depends on how development goes, I guess. 2026 reveal for a 2027 launch in a perfect world, methinks
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StarTopic Nintendo Switch 2 Speculation Thread |ST| The Future is just Beyond the Present
- Thread starter Josh5890
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OP
OP
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2028 is probably best case scenario for the next 3D Zelda. I'm guessing that we will get a tease by 2026.
unit 9s
animal crossing enjoyer
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I don't see any way it can be before before 2027, and even that's optimistic. Game development cycles are getting longer and TOTK took 6 years, so I'd imagine 6 is probably the baseline. My guess would be holiday 2029.
HockeyBird
Villager
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Teasing the next Zelda game? I can see it being announced by the end of 2025. TOTK was teased a little 2 years after BOTW. BOTW was first shown about 2.5 years Skyward Sword. So them making the announcement, even if the tease is very minor, isn't out of the question for 2025.
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
Not E3 2026 the next 3D Zelda will be announced. Remember this post
ah yes just like the Wii U Zelda tech demo haha
it's tough. I can see 2028-2030 so it'll probably get a 2028 release just to be delayed into 2029 lol. But it all depends when they started development. Is it possible development began while they were bug fixing and doing all that QA? I'd say so.
god I fucking hope so. the tech to finally do TP's art justice
oldpuck
Koopa
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That's pessimistic for me. I don't want a 5 year hype cycle. Though I think it's inevitable they wanna build hype, and reveal it early. Still, it took three years between Skyward Sword and
I think Mario Kart early on is smart, just because of how it rides the line between party game and "core gamer". It's got a long tail, so getting it early is a smart move. But with the way Nintendo is building big titles and saving them, I'd bet on nothing.
monkeygotyou
Do fairies have tails?
It certainly is strange that they decided to show it now when that direct was extremely well done even without it. It says to me that there is not another chance for them to show a proper trailer for Prime 4 this year.
To me, this suggests there will definitely be no big September direct. Perhaps there will be an indie direct or a partner direct then. Instead, they will reveal the Switch successor in July-October, and I take Prime 4's presence at this direct as (direct) confirmation of this reveal.
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
As far as Zelda goes Nintendo always announces Zelda and has delays is normal lol
Zelda is made for this though haha
Dekuman
Gerudo
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They didn't anticipate Prime 4 reboot and TOTK was revealed at the E3 right before COVID.
I'm not sure their takeaway is don't reveal games that's more than a year out, because it's worked for them already with hype around both MP4 and TOTK, BOTW and TP before that. All Zelda games revealed to massive fan reactions that took a while to come out; and while modern Nintendo have a preference for short reveal to launch cycles for most of their releases, certain games like Zelda they will absolutely revealed a bit early to get hype going. it moves consoles. Call it a 'business decision'
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I’ll be bullish - next year.
That’ll be about the time from BotW to TotK’s first tease, and I honestly think the game entered development before totk even released. I don’t think they want to waste ANY time on getting it out as soon as they can for Switch 2, and with totk being so built off BotW, there’s gotta be a team that was free to lay the groundwork for the next game. TotK was in the polishing phase for a year before we got it. No way they didn’t have concept artists or world designers on the next entry.
The power Zelda has now is insane - they ABSOLUTELY want to get it revealed for a new console launch regardless of how far out it is anyway
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Imma make a bold prediction.
In 2027.
New Mario Party game releasing in October.
Book it.
In 2027.
New Mario Party game releasing in October.
Book it.
Ricimer
Bob-omb
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carbvan
Chain Chomp
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Tbh I think a proper Mario x Square RPG game is gonna be the big crossover next system (not including Smash). Not at launch, but somewhere in the middle. They just rebooted each Mario RPG, Nintendo and Square's relationship is stronger than ever, there's a history of Mario x Square spin-off games like Sports Mix and Fortune Street... Plus it just makes sense. Also I want to see Mario and Luigi fuck up Sephiroth. I know Sephiroth is FF and not DQ but damn it he can be a special boss.
kirbyfan407
Twinkle Popo
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For me, it depends on if Nintendo has a remake of a 3D Zelda game coming. For example, I could see a reveal of an Ocarina of Time remake happening in 2025 for a 2026 release. If that were to happen, then I think Nintendo can hold off on teasing the next 3D Zelda game until closer to when it's ready, so perhaps 2027 or 2028.
If there's no remake between now and the next mainline 3D Zelda, then I think we could get an initial teaser in 2026. A new 3D Zelda will be a carrot that I suspect Nintendo will want to dangle in front of fans sooner rather than later, so I think they'll want to have something publicly on the horizon as soon as possible.
yeah right around when the dlc for Mario Kart X ends lmao
That's kinda why I ask. I'd be so shocked if they went more than 2 years without even a tease for the next Zelda. I genuinely think they started development in late 2022. Probably copium but idk.
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From all the "mainline" series of Nintendo, 3D Mario and a new Mario Kart are the ones that are in order to get new entries.
So it's not really outlandish speculation to think/say that Switch 2 will launch with one of them. Personally, i'm more leaning to 3D Mario, with Mario Kart being teased prior to launch for either the first holiday, or around the first anniversary of the Switch 2 launch.
If they learned anything from TotK, like the promised a few times already, they better not announce the next new mainline 3D Zelda until it's at max 2 years off.
I'd rather have them announcing it at max 1.5 - 1 year before launch.
So it's not really outlandish speculation to think/say that Switch 2 will launch with one of them. Personally, i'm more leaning to 3D Mario, with Mario Kart being teased prior to launch for either the first holiday, or around the first anniversary of the Switch 2 launch.
If they learned anything from TotK, like the promised a few times already, they better not announce the next new mainline 3D Zelda until it's at max 2 years off.
I'd rather have them announcing it at max 1.5 - 1 year before launch.
granth
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One thing I've been thinking about recently that has me quite excited for Switch 2 as a whole is that for Switch 1, Nintendo released a LOT of remasters / remakes. So much so that the pool of titles they might want to remaster for Switch 2 is somewhat smaller. This gives me hope that we'll get more original content more regularly on Switch 2 than on Switch 1.
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I wouldn't get my hopes up about this. The entire industry is releasing more remasters and remakes, often between original titles, because it's taking longer and longer to make games in general.
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They will just remake/remaster what they haven't gotten around to so far. Not like they'll run out of options anytime soon.
WonderLuigi
eegee
Yeap. And they barely touched their back catalog. You could say they only exhausted Wii U's library - and XCX and Woolly World are still on the table.
OctoSplattack
Tingle
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Emphasis on somewhat. Yeah, they've mostly bled the Wii U dry, but they also have at least nine other consoles that they haven't done that with. The first half of this year consisted of DS/Wii (Another Code Recollection), GBA (Mario vs. Donkey Kong), GameCube (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door), and 3DS (Luigi's Mansion 2 HD) remakes, after all. I imagine that the next console will have a similar mix of wholly original titles, substantial remakes, and plain remaster jobs as the Switch did.
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The one thing to look out for is really the expansion of their Kyoto HQ and potential partnerships. Hopefully those are not just to keep up with rising development demands but actually exceed them.
Danny
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It depends when the work on the next Zelda game began.
We know that Tears of the Kingdom was mostly finished by 2022, and after that they mostly did finishing touches on the game.
So maybe, people like Aonuma had a small team start thinking about the next 3D Zelda game already in 2022? That could explain why they planned from the start to not make any DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, so the work on the next Zelda game could intensify fast. Remember that pre production does not take a lot of people, mostly a few lead developers that decide on concept, gameplay mechanics, scope, budget etc for the project. So pre production could realistically have started already in 2022 and most certainly by early 2023.
For example Echoes of Wisdom was in development alongside Tears of the Kingdom, even though people like Aonuma were involved in both projects. So maybe when Tears of the Kingdom was mostly finished by 2022, Aonuma pivoted to mostly working on Echoes of Wisdom and starting pre production of the next 3D Zelda game. I also think they wanted to start pre production early on the next 3D Zelda game because so much new stuff and possibilites are open for the series with new hardware, so they probably had to brainstorm longer than usual with pre production.
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MusicProposition
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They announced the re-release of a re-released game yesterday (DK).
Yeah I wouldn’t get my hopes up about less ports and remasters
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I think we're gonna see the next 3D Zelda sooner than we think.
But it'll get delayed numerous times again so it won't really matter in the end.
But it'll get delayed numerous times again so it won't really matter in the end.
Uncle Squingis
Shriekbat
They can probably get through another generation filling in gaps with remakes, though each game will take more work than simply porting and adding a Funky Mode. Switch 2 can't have the same amount of ports as Switch 1 because the Wii U library has mostly been mined. Plus many of the games left are less exciting than games already on the Switch, like 3D Land and Jungle Beat.
Here's my list:
Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link Between Worlds, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Prime 2/3, Xenoblade X, DK Jungle Beat, Kid Icarus Uprising, Mario 3d Land, F Zero GX, Kirby Planet Robobot, Kirbys Epic Yarn, Star Fox Command/Assault, Yoshis Wooly World, Yoshis New Island.
Danny
Koopa
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The problem Nintendo faces that Sony did not face is that Playstation 4 is much stronger than base Switch, so it was easier for them to continue making crossgen PS4-PS5 releases for years. While the Switch will be so much weaker than the Switch 2 that if Nintendo wants every Switch 2 game to be playable on Switch 1 it really makes it almost impossible for them to take advantage of the Switch 2 power in any major way in designing new games. That is why i would say its impossible that the next 3D Mario will be playable on Switch 1, because that would mean it won't be any major difference to that game compared to say Mario Odyssey in scope and fidelity.
And for Mario games it does not matter. Mario Odyssey came out when the Switch had an install base of a few millions, it will still sell around 30 million copies in total due to evergreen sales, the same would be true for a Switch 2 exclusive Mario game.
And also Sony does not really need first party exclusive games to sell a new Playstation console, because third party games will do that for them. Nintendo will not be able to sell Switch 2 on just third party games, they will need first party exclusives to sell the Switch 2.
Nicolas10111
Rattata
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Thinking about it, delaying Switch 2 was such an easy move for Nintendo. The launch window games would be given more time to cook in the oven so they could be release ready and potentially get even more third party support as well as ports in the launch year since the word for the console is already out to the public to create the buzz and demand for it that the dev studios can see. To top it off, there were enough Switch titles remaining for them to cover up the extra waiting time the delay would bring and also boost the Switch sales for the last time and get that record. These games were most likely intended to be the cross gen launch window titles but they were instead used to make the drought year… not be a drought year for the Switch. Really excellent decisions.
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I would rather they not repeat the Switch and announce games years and years away like TotK, Bayonetta 3, and Prime 4. But it's no doubt going to happen again at least for Zelda.
Anyways after the Direct I think Prime 4 is the launch day game and dual SKU. I think there's every reason that 3D Mario makes for a better launch game by appealing to a wider audience on top of Metroid Prime being niche in Japan. It just feels like the decision Nintendo is headed towards even if I don't agree with that choice that I assume they made. Metroid Prime in spring, Mario Kart in summer, and 3D Mario in the fall are probably the 3 tentpoles of Switch 2's first year. Things like Animal Crossing and Smash strike me as year 2 titles.
Anyways after the Direct I think Prime 4 is the launch day game and dual SKU. I think there's every reason that 3D Mario makes for a better launch game by appealing to a wider audience on top of Metroid Prime being niche in Japan. It just feels like the decision Nintendo is headed towards even if I don't agree with that choice that I assume they made. Metroid Prime in spring, Mario Kart in summer, and 3D Mario in the fall are probably the 3 tentpoles of Switch 2's first year. Things like Animal Crossing and Smash strike me as year 2 titles.
SpaceGodzilla
"The Baby"
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Going to be a outlier and say mario kart isn't going to be a launch title or a holiday game but a March 2026 game to end the switch 2's first year and to synergies with the mario movie 2
Steve
Tingle
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I have finally realise why Persona 3 isn't on Switch.
These cheeky mf, are gonna make an ultimate edition, which includes the DLC for free and sell it for 70$, which would save people 35$, since they don't have to buy the DLC, which has the epilouge...
Ngl, Atlus are the king with double dipping it's fanbase.
These cheeky mf, are gonna make an ultimate edition, which includes the DLC for free and sell it for 70$, which would save people 35$, since they don't have to buy the DLC, which has the epilouge...
Ngl, Atlus are the king with double dipping it's fanbase.
Giancarlo
the Baby
i would say, reveal/tease the game in 2027 and release it 2028, if Nintendo start the development of the next Zelda this year, this would give the next Legend of Zelda a 5 year development cycle.
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I’ve thought about it and I’m changing my vote in the poll from 3D Mario to Metroid Prime 4
Hear me out
Here’s how I think the next year and a half is gonna go for Nintendo
New console revealed this fall or very very early 2025
It’s out in March 2025, alongside a cross-gen Metroid Prime 4 which is a hardcore-fan centric graphical showcase that really shows off the power of the new unit, especially against the Switch 1 version of the game. This acts as the BOTW equivalent: hardcore focused cross-gen game that showcases the new console. In BOTW’s case it was “hey that new console Zelda we made? It’s fully portable” and MP4 is “hey you know that great looking game? Look at it running at 4K60 on this new hardware.” I also think Nintendo is going to be incredibly confident in MP4 and give it an enormous marketing push. Nintendo is going to try to make Metroid another big pillar franchise and this is going to be their push to do it.
The 3D Mario, just like Mario Odyssey, becomes the casual market-targeted holiday game and is out in October/November.
Hear me out
Here’s how I think the next year and a half is gonna go for Nintendo
New console revealed this fall or very very early 2025
It’s out in March 2025, alongside a cross-gen Metroid Prime 4 which is a hardcore-fan centric graphical showcase that really shows off the power of the new unit, especially against the Switch 1 version of the game. This acts as the BOTW equivalent: hardcore focused cross-gen game that showcases the new console. In BOTW’s case it was “hey that new console Zelda we made? It’s fully portable” and MP4 is “hey you know that great looking game? Look at it running at 4K60 on this new hardware.” I also think Nintendo is going to be incredibly confident in MP4 and give it an enormous marketing push. Nintendo is going to try to make Metroid another big pillar franchise and this is going to be their push to do it.
The 3D Mario, just like Mario Odyssey, becomes the casual market-targeted holiday game and is out in October/November.
Steve
Tingle
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I personally see Prime 4 releasing alongside 3D Mario.
Having two big titles would be huge and people aren't really picky, when it comes to buying launch games and are willing to buy as many games they can get, heck 1-2 Switch wasn't overshadowed by Botw, despite it being mid.
But my delusional take would be making Prime 4 a pack in title for the Switch 2. Similar to Metroid Hunters Demo. the likely scenario is letting Prime 4 be a tech demo, showcasing the beginning of the game in 4K/60. maybe even introduce a performance mode showcasing that the Dock mode is capable of 1440p/120.
Meanwhile 3D Mario will be the big launch title, and it'll be the RT showcase.
OP
OP
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I agree with you but game development can be fickle even for the best of folks. Prime 4 ended up with a restart of development. I doubt that it was Nintendo's original plan to announce that game more than 3 years out. Platinum had some internal issues which probably lead to Bayonetta's delay. IIRC, they were first trying to make it an open world game. TotK was definitely announced early too. Keep in mind that COVID slowed down development of all three games.
I'd imagine that Nintendo is going to stick with 12~18 months max for lead up time with the big guns. There will probably be one or two outliers because "shit happens", but Nintendo seems to avoid long cycles whenever possible now. Even Smash Bros went ~8 months between announcement to launch.
InfinityWarrior88
Cappy
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I'm starting to agree with this. The first year line up and beyond is far more important than the launch day.
9-Volt
Yoshi
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Add those Reginleiv, Captain Rainbow and Skip's other games, Chibi-Robo and Giftpia.
I'm not sure how possible they are though. Nintendo co-owns most of these games and Skip is no longer alive. They can reach out to Mistwalker, Ganbarion and Sandlot fine but how cooperative they will be is remains to be seen.
At least Monolith can always bring back Soma Bringer, huh.
OP
OP
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Speaking of the first year, these teams might/should be due to release something next year.
Retro- Metroid Prime 4 already announced
Game Freak- Pokemon Legends Z-A already announced
Forever- Donkey Kong Country Returns already announced
EPD 4- Quirky new IP?
EPD 8- 3D Mario
EPD 9- Mario Kart?
Camelot- Golf was 2021 so it will be 4 years in 2025. Golf came three years after Tennis.
Koei Tecmo- Warriors games have been on roughly a 3 year pace and Three Hopes was 2022.
Game Freak- Skipping this year for a mainline release.
Hal Laboratory- Kirby games seem to be coming at an every other year pace and Return to Dreamland was 2023.
Next Level- They seem to average a new game once ever three years and Strikers was 2022.
Retro- Metroid Prime 4 already announced
Game Freak- Pokemon Legends Z-A already announced
Forever- Donkey Kong Country Returns already announced
EPD 4- Quirky new IP?
EPD 8- 3D Mario
EPD 9- Mario Kart?
Camelot- Golf was 2021 so it will be 4 years in 2025. Golf came three years after Tennis.
Koei Tecmo- Warriors games have been on roughly a 3 year pace and Three Hopes was 2022.
Game Freak- Skipping this year for a mainline release.
Hal Laboratory- Kirby games seem to be coming at an every other year pace and Return to Dreamland was 2023.
Next Level- They seem to average a new game once ever three years and Strikers was 2022.
Genshin probably has a console exclusivity deal with Sony, but is that not the case with Zenless Zone Zero?
mynintendonews.com
Zenless Zone Zero producer hopes to bring game to Switch and Xbox
HoYoverse is aiming to launch its latest project Zenless Zone Zero next month and IGN caught up with Zenless Zone Zero producer Zhenyu Li at a special media event. Talk eventually turned to other…
mynintendonews.com
LoneRanger
Chain Chomp
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What if scenario (worst outcome?)
- September General Direct with FE4 Remake (February 2025), more in depth details of Prime 4 (March 2025, Prime 2/3 December 2024), Kirby Robobot Planet HD (April 2025) as main headlines
- Switch 2 presentation at January 2025. This will include both HW and SW details. Releases at May 2025
- February will have a Pokemon presentation featuring details of Pokemon A-Z (confirmed to be cross-gen). Releases in July.
- March will have a special Mario 40th anniversary video announcing an Anniversary Game for September 2025 (cross-gen)
- April General Direct, with Switch 1/2 and 2 only sections. F-Zero GX HD shadowdropped (physical release in June)
- Launch lineup includes 3D Mario, Nintendogs
- Key Switch 2 exclusives lineup titles are Luigis Mansion 4 (Fall), Mario Kart X (Fall) and Animal Crossing (Winter)
- June General Direct will have Ocarina of Time Remake announcement and a little next 3D Zelda teaser.
