Today was Nintendo’s turn to participate in summer game announcement season with its seasonal Nintendo Direct—and instead of throwing a high-speed fastball, it opted for a soft underhand toss, with more promotions of re-releases, remasters, and only two first-party titles targeted at the company’s core family audience: Pikmin 4 and Super Mario Wonder.
But despite the lighter touch on marketing, Nintendo’s smaller showcase doesn’t feel as surprising as say, the relatively light Summer Game Fest. Why? Well you can either look to the company’s recent past—or its imminent future.
In case you’d somehow forgotten, Nintendo just released its biggest first-party title since the Nintendo Switch first launched in 2017: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The company spent the first half of the year building suspense of the Zelda sequel, only revealing the game’s innovative new mechanics a month before launch.
Choosing not to show off Metroid Prime 4 or a new 3D Super Mario game lets that game still stay at the center of the company’s 2023 marketing—and make no mistake, Tears of the Kingdom will continue to be a blockbuster seller through the end of the year.
Let’s turn then toward the future. Rumblings about a successor to the Nintendo Switch have circulated for several years now, and six years after the console debuted, said successor may finally be around the corner. Recent comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot about the success of Mario + Rabbids strongly indicated that Nintendo is preparing games for the next console. Guillemot himself expressed regret that the publisher hadn’t waited a bit longer to launch the Mario + Rabbids sequel.
When will Nintendo unveil its next console?
Even if seemed like Nintendo was holding back its juiciest titles for an imminent Switch successor, it’s hard to pin down when the company might reveal said console to the world.
The timing of such an unveiling would come down to when it plans to release the console. The Nintendo Switch was first revealed in October 2016, ahead of a March 2017 release date.
Releasing the console in the spring gives Nintendo two major sales spike windows in the following year—first a launch, and then in the holiday season nine months down the road.
But Nintendo’s major competitors—Sony and Microsoft—released their ninth generation consoles in autumn of 2020, dropping them right into the holiday sales window. Nintendo could follow a similar plan if neither of the other companies has any mid-generation hardware refreshes planned next year.
All of the games debuted in today’s Nintendo Direct
Getting away from the broader console analysis, there was one other major theme in today’s unveiled games—a steady drumbeat of re-releases and remasters of classic titles. The peak of these reveals was Super Mario RPG, a remake (remaster?) of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. But other titles like Star Ocean The Second Story R and Metal Gear Solid Collection 1 kept the theme going.
Here are all of the games Nintendo featured in today’s Nintendo Direct:
DLC for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero – Nintendo
Sonic Superstars – Sega
Palia – Singularity 6
Persona 5 Tactica – Atlus
MythForce – BeamDog
An upcoming SplatFest event for Splatoon 3 – Nintendo
Detective Pikachu Returns – The Pokémon Company & Game Freak
Super Mario RPG – Nintendo
An untitled game starring Princess Peach – Nintendo
Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon – Nintendo
Batman: Arkham Trilogy – Rocksteady
Gloomhaven – Flaming Fowl Studios
Just Dance 2024 – Ubisoft
Silent Hope – Xseed Games
Fae Farm – Phoenix Labs
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged – Milestone
Manic Mechanics – 4J Studios
DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope – Ubisoft
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince – Square Enix
Pikmin 4 – Nintendo
HD re-releases of Pikmin and Pikmin 2 – Nintendo
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 – Konami
Vampire Survivors – Poncle
Headbangers Rythym Royale – Glee-Cheese Studio
Penny’s Big Breakaway – Evening Star Studio
New maps and characters for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass – Nintendo
Star Ocean: The Second Story Remake – Square Enix
WarioWare Move It! – Nintendo
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo