Everything to expect from Nintendo in 2023

More than any other major brand, Nintendo likes to keep its secrets up its sleeve without revealing the veil of secrecy. It's impossible to predict for sure what a publisher might have in a few months' time.

Nintendo's plans for 2023 are no different. While a few relative certainties are already on the schedule - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fire Emblem: Engage, and Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe - there are many more giant question marks filling their schedule. When will we get Metroid Prime 4? Is Pikmin 4 Really — is this a 2023 game? Will there be a Switch Pro? What is the big holiday game? Have Advance Wars been cancelled?

As silly as it is to guess at Nintendo's next move, with a bit of data and smart guesswork, we can guess the company's plans for the year ahead. Here's what we know and expect and hope for from Nintendo in 2023.

Nintendo in 2023: news, announcements, releases

We actually know quite a few things that we will see in 2023. So let's start with a rundown of everything Nintendo has officially revealed for 2023.

Probably the most definite thing on this list is the release Fire Emblem: Engage due to its release date: January 20 2023 years. It is unlikely that this new part of Fire Emblem will be delayed at this stage. People who loved Three Houses gameplay but are equally hyped for the return of franchise mascots like March should be ready to kick off the year on a strong footing by now.

Right after Fire Emblem: Engage we have Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe - a four-player remake of the Wii platformer of the same name - next month on February 24th. And then we have a few blank months before the titan shows up: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will be released on May 12, 2023.

While it seems unlikely that either Fire Emblem or Kirby would be affected by the delay, Tears of the Kingdom has already been pushed back several times. The May release date seems pretty solid, but there's always a chance we'll have to wait longer than we think to finally play the long-awaited 2017 sequel to Breath of the Wild. I hope these are just disturbing thoughts.

Other than those three titles, Nintendo looks pretty quiet in 2023, but there are two other games that are likely to show up somewhere in its lineup. First - Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp, which was previously scheduled for release in April 2022, but was postponed due to the situation in the world. Back in September, Nintendo assured fans that this still just a delay, not cancel, and we actually know that the game is already over: one fan accidentally got hold of it digitally right after the delayand everything seemed to be in order. Thus, Reboot Camp Seems like an easy release to release sometime next year when Nintendo needs to get something new to fill the release gap.

Finally, there is actually another game on the Nintendo board for 2023: Pikmin 4. After ten years of speculation and interim announcements Nintendo has officially announcedthat Pikmin 4 was on the way earlier this year. We didn't see any of his gameplay or story, only the logo. But Nintendo has promised a 2023 release window. While delays can always happen, there are rumors that Pikmin 4 is nearly complete, so hopefully that means we're on the cusp of getting our hands on these cute little plant guys very soon.

Nobody's 1-2 Switch

Remember 1-2-Switch? That weird launch game from a Switch release that was fun for 45 minutes and really should have been a packaged tech demo and not a full game? Well, earlier this year fanbyte report suggested that Nintendo, for inexplicable reasons, was almost done with the sequel. The tentative title of Everybody's 1-2-Switch claims that this weird sequel will include wonders like a game show theme, games big enough to hold 100 players via online, smartphone-based lobbies, more motion-based games , such as musical chairs, and a very odd mascot known only as "The Horse".

No wonder that Everybody's 1-2-Switchapparently didn't do well with playtesters. As of June's report, while the game itself was largely complete, Nintendo could not decide whether to release it as a full game or a Nintendo Switch Online level release.

While it's unclear what may have happened to this strange successor since then, I find it unlikely that Nintendo would simply toss the actual finished product in the trash. I think it's likely we'll see the strange beast it became sometime in 2023 - hopefully as a humorous Nintendo Switch Online bonus and not a doomed $60 retail flop.

It's Mario time!

It really is! We need to get a new Mario guys! Looking back at the timeline of Mario games, there are basically two main "schools" of Mario, if you will. There are traditional 2D Mario games that have transitioned to 3D, such as Super Mario 3D World, but still follow the traditional level-based, linear platform format - and there are open source Mario games in the 3D tradition, such as Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey. And I think we're almost ready for the next iteration of the latter.

While we recently got Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury right at the end of 2021, the last major 3D Mario game was Super Mario Odyssey in 2017. It's been five years since then, which is the right amount of time to start hearing about a different Mario - especially since the last few Mario releases of any kind have been some sort of remake/remaster variety.

Even if it's not Mario in the tradition of Mario 64, I don't think we'll be able to survive 2023 literally without games featuring our red-suited plumber friend. Eventually, a Mario movie comes out and Super Nintendo World also opens its own Mario-centric theme park. What better way to celebrate and promote both than an anchor game?

Sports equipment Camelot

While they rarely make it into our most stellar speculations, Camelot Software Planning actually makes predicting Nintendo games quite easy by virtue of being extremely consistent. About once every 2-3 years they release another Mario sports game. It's been that way since 1999 when they stopped making Shining Force and took their Everybody's Golf chops from the PlayStation to start working on Mario Golf games. They have since also taken on Mario Tennis and briefly showcased their RPG chops again with the Golden Sun Trilogy for the GBA and Nintendo DS.

But in recent years it has all been a sport and Camelot has a pretty consistent cycle between tennis and golf, tennis and golf. His latest game, Mario Golf: Super Rush, came out in June 2021, which means 2023 is a good time for the studio to resurface with another sports gambit. That said, I don't think Nintendo is likely to drop two entire Mario tennis games on the Switch. Chances are Camelot has something in the works more like Mario Sports Superstars, his last 3DS entry back in 2017. Heck, I wouldn't be shocked if we got something efficient like a direct port.

Some more snack

Another solid bet for Nintendo next year is that we'll see not one, but two major pieces of paid DLC content, at least announced throughout the year and likely released too: one for Pokemon Scarlet and Violetand the other is for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Pokemon DLC in the tradition of Sword and Shield feels inevitable. Given the extremely rocky release of Scarlet and Violet, and how well Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor have been received, I expect we'll see a big DLC ​​drop instead of a full Pokemon release next year. Let's hope that by then Nintendo has got the games half way through so we don't tear our hair out trying to make limited-time Tera raids a year after launch.

It's also a pretty safe swing to look forward to as DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, again following in the footsteps of its predecessor: Breath of the Wild. While I'm less certain we'll see significant content additions towards the end of the year, as we did with Breath of the Wild's Champion's Ballad, I think at the very least Nintendo will announce an expansion for Tears of the Kingdom ahead of the game's launch in May. And it's likely that even if the big story update doesn't come out by December 2023, we'll at least see some minor DLC ala Master Trials sometime this year.

Nintendo's Big Holiday Release

Every year, Nintendo podcasts, fans and analysts reflect on Nintendo's biggest question of all: what's the big holiday Nintendo game going to be this time around?

Look, it's fortunetelling time, which is why I'm dreaming that it's finally Metroid Prime 4. We waited so long. Title has been announced even in 2017 year, and in January 2019 we learned that the game was completely restartedbut in the hands of original developer Metroid Prime Retro Studios. It's been four years now, and while games can certainly take a lot longer than this, the time and work that's been put into Metroid Prime 4 so far seems like enough for us to get our powered suits ready to make it happen. was a big holiday release by Nintendo.

Of course, this begs the question - if we get Metroid Prime 4, does that mean we'll also get the definitive Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch to go with her? I cannot say this. Whispers about this mysterious port/HD remake/whatever have been circulating for years and it's hard to tell if there really is fire behind all the smoke or if it was just a lot of people screwing themselves over nothing.

Nintendo all year round

Besides heavyweights like Mario, Pokémon and Metroid, Nintendo has plenty of other mascots that get games every few years or more to fill the calendar. For example, Kirby seems to have at least a release a year, even if some are smaller, such as 2022's Dream Buffet (along with the much larger Forgotten Land), Kirby Fighters 2, or Kirby Battle Royale. However, Yoshi and Donkey Kong were not around. Yoshi's last release was Good-Feel's Yoshi's Crafted World in 2019. Meanwhile, Retro Studios has been so busy on Metroid that I didn't expect them to continue the excellent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze with another DK game anytime soon - but that doesn't stop other studios from taking up the mantle.

All of this to say that we can definitely expect next year's Nintendo calendar to fill in the gaps between big releases with a little bit of fluff. Do I think we'll get a Kirby game, a DK game, and a Yoshi game in a year? Me not. But I'd be surprised if we didn't even see a minor spin-off or port (Woolly World, anyone?) from one of those three characters.

And that's not to mention that Nintendo will also fill the calendar with some sporadic classic Nintendo Switch Online releases. While their frequency has slowed down a bit lately, we'll see Donkey Kong 64 finally land on the service, and Super Mario RPG is still noticeably absent. It would be easy to win to throw some of them away in 2023; though I'm holding my hopes up for something like a move to release Game Boy, GBA or GameCube games on the service.

Super Nintendo Switch?

Will they or not? It's been a question since In 2019, for the first time, there were reports of that Nintendo is working on an updated Nintendo Switch console. The upgraded version will supposedly (depending on which of the many rumors you've been honing over the years) will be more expensive, have 4K support or just generally better resolution, still be portable and have a better screen, be a home console only , not a pocket computer, or will have more power, more memory, most of all.

We've since gotten a Switch OLED model that at least brought an improved screen, a LAN port, more storage space, and other small improvements. But the Switch Pro isn't, and rumors continued to circulate that Nintendo was preparing something more. Personally, I believe the very reports that Nintendo is working on updated models are correct, I'm not for sale, which means the Super Nintendo Switch is inevitable given how well the Switch itself continues to sell.

Nintendo Switch (OLED model)

But this is an area where speculation has gotten so wild that I decided to ask a few expert analysts for their thoughts. First, I asked NPD Group analyst Matt Piscatella if he thought there would be a new Switch model in 2023. Piscatella responded that while he thought such a release would end up being good for Nintendo, he had "no idea" if the company would actually make it.

"If the last 15 or so years in gaming have taught me anything, it's that the road to insanity is paved with bricks of Nintendo's bad predictions," Piscatella said. “I have a forecast with new Nintendo hardware in 2023 and another with new hardware in 2024. Other analysts have been there for years with this and the new generation Switch Pro which... and it didn't work out too well for them.

“We are definitely seeing a post-peak Switch. It still has quite a lot of runway left as it was a hugely successful device, but Switch sales will be on the decline in the coming days. It's just the cyclical nature of the console business."

I also asked the same question to Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games, to which he cheekily remarked that he was "almost notorious on the internet" with his 2020 prediction of the imminent Switch Pro (in his defense, he correctly called the Switch Lite a year earlier!). But even though he's willing to eat crow about it, Toto dives back into the pool of Switch predictions for next year.

“On paper, a new Switch model will make a lot of sense in 2023,” he told me. “Switch is entering its sixth year, hardware sales are declining, many new games don’t work well on the system, etc. If this happens next year, I believe Nintendo will sell it along with Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, also how they launched the original model and Lite with the Zelda game.

"But then again, this is Nintendo: they don't necessarily care if something makes sense or not."

At least in this final word, Toto is certainly right. Switch Pro or not, Nintendo is bound to do things in 2023 that don't always seem logical. Which brings me to my final prediction...

A bit of Nintendo magic

Look, we overdue something really, especially nintendo weird is not it? Something from the left field, strange, but potentially very cool. I'm talking about things like the 2018 cardboard Nintendo Labo or the 2019 Ring Fit Adventure (or the Wii Sports games that came before it). Something in the Virtual Boy Advance camp, or the popular NES Classic and SNES Classic microconsole. Things in the tradition of the Wii Motes or even the Switch itself (although this is not another console prediction).

What I'm trying to say is that it's been a few years since Nintendo announced something completely weird but filled with playful Nintendo magic. Maybe it's just wishful thinking to imagine we might get something along those lines in 2023, and that particular Nintendo release brand is always impossible to predict in any particular way. But with Nintendo, you can always be sure there are cool toy experiments going on behind the scenes. Perhaps next year there will be another pleasant surprise.

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