Game news Seven years after its release, the Nintendo Switch and its catalog are still as exciting as ever: the Nintendo Direct broke everything! Not bad for a console at the end of its life…
The Nintendo Direct held this week completely won over fans and the latest figures prove it.
A Nintendo Direct that’s a hit
It was a real hit: The last Nintendo Direct, held this week, reached a peak of 2.9 million viewers, making it the second most popular Nintendo event. Information available on the esports charts site which also indicates that the average number of spectators amounts to 2.2 million and that the event has 2 million hours watched, for a 55-minute show. No surprise for fans, who partly share their reactions on Reddit: “They have quenched the thirst of many different fans. I’m not surprised by the numbers“, “I love that Nintendo continues to dominate this generation.”“Honestly, this Direct felt like an E3. It’s a great way to end the Switch hype cycle if this really is its last Direct“, we can read in a myriad of comments which praise this Nintendo Direct, indeed generous in announcements.
Among the images which aroused the most enthusiasm, there were firstly those of Mario and Luigi: The Brotherly Epic, a new RPG where the two brothers will have to join forces, which served as the opening of the ball. There was also a new Mario Party on a huge island with many mini-games, but also the surprise The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, an opus in which Zelda takes up arms to save Link in a unique scenario. And then the show ended with powerful gameplay images from Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, an episode in which Samus Aran is back in a new space exploration FPS. The remake and remaster were also on the program with DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake but also, surprise, & DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake. With them comes Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven.
A powerful console
The success of the console is no longer in doubt. More than 141 million Switches have been sold since 2017, and an additional 13.5 million sales are expected by the end of the console’s life. As for the future, Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, anticipates a more complex and longer development of video games. The objective: “to increase the value of its own licenses in the long term” and “to continue to offer unique entertainment” to players. We also know that the next hybrid machine will be released “during this fiscal year”, i.e. before March 31, 2025.