A couple of weeks ago, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa announced something on social media that fans have been waiting a long time for: the first official acknowledgement of the Nintendo Switch’s successor. In the post, Furukawa announced that Nintendo’s next game console would be announced within the current fiscal year, meaning it will be announced by (at the latest) March or April of next year. Along with this acknowledgement, it was also announced that a Nintendo Direct will be airing this June to show off software that will be released throughout the remainder of 2024, which quite possibly could be the final year of the Switch’s lifespan (at least with the Switch as the main focus). In this discussion, I’d like to go over my thoughts, expectations, and early predictions for what this Direct might show, and what information could be shared. But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
As of 2021, Nintendo has held a presentation every June for the past decade. The main reason for this was because of E3, which Nintendo has attended consistently since the convention was first introduced. However, after the event was canceled in 2022, the convention has failed to rebuild from the pandemic and other conventions, which caused E3 2021 to be the final E3 ever. There was no June Direct in 2022, aside from the short Direct Mini we got later in the month. However, to the surprise of many Nintendo fans, Nintendo did hold a Nintendo Direct in June 2023, which was the first ever summer Direct not associated with the convention. This year, they skipped over the typical February Direct, however it wasn’t exactly necessary due to the smaller lineup to start the year, as well as the June and September Directs last year sharing a lot of first half 2024 titles. However, we know very little about Nintendo’s lineup to finish off what may be the Switch’s final year of being Nintendo’s main-focus system. But here’s a question – even though we are getting a Direct next month, should we have high expectations?
For most gaming consoles, the biggest games are usually released within the first half-decade (at most) of the system’s life cycle. This is when the console’s main franchises get their big games for the system. If they get another big game, it usually comes towards the middle of the life cycle. When a system comes to its last couple of years, the games usually are not as huge as the console’s main games since the company will be shifting its focus to its next machine and its games. That’s how the Switch looked, with 2022 and 2023 looking to be the Switch’s last couple of years. That was until Nintendo shocked us with a huge lineup in 2023, which nobody saw coming until the September 2022 and June 2023 Directs. All we knew was Tears of the Kingdom was coming in May. However, Nintendo surprised everyone by also releasing Pikmin 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario RPG, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and many others. However, we knew almost nothing for 2024, and even now in May, we still don’t. So, even though there’s a lot of games we don’t know yet coming this year, how big could they be if the Switch’s successor is seemingly releasing either next year or early 2026?
For many people, including myself, this Nintendo Direct sounded like it would be huge. Instead, now that I’ve been thinking about it, I’m not sure if that will be the case. As I’ve previously mentioned, if Nintendo releases a big game for the Switch right before the Switch 2, then that might hurt the early sales for the Switch 2. Even if it has backwards compatibility, why would you buy the game and a new system if you can just buy the game for the system you already own? So, that’s why I don’t expect a lot of huge announcements here. Now, just because Nintendo said that they won’t be showing the Switch successor itself, they didn’t say they wouldn’t show any games for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo teased one or two bigger games releasing with or close to the new system’s launch. But what could we get?
The first game I predict for the Direct (and one that I’m almost positive will be shown) is Metroid Prime 4. My current expectation is that the game will launch sometime in the last quarter of the year if the Switch successor launches in the summer of 2025 at the earliest. Though I am aware of Metroid’s popularity, I don’t think it’s popular enough to overshadow the launch of a new system, especially if it releases at least six months out. Plus, I feel like the game has to come out on the Switch. I don’t think Nintendo can release it exclusively for the Switch successor since they revealed the game for the Switch back in 2017. When the new system does come out, I expect that if it has backward compatibility with the Switch, there will be players who will want to play the game on a console with (most likely) far superior graphics to the Switch, especially if another big game launches alongside it. Other than that, I think that Metroid Prime 4 will be the Switch’s last ‘heavy-hitter’, and therefore expect that Nintendo may include at least a tease of the next-generation titles.
So, in conclusion, I’m very excited for this next Direct, but I’m not expecting it to include huge announcement after huge announcement like it seemed at first. But what are your expectations for this Direct? Let me know in the comments below.
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