Despite an early warning that no Switch 2 news would be coming at their June conference, the Nintendo Direct was still an enjoyable summer showcase with plenty of exciting titles. We ran our own Digital Foundry Direct special looking at the announcements, with John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie highlighting some of the most anticipated games – including new Metroid, Zelda and Lego titles.
While the video version of that Direct is available to watch below, I thought it might be interesting to talk about my own personal moment from the show, and perhaps more critically, how the announcements we’ve seen today might affect a launch eventual Switch 2 line up.
Starting then, I was blown away by the game Lego: Lego Horizon Adventures. The original Horizon games – Zero Dawn and Forbidden West – have an unbeatable setting and it’s fascinating to see this translated into a world of colored bricks. More importantly, it’s lost surprisingly little compared to the full-fat Unreal Engine 5 version of the game for PS5 and PC. Lumen RT’s high-quality reflections become SSR and pristine virtual shadowmaps become traditional shadowmaps, but the visual character of the game remains – despite the cuts needed to even reach 30fps on Switch versus 60fps elsewhere.
The Lego games have traditionally been some of the most faithful and fun adaptations of the franchise, and it’s clear that this title also has a ton of promise – especially on Switch where the visuals and gameplay are a perfect match for the handheld game. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out later this year, and maybe in 2025 we’ll see a visually enhanced version of the Switch’s successor.
Speaking of which, one big advantage that Nintendo has taken advantage of with the Switch has been a large catalog of Wii U titles after the relatively weak sales of that system’s consoles. That meant a lot of really good games that didn’t find a huge audience, so Nintendo has been able to pull from so well and make (relatively) straight forward remakes and revamps to create profitable Switch versions. Moving on to the Switch 2, that well is starting to dry up, as John mentions during the Direct, with relatively few big or notable Wii U titles yet to be revamped.
With the Switch set to be around eight years old by the time Switch 2 arrives – rumors place it around March 2025 – it’s clear that Nintendo didn’t feel compelled to release a successor console at the same pace as rivals Sony and Microsoft. However, this patience has an impact on the game lineup, as titles that could theoretically launch alongside a 2024 Switch 2 will now only arrive for the original Switch instead or face significant delays to host the new console.
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It will be interesting to see if any games coming over the next year have any hallmarks of development aimed at the Switch 2 – for example, 30fps games from series that tend to stay at 60fps, or ones that run at surprisingly low resolutions, but they come with quite advanced graphics features. These kinds of compromises can be common for cross-generation titles, and as Oliver points out in the Direct, this could be one of the longest cross-generation runs for a Nintendo console ever.
We’ll stay tuned for potential Switch 2 titles then, and hopefully Nintendo will provide more information about the successor console, its capabilities, and its software lineup as we close out 2024 and enter 2025. I’m cautiously optimistic that Nintendo’s strategy here is a smart one, and there’s always the possibility of a faster-than-expected Switch 2 and a stacked release line given the extra time they’ve given themselves to prepare the new console, even if there are relatively few brand new Wii titles waiting in the wings for their moment to shine.
That’ll do it for that, but as always if you want to support the work we do, you can visit our Patreon. As a backer, you’ll be able to ask questions on weekly DF Direct episodes, get early access to embargo-free content, see what we’re working on each week, and of course join our friendly and deep Discord community.