A softer Nintendo Direct may signal an imminent Switch successor

gamedeveloper.com:

Today was Nintendo's turn to participate in summer game announcement season with its seasonal Nintendo Direct—and instead of throwing a high-speed fastball, it opted for a soft underhand toss, with more promotions of re-releases, remasters, and only two first-party titles targeted at the company's core family audience: Pikmin 4 and Super Mario Wonder.

But despite the lighter touch on marketing, Nintendo's smaller showcase doesn't feel as surprising as say, the relatively light Summer Game Fest. Why? Well you can either look to the company's recent past—or its imminent future.

In case you'd somehow forgotten, Nintendo just released its biggest first-party title since the Nintendo Switch first launched in 2017: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The company spent the first half of the year building suspense of the Zelda sequel, only revealing the game's innovative new mechanics a month before launch.

Choosing not to show off Metroid Prime 4 or a new 3D Super Mario game lets that game still stay at the center of the company's 2023 marketing—and make no mistake, Tears of the Kingdom will continue to be a blockbuster seller through the end of the year.

Let's turn then toward the future. Rumblings about a successor to the Nintendo Switch have circulated for several years now, and six years after the console debuted, said successor may finally be around the corner. Recent comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot about the success of Mario + Rabbids strongly indicated that Nintendo is preparing games for the next console. Guillemot himself expressed regret that the publisher hadn't waited a bit longer to launch the Mario + Rabbids sequel.

Even if seemed like Nintendo was holding back its juiciest titles for an imminent Switch