Nintendo announced the release date of the Nintendo Switch 2 on April 2, placing said release date as June 5. During this reveal, there were also several major game announcements.
The new console will cost $450 without shipping or taxes, featuring a larger screen, a different connection system for the Joy-Cons, and an added mouse feature for the Joy-Cons. However, most of the Direct was occupied by game announcements.
Multiple large gaming franchise saw new game announcements, including:
- Mario Kart, which got “Mario Kart World,” is an up to 24-player game that will feature a mode with seamless track transitions.
- Donkey Kong received “Donkey Kong Bananza,” which will update Donkey Kong with a mix of his usual design and his movie design.
- Metroid announced, “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond,” which will introduce psychic abilities to the series.
- Legend of Zelda’s “Hyrule Warriors” series is getting “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment,” which seems to be a prequel to “Tears of the Kingdom”.
- Tomodachi game titled “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” was revealed, being the first Tomodachi game in over 10 years
- Pokémon showed more footage of “Pokémon Legends: Z-A,” which will wholly take place in Pokémon’s equivalent to Paris, France, called Lumiose City.
Large non-Nintendo franchises featured included another trailer for “Borderlands 4,” as well as the announcement of a spiritual successor to video game company FromSoftware’s “Bloodborne,” called “The Duskbloods.”
Also announced were several updates regarding multiple indie game franchises, such as the release date of chapters three and four of Toby Fox’s “Deltarune,” which is set to release on June 5 and will cost $25; the official release announcement of SuperGiant Games’ “Hades II,” which will finally exit its early access phase and initially release as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive; and an offhanded reveal of an unspecified 2025 release date for Team Cherry’s long-awaited sequel “Hollow Knight: Silksong,” featuring the first pieces of footage released since 2019.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released worldwide on June 5.
