The life cycle of the Nintendo Switch is rapidly approaching its end – at least everything indicates that. The successful hybrid console has now been around for almost seven years. However, Nintendo is very reluctant to announce new games and rumors about the unveiling of a successor are increasing.
So it's high time to take a look at the upcoming launch titles. There is no official confirmation from Nintendo yet – we hope for a direct direct soon, which will provide more clarity for the rest of the year. Not all of the Japanese manufacturer's major brands are eligible as launch titles, but we can almost be certain that some of them will!
Our Nintendo experts Lukas, Daniel and Annika discuss in the current episode of The Nintendo Podcast also about the topic. If you're interested in what launch titles you're personally expecting, take a listen!
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Mario Kart 9 at number 1
Mario Kart is one of Nintendo's most popular franchises and ranks in the top lists of most successful games on every platform. It's no wonder that the company wants to make as much profit as possible from the individual parts. They managed to do something that we wouldn't have expected when the Switch was launched: there was an entire console generation without a new Mario Kart!
Instead, Nintendo quickly released Mario Kart 8, which was originally released for the Wii U, for the Switch and later added the booster track pass to the game. With success: more units of the deluxe version were sold than any other Switch title. Since there hasn't been a really new Mario Kart for almost ten years, a new part is almost certain.
Source: Nintendo Mario Kart 8 Deluxe That alone is not enough as a selling point for a new console, especially if it actually has backwards compatibility. As a companion to larger single-player games, Mario Kart 9 promises a good start for the successor.
A new 3D adventure for Mario
It's not just the Nintendo Switch (buy now for €329.00) that will soon be celebrating its seventh birthday: Super Mario Odyssey will also reach this milestone this fall. It seems quite possible that a new 3D Mario awaits us for the next platform. There were only four years between the predecessor called Super Mario 3D World and Odyssey, so a successor is already overdue.
Since Nintendo only covered the 2D division last year with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it can be assumed that the developers will initially focus on a new 3D part – especially since they say they don't yet know what it will be like after Wonder should continue in this regard.
Source: Nintendo Super Mario Odyssey If the Switch 2 dares to make the company's typical attempt to introduce a console-specific gimmick, a 3D Mario would be a great way to show it off. So the likelihood is quite high that we will get a new announcement in the coming months.
No Zelda in sight
Completely in contrast to The Legend of Zelda – at least when it comes to a completely new part. Breath of the Wild almost alone managed the launch of the Switch in 2017 and the equally successful successor Tears of the Kingdom was only released in May 2023. Both the time lag and the sales figures suggest that we won't get a successor in the foreseeable future .
However, two other variants would be conceivable, even if not directly at the launch of the new console. On the one hand, there are enough Zelda parts that have not yet received a port for the current console. Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, for example, could be implemented on the Switch 2 without much effort thanks to the Wii U version.