2025 finally saw the long-awaited arrival of Nintendo’s next console: the Switch 2. But now, it’s time to turn the page to 2026 and talk about what’s in store for Switch 2’s sophomore year. Nintendo already has a pretty fleshed out release calendar for both Switches, a blockbuster movie set to hit theaters, with plenty of surprises surely in store as well. Here’s what to expect from Nintendo in 2026.

Before we get into wild speculation, here’s a recap of what we already know is coming to Switch and Switch 2 in 2026. There’s already a lot to look forward to, as Nintendo remains very consistent in pushing something out pretty much every single month.

That pattern begins this month, as we’ll all return to our weed-infested islands and face the wrath of our neglected villagers when Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a free update on the original Switch and a Nintendo Switch 2 edition on January 15. New Horizons 3.0 is available to players on both Switches, and it comes with a new hotel to customize, a bunch of Nintendo items, and tons of little quality of life updates like upgraded item storage. Meanwhile, if you buy the Switch 2 Edition or the $5 upgrade pack, you can access improved resolution, mouse controls, 12-player multiplayer, and more.

Just a few weeks later we’ll see the first brand new Switch 2 exclusive of the year with Mario Tennis Fever’s launch on February 12. The big hook this time is the Fever Rackets that grant special abilities like freezing the court or duplicating yourself. Fever will also feature 38 playable characters, including Donkey Kong’s refreshed design and – for the first time ever – Baby Waluigi.

If you love collecting ridiculous Nintendo products like I do, you might be looking forward to Virtual Boy joining the Nintendo Switch Online library on February 17. You need one of two headsets to access this forgotten library from Nintendo’s biggest failure – either a plastic replica or a cheaper cardboard option. That’ll be available on both Switches.

Pokémon meets Minecraft (or more accurately, Dragon Quest Builders, but that’s not as catchy) in Pokémon Pokopia on March 5. This Switch 2 exclusive will task you with using Pokémon moves and materials to design your very own town. I expect Pokopia to be an enormous hit this year: Pokémon and Minecraft are two of the biggest things on the planet, and after everyone’s done poking around the new Animal Crossing update, this looks like the perfect game for that audience to shift to next. Amiibo are trudging on in 2026 as well, and March 5 will also see the launch of the Meta Knight and Shadow Star figure from Kirby Air Riders.

Pokopia is the last firm release date we have, but Nintendo has a few games slated for Spring. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park is an enhanced port of the 2023 platformer, and one part of Nintendo’s ongoing celebration of Super Mario’s 40th anniversary. It adds cooperative and competitive multiplayer minigames, and we’ve seen a small glimpse of what appears to be a new side story in more traditional levels. I predict this will arrive on April 2, the same day as the new pair of Super Mario Galaxy amiibo and just a day before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theaters, putting a new Mario game on store shelves at the exact moment Mario Mania kicks in.

The other pair of Spring releases is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book on Switch 2 and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on Switch 1. Yoshi’s illustrated art style looks really nice, and Tomodachi Life is an exciting return for a 3DS cult classic with a hilarious out-of-left-field personality that you really have to see for yourself.

There’s even more coming later in 2026: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave will mark the strategy RPG’s first outing on Switch 2, Nintendo and FromSoftware are teaming up for The Duskbloods as a Switch 2 action-RPG exclusive, while Switch 1 players can look forward to Rhythm Heaven: Groove, the return of Nintendo’s quirky rhythm minigame series for the first time in a decade. Finally, Pokémon Champions is a competitive battle-focused game coming to Switch and Mobile this year. We know it will be used at the Pokémon World Championships in 2026, meaning it should be out before that event kicks off in late August.

On the third-party front, Switch 2 is getting a lot of major games on day one, including huge support from Capcom with Resident Evil Requiem on February 27 (along with Resident Evil 7 and 8 on the same day), Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on March 13, and Pragmata on April 24. Plus, all three of those games are getting their own amiibo figures. There’s a lot beyond Capcom, too, like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, 007 First Light, and more. Hopefully we’ll see cleaned up versions of games delayed out of 2025 as well, like Elden Ring Tarnished Edition and Borderlands 4.

Pokémon’s 30th Birthday Bash

A huge element of Nintendo’s 2026 will no doubt be Pokémon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. You can safely expect a Pokémon Presents around February 27, and – as we move firmly into the speculation part of this yearly preview – I think it’s going to be a big one. I predict Pokémon’s 10th Generation will be 2026’s November release for Switch 2, and that we’ll get our first look at them here. I don’t think there’s any chance Pokémon misses out on its 30th anniversary without a new pair of mainline games.

But that’s not all: I think 2026 is finally the year that Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow come to Switch. I don’t think they’ll join the Nintendo Switch Online subscription library – it’ll make you buy them separately – but similar to how the Gen One games were dropped on 3DS to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary in 2016, I think Nintendo will run the same play here and shadowdrop them the day of the presentation. The Pokémon Company is also planning to open PokéPark Kanto in Tokyo, Japan, on February 5, the first-ever Pokémon theme park.

What Else Could Nintendo Have In Store?

We’re in an interesting spot where Nintendo has already shown a lot of its cards for 2026, but I still think there are a few things we don’t know about. There is Splatoon Raiders, the single-player Switch 2 spinoff announced last year, but Nintendo hasn’t committed to that launching in 2026 at all, and it feels more fitting as an early 2027 release to me at this point.

With November likely taken up by Pokémon, that leaves October open for a Nintendo franchise fitting for spooky season: Luigi’s Mansion. Next Level Games has been quiet since 2022’s Mario Strikers: Battle League (except for a small assisting role on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond), and given its usual three-year turnaround time on Nintendo games, I think it’s time for Luigi’s Mansion 4. The last in the series was a huge sales success, so a sequel is a no-brainer. Just for fun, I’ll guess that the setting will be a haunted cruise ship Luigi has inherited for some strange reason.

2026 also marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. With a movie on the way in 2027, and Nintendo’s general pattern of launching at least one Zelda game every year, it’s a safe bet to say something Zelda-related will come out this year. I don’t think a new 2D or 3D Zelda game is close to being ready, so it’s probably time for another remake or remaster. I’ll guess fans will finally get the Ocarina of Time HD remake they want, but it won’t be perfect: it’ll be a touched up HD remaster of the 3DS remake that comes to both the original Switch and Switch 2, rather than the gorgeous 4K reimagining we all dream about.

On the smaller side, I have to imagine Nintendo is prepping DLC for Mario Kart World, and all signs point to it centering around Donkey Kong. DK and Pauline strangely only have one costume apiece in World, there are no Jungle-themed DK tracks, and Nintendo’s wider push for DK would lend itself to a DLC pack themed around him. And, I’d like 2026 to be the year we finally get answers surrounding Nintendo’s mysterious Switch Online Playtest program that’s been running since 2024.

I think that’s about all the room we have for 2026’s calendar, but Nintendo will announce a few games this year we won’t see until 2027. Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft hasn’t released a brand new game since 2022, and I have a feeling we might get a quick tease at what they’re working on in the September Nintendo Direct.

And, my boldest call of them all is that we’ll get a tease this year for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition to launch sometime in 2027. I believe Ultimate could get the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe treatment this generation, with an enhanced port that carries us through the next several years rather than an entirely new entry. Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai wrapped up Kirby Air Riders a few months ago, and it’s entirely possible he’s already hard at work bringing Ultimate over to Switch 2 with a few new characters. Ultimate noticeably hasn’t received a Switch 2 performance patch like Super Mario Odyssey, the open-world Zeldas, and plenty of other best-selling Switch 1 games, and combined with the fact that a new Smash game almost always hits within the first two years of a new Nintendo console, it feels like a prime candidate for a Switch 2 Edition.

Nintendo Will Continue Expanding Beyond Games

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will hit theaters on April 3, three years after the original made over a billion dollars at the global box office. I think Nintendo will waste no time in announcing its next animated partnership with Illumination, given they’re likely very confident this movie will perform extremely well like the first one did. I’m expecting a formal announcement of an animated Donkey Kong movie sometime before the end of 2026. You should also expect to see the first trailer for The Legend of Zelda movie before the year is over.

Finally, in a bit of a bummer prediction to end on, I’m expecting a Switch 2 price increase sometime after March. Nintendo has essentially committed to keeping the price where it is through the end of its fiscal year – which concludes March 31 – but there are no guarantees after that. We’ve already seen increases on the original Switch, as well as Switch 2 accessories, so it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Switch 2 follows suit.

And that’s everything we expect from Nintendo in 2026. What game are you most excited for? Have you picked up a Switch 2, or are you still happy with the original? Let us know in the comments.

〈What To Expect From Nintendo in 2026〉這篇文章最早發佈於《NextGen PS5》。

At The Game Awards, the game’s first villain–the pirate king Bawma–was revealed, along with confirmation that actor and musician Lenny Kravitz will assume the role. Earlier in the year, IO confirmed that one of Bond’s trusted associates, Dr. Selina Tan, will be portrayed by English actress Gemma Chan.

GameSpot sat down with 007: First Light narrative director Martin Emborg to talk about the star power fueling his game, the potential pitfalls of revealing too much info too soon, and a little bit more about where Bond will run into Bawma during this adventure.

Becoming Bawma

While the character of Bawma was being worked on before Lenny Kravitz officially signed on to the project, Emborg tells us that the star was a big part of creating the character who appears in the trailer shown during The Game Awards.

“We knew the character of Bawma was a larger-than-life, colorful character,” Emborg said, “So, when Lenny came on board, he helped shape the character in a big way. He’s had a major impact on Bawma; The cool outfit, the character traits, the backstory, all of these things we went back and forth and crafted this character together. We designed the character in cooperation with him.”

So who is Bawma, and what do we know about Aleph in Mauritania, the place where Bond will encounter him? Emborg says that Aleph is a perilous place for a young secret agent to try to infiltrate, and Bawma oversees it with an iron fist.

“It is a kingdom, and Bawma is its pirate king,” Emborg says. “Aleph is one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Somewhere where, if you don’t keep your wits about you, you probably won’t make it out. When you first see it, you think it’s going to be a high adventure, but the closer you get, you realize how dodgy it actually is. Then, once you enter it, you think, ‘I should probably not be here.’ It’s really one of my favorite locations in the game.”

When we asked him what will bring Bond to Aleph in the first place, Emborg didn’t want to give too much away. “I think we have an amazing story lined up, and in my dream world, everyone would see the teaser trailer, immediately buy the game, and go in cold,” he said. “I love teasing things, but I think the more context we provide in trailers, the less ‘cold’ players will be going in, so I prefer to keep things fresh.”

He did, however, confirm one key thing: Bawma is a villain within 007: First Light, not the villain. There are still more bad guys to come.

Cards close to the chest

While that “dream world” of players going in cold sounds nice, Emborg is well aware that his team needs to get the word out about its game and the cool things within. Still, while he understands that hype is important, he is also very mindful not to give too much away.”I’m fully aware that when doing big entertainment like this, you need to show people what you’ve got and what they’re in for,” Emborg said. “I think this trailer is a great way to show something like Lenny off, but how deep do we go?”

“I’ve absolutely come to terms with the fact that you need to show some of these great things off,” he continued. “In an ideal world, people would go in cold and have an amazing experience. People will still have an amazing experience with Bond either way, but I don’t want to supply you with too much context.”

That being said, the team’s excitement as time marches closer to launch is palpable, and Emborg is especially eager for players to play through the story he and his team have created. “Having worked on something for this long, it’s exciting to finally get here, and I’m really just looking forward to getting this in people’s hands,” Emborg said. “We’re teasing little elements of the story, we’re showing some of the places you’re going and the people you’re meeting, but the whole game is a great adventure.”

In Emborg’s mind, there’s one piece of the puzzle that stands above the rest in terms of importance: the characters. “I think when you get the full picture, you go on a thrill ride that is, importantly, character driven,” he says. “When you’re making something that is Bond, the character is essential. Sure, you’ll have the usual village of supporters and the globe-trotting adventure, but I’m really looking forward to people getting time with our version of James Bond, because he is a lot of fun.”

The doctor is in

Among the key characters who drive a Bond adventure are his supporting team like Q and M, who give him not only his missions, but also his equipment for the job. Earlier this year, IO revealed one of those supporters in Dr. Selina Tan, played by Gemma Chan, who Emborg says made the character her own right from the start.

“We’d been talking to Gemma, and I had a character bio and an idea in my head of how I wanted Dr. Tan to be,” Emborg said. “She came in and had a take where, afterward, I threw everything I’d prepared out, because she just nailed the character in a way I hadn’t even thought of. She gave Selina Tan a kind of charm and quirkiness I hadn’t anticipated, which was a joy.”

For Emborg, Chan’s unique approach, and the way it changed the character completely, is the mark of an actor at the top of their game. “That’s what having great actors is like,” Emborg said. “They do their homework and find an angle on the character that, in the best cases, you don’t expect. The actor does a take and you think, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.'”

Character-changing moments like Gemma Chan’s take, according to Emborg, are a highlight of the entire narrative experience. “I love [moments like that],” Emborg said. “One of my favorite parts of working with actors is when you’ve prepared all this material, you’ve lived with these characters for a long time, and then the actor arrives in the booth and you have that ‘eureka’ moment; it doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it makes you realize why that actor is such a heavy hitter.”

007: First Light is set to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on March 27, 2026.

〈007: First Light Knows The Key Ingredient To A Great James Bond Adventure〉這篇文章最早發佈於《NextGen PS5》。