What is going on with Nintendo’s Switch release schedule!?
The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild delayed. Splatoon 3 pushed to late summer. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pushed up to July?
What the hell is going on with Nintendo’s release schedule?
I’m not actually complaining at all. As this seems to be a great “problem” to have for Nintendo - there seem to be more games available than sensible slots to release them in 2022.
Here are notable releases from Nintendo’s so far this year:
Pokémon Legends: Arceus - January 28
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - March 25
Nintendo Switch Sports - April 29
Mario Strikers: Battle League - June 10
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - June 24'
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - July 29
Splatoon 3 - September 9
Due in 2022 but no set date:
Bayonetta 3 - TBA
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - TBA
Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp - TBA
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet - Late 2022
I most certainly expect Pokemon will be released November 11th or 18th of this year. Pokemon fans are eating right now and I’m happy for them!
Bayonetta makes the most sense for October, perhaps sometime around Halloween. Advance Wars is finished and can be dropped anytime. Nintendo will use it to plug any holes later in the year (I think early December would be a nice date - it could serve as a nice solid first party follow up to the big Xmas release title - just like how Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was for Super Mario Odyssey back in 2017.
But 2022 gives me 2017 vibes. Nintendo has lined up banger after banger for this year.
Once next-gen Pokemon was announced for this year, I knew the sequel for Breath of the Wild would be delayed. Forum dwellers were in deep denial about it but there was no way… absolutely NO WAY… Nintendo was releasing a main line Pokemon installment and mainline Zelda installment in the same quarter on the Switch. It was not happening. I think Spring 2023 or Holiday 2023 will be fine for the game and it is my most anticipated Swtich game.
A new Mario Strikers installment coming out summer is pretty huge. Don’t sleep, Strikers is very popular amongst its fans. I expect Switch Sports to be the evergreen supported by Strikers, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Houses, and Xenoblade 3 (my most anticipated game of the year along with Mario + Rabbids) will do well over the summer.
Splatoon being pushed back to August was a bit of a surprise really. Presumably, the game needed a bit more time. We are used to Splatoon being the summer game, but no matter. I think it deseres to be positioned as a later summer/early Fall release. I have no idea where Mario + Rabbids will fall but it is Day 1 as far as I’m concerned.
So with Nintendo’s financial reports due in the coming days, word is they expect 20 million for this current fiscal year. With this line up, they should easily beat that. But it could just as easily miss with this chip shortage. But Nintendo’s been conservative lately, so I’ll go a little more bullish and say they’ll beat that by a decent clip despite the chip shortage x-factor.
Let’s see what happens!
