that the Direct will somehow announce NO games, or at most just the launch lineup. I mean I'm probably crazy, but it's conceivable that they just concentrate on showing off the hardware in more detail and we have to wait until e.g. June for a Direct that actually announces several games (for both Switch and Switch 2).

@bones I mean I'm hoping for at least two "real" first-party launch titles, though that's probably just wishful thinking on my part. It'll probably be Mario Kart and some tech-demo thing that you're done with in two hours.

@Xenoblade-Fan Well let's not take that report at face value. It's possible that Metroid Prime 2 won't appear in the April Direct at all, and that other rumor has no foundation.

I love Metroid Prime (the series), but I think I’d be pretty disappointed if Metroid Prime 4 is the most exciting thing in the Direct. Mostly because we already know about it, as folks have said.

Maybe there wasn’t much competition? I mean I played Emio through to the end, including the epilogue. Granted the story is affecting, but the gameplay is so awful that it’s hard to believe there wasn’t something better last year.

@SwitchForce We’re talking about two different things here. I don’t think the Switch 2 will fail. I plan to buy one ASAP. I’m just hoping games run well on it. I’m pretty tired of devs not bothering to make sure their games actually run well on the Switch for the last year or two.

@Porco I see. Thanks for the info. I had to make do with an internet search since I couldn’t find hard historical data.

Well a Switch 2 is much smaller than a PS4 Slim, but your mileage may vary on how much that’s worth to you. Personally $400 seems reasonable to me assuming it’s roughly comparable to PS4 capabilities. At $450 I’ll blame the chaotic tariffs and suck it up. $500 feels extreme.

This is a tangent, but I am worried that a lot of games won’t run well even on Switch 2 just due to developers not bothering to optimize for it.

@Porco Looks like a brand-new PS4 currently costs about $310. Adding your estimates for screen and speaker costs brings it up to $380. So, $400 seems spot-on? I don’t understand your argument.

@Porco The PS5 doesn't need to include a screen or speakers, for what that's worth.

Haven’t I read this article on NintendoLife two or three times already? How many “analysts” need to predict this exact thing before it stops being news?

I really wasn't a fan of Cursed to Golf.

I'm still salty that Commodore 64 Virtual Console was only available in Europe, not in North America. When can I play Jumpman on Switch?

@arekdougy Bated breath, dude. You can’t bait your breath.

But yeah, great to have this soundtrack on the app.

@ChakraStomps Wait, so you have first-hand experience with these tariffs on US goods? Is that what you mean? You seemed very sure that they existed and that the current administration is just evening the playing field. You got that info from somewhere, right?

@ChakraStomps I would like to learn more about the tariffs that Canada and Mexico had on US goods. Do you have a link to some specifics?