Skip to main content

Want to predict the next big Nintendo Switch game? Just rewind 5 years

When it comes to the video game industry, we’re currently living in an age of speculation. Players are no longer satisfied just getting news on upcoming games by patiently waiting for announcements. Insiders and leakers have become a fundamental part of the game hype cycle in the social media age, fueling a need for unofficial scoops. When a gaming livestream gets announced, it’s usually surrounded by tons of rumors, leaks, and predictions that set some high expectations. It’s easy to get disappointed by something like Nintendo’s September Direct when leaks from high-profile insiders wind up being a bust.

But what if I told you that you can become your own insider, especially when it comes to Nintendo Switch? Yes, you can create your own realistic predictions with ease rather than getting let down by enticing Reddit threads. All you have to do is follow Nintendo’s development cycle patterns, which have become crystal clear following today’s Direct showcase.

Recommended Videos

Five-year plan

The deeper we get into the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle, the more clear patterns in Nintendo’s release cadence are starting to show. If you look at the company’s first-party 2022 release calendar, you might notice that it looks a little familiar. That’s because a good half of it has been comprised of sequels to games that hit the console in 2017.

In the Switch’s inaugural year, we got Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Splatoon 2, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Fire Emblem Warriors, and more. By the end of this year, Switch owners will have Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. That’s not to mention that we were originally supposed to get The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom this year too, following up on 2017’s Breath of the Wild.

Coincidence? Or the machine-like reality of video game development cycles? You decide.

Fire Emblem engage characters stand in a field.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Five years isn’t a hard and fast rule, but you can see that rough time frame holding true when it comes to Switch sequels. September’s Nintendo Direct made that especially clear as it gave us our first look at the console’s 2023 line-up, which is already paralleling with 2018 and 2019. Octopath Traveler 2 is coming five years after its predecessor (though it’s a Square Enix project, not Nintendo) and Fire Emblem Engage‘s timing tracks by similar logic, though it’s a year early. If you really wanted to get tinfoil hat about it, you could note that Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe will launch five years after the last 2D Kirby game on Switch, Kirby Star Allies.

With all that in mind, Nintendo fans can start to make some educated guesses as to what could be coming in the back half of 2023 and even 2024. For instance, 2023 will mark the five-year anniversary of Pokémon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee. We tend to get a new Pokémon game every year and Nintendo’s holiday 2023 slot is currently open, so you could make an educated guess that a Gold and Silver remake in that style could land around then.

Follow that logic into 2024 and you can start making even bigger predictions. That year gave us Grezzo’s excellent remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The studio has been mostly quiet since, leaving fans to speculate whether or not it’s planning to remake another Zelda game. Perhaps we’ll see some long-rumored Oracle of Ages and Seasons remakes then. Other possibilities could include sequels to Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Mario Maker 2, Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Ring Fit Adventure. It’s entirely plausible that a September 2023 Direct could include any number of those games.

Link hero shot | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening review
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You could poke plenty of holes in that logic, especially considering that we don’t have a Super Mario Odyssey follow-up on the horizon and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate defies any established Nintendo timelines. But this simply serves as a reminder that for all its secrecy, the video game industry often runs like a predictable machine. You can analyze patterns and start to make educated guesses about sequels with relative ease. There’s an assembly line-like efficiency to franchise production and Nintendo has especially locked that down during the Switch’s lifespan. There will always be left-field surprises and series that buck trends due to their success, but half of the Switch’s exclusives in the past year should come as no surprise to anyone who’s tuned in enough.

Become your own Nintendo insider.

Giovanni Colantonio
As Digital Trends' Senior Gaming Editor, Giovanni Colantonio oversees all things video games at Digital Trends. As a veteran…
One of the best sci-fi games ever made is coming to Nintendo Switch next month
outer wilds nintendo switch indie world

During the November 2023 Indie World Showcase, it was revealed that many intriguing indie titles are coming to the Nintendo Switch over the next year. One of the show's biggest announcements was that Outer Wilds -- a critically acclaimed sci-fi game about exploring a solar system throughout repeating time loops -- is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch next month.

A Nintendo Switch port for Outer Wilds was first teased in 2021 and intended to be released during the summer of that year, but it did not make that release window. We did not hear much else about the port until now outside of a mention during one of publisher Annapurna Interactive's own showcases. An Indie World Showcase segment dedicated to the game showed some of its physics-based spacefaring gameplay in action on the Switch, and it seemed to look nice and run at a solid frame rate. Called Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition, this version of the game comes with the Echoes of the Eye DLC and will launch digitally on December 7. It will get a physical Switch release sometime next year.

Read more
Nintendo’s next console may feature DLSS and ray-tracing support
Mario high-fives Nintendo Live guests.

New reports affirm the rumors that Nintendo has started to show its next-generation console -- referred to colloquially by fans as Nintendo Switch 2 -- behind closed doors at a recent video game industry expo. It reportedly featured tech demos highlighting features like Nvidia DLSS support and ray tracing.
Gamescom 2023 was held in Cologne, Germany, between August 23 and August 27. Nintendo attended the European game industry event, and shortly thereafter, rumors emerged that Nintendo had shown its next console behind closed doors. Now, new reports from Eurogamer and VGC are corroborating these claims.
Specifically, both sources say that Nintendo showed tech demos for its next game console in private during meetings with some other game developers at Gamescom. Both sources confirmed that an upgraded version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was shown off on this "Switch 2" hardware.
VGC also had a source who claimed that the impressive The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo -- used to promote Epic Games' new engine and the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X back in 2021 -- was also shown to developers and seemed to confirm that the new Nintendo system will support Nvidia's upscaling DLSS tech as well as ray-tracing. Keep in mind that tech demos for systems often don't make the transition to full-game releases.

We don't know much else about what was shown, although VGC claims that this system will be usable in a portable mode like the Nintendo Switch is. Currently, the launch window for Nintendo's next new piece of hardware is expected to be sometime in fall 2024, although Eurogamer's source stated that "Nintendo is keen to launch the system sooner if possible."
Nintendo has not commented on these rumors, and is unlikely to ahead of an official console reveal. Still, the idea that the next Nintendo console is nearly upon us should be exciting for fans of one of the video game industry's most storied companies. 

Read more
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom DLC is not happening, says Nintendo
Link and other characters from Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the year's most successful games, but a developer from Nintendo has confirmed that it doesn't have plans to make any DLC for it. Speaking to the Japanese publication Famitsu, series producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed this was the case because the development team had already explored all of the ideas they wanted to in the base game and is now looking to the future.

"At this time, we are not planning to release additional content. We feel like we have already fully explored and exhausted the gameplay possibilities in this world," Aonuma said in comments translated by Video Games Chronicle. "Initially, the reason we decided to develop a sequel was because we believed there was still value in experiencing new gameplay within that particular Hyrule. If, in the future, we find a compelling reason, we may revisit that world once again. Whether it’s another sequel or an entirely new title, I believe the next game will offer a completely new experience."
While Aonuma's explanation is sound, it's still a pretty surprising move by Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received two expansions after it came out in 2017. Some fans expected that Tears of the Kingdom would follow in that game's footsteps, especially as it would make sense for Nintendo to find more ways to capitalize on a game that has already sold 18.51 million copies. Still, it's probably best for Nintendo to move on from Tears of the Kingdom and create something new rather than making underwhelming DLC for the sake of having post-launch content. 
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now for Nintendo Switch.

Read more