Even though Nintendo recently delayed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2's release into 2023, it still has a very busy 2023 ahead of it, thanks to all the other major games that it's developing and publishing. Mario Strikers: Battle League and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ensure an exciting summer of Nintendo products, while Bayonetta 3 and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet still await release dates in late 2022. Fans likely expect that Nintendo will soon release another Direct that provides new information on some or all of these games. However, a recent pattern may suggest that Nintendo Directs won't be quite so common this year.
April 2022 seemed like a prime time for a Direct, since there haven't been any since February, but so far, there's no sign of a new Nintendo presentation. Nevertheless, Nintendo has released information about important new games like Splatoon 3, even though this information would be great content for a Direct. It's possible that Nintendo plans to release Directs more infrequently in 2022, despite its usual habit of releasing big and small Directs throughout the year. Switch users may find it harder to predict when they'll get news this year, but it's possible that waits for new will be shorter overall.
Nintendo's Pattern of April Announcements
Splatoon 3, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and Nintendo Switch Sports have all received major trailers in the last few weeks, and some of them have revealed key information. Nintendo Switch Sports' gameplay overview trailer offered a good look at the game's online play and character customization, while the latest Splatoon 3 trailer announced a September release date for the game. Recent Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes announcements have spotlighted combat and new story details as well. All of these trailers have been extremely insightful in their own ways, meaning they seem like the kind of blockbuster trailers that belong in a Nintendo Direct.
Historically, Nintendo Directs are a good way of uniting the Nintendo audience and building interconnected hype for the company's games. A fan might watch a Nintendo Direct just for Zelda or Pokemon news, for instance, but in the process, they might get interested enough in something like Splatoon 3 to give it a chance. The overall density of announcements that a Nintendo Direct can include is a great way to cause a huge surge of Nintendo excitement all at once too, rather than launching trailers individually and creating small peaks of hype. All three of these major April trailers could've powered a really strong Direct, but instead, they've been released separately.
How Nintendo Directs Could Change
Nintendo Directs are generally a monthly affair, but after Nintendo released so much critical information separate from Directs this month, it seems like these showcases could be more sparse in 2022. Nintendo might want to produce a smaller number of higher-quality Directs this year in order to use its resources more efficiently. Fans might benefit from Directs being less common as well. It may mean that Nintendo game information becomes more unpredictable, but it also means Nintendo is more likely to simply release trailers and announcements whenever they're ready, instead of saving valuable information for a Direct. Getting game updates faster certainly wouldn't be a bad thing.
For the moment, fans will just have to wait and see if Nintendo really does have less Directs planned for this year. It's possible that Nintendo's early 2022 advertising plans are simply changing now that E3 has been canceled, forcing it to strategize differently. By late 2022, fans may find themselves enjoying the normal number of Directs. Still, it's strange to see so many big games simply get standalone trailers right now, rather than all of these trailers getting released together in a Nintendo Directs. Nintendo's showcases are a well-loved part of its brand, so hopefully they're not gone for good.
