Nintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch Games

Nintnedo never changes planned release windows during their quarterly financial reports.

What I’d give to see Metroid Prime 4 get any sort of release date. A day, a week, a month, a year, a decade. Just something to let me know when to expect it!

@westman98 Indeed, I do hope we'll get a Direct soon. Or at least some release date announcements for the 2022 titles.

Metroid Prime 4 (temp.) - TBA

Let's hope this doesn't become
Metroid Prime 4 (permanently.) - MIA

Some great release windows TBC and 2022.

Hopefully a direct will land in the next few weeks with more info on spring releases. Tho if it’s just Kirby and advance wars they may not bother.

The leak of Re-Boot Camp's date being 8th of April hasn't been confirmed, then. Hmph.

Hoping for some remasters this year as well… Metroid prime (or trilogy would be preferable) and galaxy 2 please.

Pretty much every 1st party title has been rumoured to come to Switch this time, but I get the feeling that it's all dependent on if Zelda releases this year, other unannounced titles will be held back, if It's delayed they'll bring something in to replace it.

I prefer smaller games announcement than bigger games announcement as I have different interest in gaming.

@Freek,

Awesome title though.

Should be another awesome year, and already 2022 of to a great start with Pokemon Legends.

Nintendo- Buy new IP's HA! We're sitting on a whole load of them we don't even need to use!
F-Zero Fans-
Codename STEAM Fans- Are we invisible to you!

Fans collectively say "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2," but Nintendo always calls it "The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." That's because they're going to subvert our expectations and call it "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 3."

What are your thoughts on Triangle Strategy? Will it beat Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts?

all good titles but I don't consider most of them system sellers. I can see people buying the switch for metroid prime, botw2 and bayonetta

Probably get a direct before March which will include new Kirby footage and rune factory 5 and a BoTW release date

Looking forward to getting a solid release date for Advance Wars. I really hope they used this extra development time to make a great online multiplayer experience.

The PS5 and XboxX are going to be colossal failures.

Why are they always saying Spring 2022 for Advance Wars while the eshop says April 8th since December?

@BlackenedHalo Beat them in sales? story? gameplay? or just the general experience?
Anyways, i am sure it will be a fun game with solid gameplay and good difficulty. But i don't quite expect it to be that impactfull overall. I guess it will have similar faults to octopath, with its story being a mixed bag and the gameplay loop being a bit repetitive over time with a great finale

@BTB20 I'd guess you can't have digital preorders with vague release windows. Given from June there were digital preorders available with a precise release date (December 3rd 2021), the delay to Spring 2022 meant they had to either get rid of digital preorders (remove from eshop and cancel all preorders) or put up a placeholder precise release date of which they chose the latter.

@TheWingedAvenger Cause of the lineup? They don't seem to be doing that bad though. There are quite a few games like elden ring and horizon coming out this month alone. Sure, Switch sales seem to be better this year but that doesn't make them failures

@Solaine
PS5 and XboxX are off to a pretty good start, but they can't go on like that. Triple-A Switch games can be made in a matter of months, whereas triple-A PS5/XboxX games take up to a decade and still turn out to be buggy messes. They need games and their consoles take too long to develop games for. The same problem caused the demise of the Sega Saturn.

Current Nintendo IPs without Switch representation other than Smash Bros so far. (that I can think of ATM)

F-Zero
Star Fox
Pilotwings
Mario&Luigi RPG
Kid Icarus
Ice Climber
Mallo- Pushmo/Crashmo/Smashmo
Eternal Darkness
Earthbound
Codename STEAM
Dillon’s Rolling Western
Startropics
Game&Watch
Rhythm Heaven
1080/Wave Race
Art Academy
Balloon Flight
Chibi Robo/Custom Robo
Excite Bike/Truck
Golden Sun
Hotel Dusk
Punch-Out!!!

This is not a reconfirmation, they are simply restating what they have already announced about these titles. There is a big difference between the two. The difference being that if any changes happen to the schedule, they wouldn't be announced here.

@BlackenedHalo Being better than FF: Tactics is a pretty lofty goal, but Triangle Strategy does look promising, so we can always hope!

That they still list Breath of the Wild 2 as a 22 title is nice. Less chance that they delay it further, but not a 100% guarantee.

things can easily change for the worst in the next few months and Zelda gets delayed to next year

@Solaine i meant its gameplay hmm

I still expect Bayonetta 3 and BotW 2 to slip into 2023.

@Zach777 to be fair, a lot of those have been MIA quite a while, it’s not just the Switch missing out.

Arguably, Fox was heavily promoted for Starlink, and there’s 2 old Punch-Outs in the Arcade Archives range.

I can see Art Academy or Rhythm Heaven reappearing at short notice.

I’d love to see a new F-Zero or Pushmo.

And if Miitopia is a sign of 3DS ports to come, Kid Icarus, Pilotwings, Dillon or Codename STEAM would be good targets to revive.

@SuperZeldaFun

Give me a break. We’ll know if it releases this year based on whatever they announce over the summer.

Ugh. I am buying all of these. Better work some extra hours.

Splatoon 3 - 2022
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - 2022
The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 2022
Bayonetta 3 - 2022

Checks calendar - will somebody please tell Nintendo it now IS 2022 so if they have games releasing THIS YEAR they should have it narrowed down a little more than "this year" in this year. These 2022 games aren't releasing in January, that was last month, and probably not February as we'd already know. Also not March b/c Kirby is releasing in March. So basically all of "Winter" and Q1 are already out. So at least say summer or holiday or 2nd half, b/c saying 2022 IN 2022 is just 😝

I'm ok w/ saying 2023, we aren't in 2023 yet, but they have 4 games listed for the last 9 months of 2022, surely they at least know if they are in summer, fall, or holiday right now. 🤷‍♂️

I’m just waiting for that next Nintendo Direct to backhand my wallet 🤷‍♂️

@MJL Metroid Prime 4 is going to be a launch title for next console and it will be designed for 4k.

It will also be released for Switch but of course downscaled, like a 1st-grade port which maximizes on the Switch's power.

So when we know the launch of the next console, we will know of Prime 4's release date.

...just my hunch 🤷🏻‍♂️

In my opinion, that is the best way to go, as Metroid Prime 4 could be a perfect show-piece of the new consoles graphical capabilities and by releasing on both consoles, audience can either buy it on Switch, or enjoy the graphical upgrade on the new console. Win win situation.

Considering Metroid is a title that takes time to produce and its coming in late in the Switch's life, it's a no brainer to ensure they can maximize on the games potential as well as sales.

@bluemujika

Pretty much their entire racing and sports line sits idle other than MarioKart. Wave Race (N64/Cube) is considered by many to be the best jet ski series ever. Fzero as you mentioned, has not had a new entry in nearly 20yrs and would instantly jump to the top of the futuristic racer heap. I have fond memories of Excitebike going all the way back to the early arcade days, but Excitebike64 was awesome and would make a fine blueprint for an updated dirtbike racer. Heck I forgot about code name steam which was a great 3D SRPG experience on 3DS. Kid Icarus, Mother, Mother, Mother....plus all the Mario sports games like Striker and Sluggers lay dormant as they only catered to Golf (overdo) and Tennis (who cared) with mediocre entries (though they did both get better with added content after launch). Nobody has more unused IPs than Nintendo and with their dev model it would be very easy for them to partner with other devs/publishers (like sega and bamco) to help produce the games they don't have the bandwidth to do themselves. What good is hording your IPs when you could be capitalizing them.

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (temp.) - 2022

This could also mean the Super Switch is coming out.

@BenAV agreed 100%

I really hope we have a direct soon (next couple weeks perhaps) so that we can get more updates on these games. I really want an upgrade on Splatoon 3 and Breath of the Wild 2. I think Breath of the Wild 2 will have its own direct though or Nintendo may wait to show it later in the year around E3. Either way I'm excited for what 2022 has to bring us. Just need that first direct of the year

If they announce Super Mario Odyssey 2 this year aswell, ill lose my mind.

Still waiting on Outer Wilds, Fall Guys, and House of the Dead. But then again, I have so many games to play who knows when I'll ever get to them. I'm happy we keep getting titles, but those that need a new game every week, how do you have that much time to play them all? LOL.

@Zach777 Balloon Fight and Ice Climber. Sorry to break it to you but you aren't going to get new games based on NES games that never even got a sequel.

MP4 is gonna be a Switch 2 game at this rate. They might as well port 1-3 MP games if MP4 is giving them so much trouble.

@SwitchForce Doubtful when they literally just said Switch is “mid-life”.

Really not excited for any of these. Hope there are some interesting indies this year to hold up these boring tentpoles.

If botw 2 was using new assets and looked completely different I would understand a delay. But it is not. Even using the same overworld as botw. So why would it take 5 years to release a game reusing assets. Majoras mask was made in 1 year 5 is not to much to ask.

@Arawn93 I've been saying this for the last few months. Personally, I feel that a new Switch system, the Switch Pro/Super Switch, whatever they will call it will be released this year.

The Switch will be 5 years old next month, and I feel like the games they have scheduled for release this year would benefit from a more powerful system, even if it's not a huge jump.

I feel like Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Prime 4, Splatoon 3, and some others (Bayonetta 3, etc.) this year make good bridge games for the new system, where Nintendo can showcase, "These games run at 30 fps on the OG Switch, and will run at 60 fps on the Super Switch."

I'm wondering if we might get the new Switch announcement sooner, than later, and maybe it launches with/around Kirby in March, but I do feel that a direct tie-in with Breath of the Wild 2 at the very least will happen with it.

I think the Wii and Switch have helped show Nintendo the importance of a Zelda title for a new console's launch day.

But, I'm probably 100% wrong.

I’d bet the new Zelda will be released the first week in December 2022.

It’s only been 3 years since it was announced that Metroid Prime 4 was being restarted with Retro Studios. They’ve also hired quite a lot of people since then so clearly they weren’t operating at full scale straight away on this. It feels really long since the initial announcement in 2017-ish but the truth is Retro’s project is well within a reasonable development cycle at the moment.

Looking forward to Super Kirbyo Odyssey.

My poor wallet.

I keep forgetting about Advance Wars. And every time I see it I jump for joy.

BOTW2.
I thought half yearly expansion packs for successful games eg. BOTW would be a win win. Easy money for developers, more gaming for me.
(While they work on the sequel).

$5 says Mario Odyssey 2 (or whatever the next 3d Mario game is called) comes out before Metroid Prime 4

@BreathingMiit I cant tell, are you being sarcastic? This is a solid lineup of Nintendo games. Really something for everyone except 3d Mario, but Kirby can fill that void

@Freek I think we can all agree at this point that Metroid Prime 4 has been postponed indefinitely. Most likely it will end up as a launch title for the next console.

They haven't shown anything so far. No screenshot, no concept art. No gameplay. No trailer. Nothing.
Meanwhile, for Breath of the Wild 2, they already showed art, gameplay and a trailer two years ago, when they announced it.

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 could be Switch big holiday game for this year, Bayonetta 3 is problaby is gonna release in Halloween, Metroid Prime 4 could be a launch game for Switch sucessor.

New Predictions:

Splatoon 3 - Aug. 2022
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - May 2022
The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (temp.) - Nov 2022
Bayonetta 3 - Dec 2022
Metroid Prime 4 (temp.) - Launch title for Switch Pro Q4 2023

My money's on BOTW 2 for Holiday Season 2022 (Nov/Dec).

Nintendo's 2021 Holiday Season lineup was almost non-existent.

I read this as windows releases and am now dissatisfied

Honestly I'm okay with them releasing BOTW 2 when it's ready. If they release it sooner than this summer or fall, then they'll be patching things up constantly. Or BOTW 2 is ready, they're just toying with us, saying that it's months away from release.

@godofwarj5 Genuinely not seeing anything to be excited about.

Triangle strat was perhaps the most appealing thing here for me, but how can anyone not be Octopathed out by this point? Also: ***** Square Enix and their NFT *****.

I'm pretty much interested in all those games except for Splatoon and Pokémon. Most I'll definitely get, some like Triangle and Bayonetta will depend on how they are reviewed

@Arawn93 Doubtful when they literally just said Switch is “mid-life”.
That absolutely means nothing to a New Switch coming out. This is PR talk to prevent people speculating. Remember this is the v2 OLED were talking about nothing mentions a New Switch model. If they said no new models are in development or coming out that be even bigger News but their own words leaves alot of vague background.

@MJL Well it’s only been 3 years since they announced that they’d restart from scratch. 3 years is not enough for a title of this size.

Misread this as "Nintendo reconfirms release for Windows" and got really confused

@Not_Soos or... The Legend of Link: Shadow of the Wild. (My uncle works at Nintendo)