Beyond that, Nintendo is playing its 2023 release schedule cards close to its chest, as usual. Rumours of new hardware are coming thick and fast, as is traditional whenever we cross over into a new year. Personally, we imagine that Nintendo will ride Zelda for all it’s worth this year, eking out every last drop of juice from Switch before revealing Switch’s true successor to launch in 2024 with a flagship Mario title. The company will be looking to emulate the success of Switch’s first year — with a rock-solid schedule of monthly releases lined up for its next console, whatever form that takes — and we wouldn’t be surprised if it follows the Switch’s template as close as possible in terms of announcement timings and release schedules.
Obviously, if there’s any validity to our rampant-but-reasonable speculation, that would mean diverting resources and games away from Switch, putting extra pressure on Tears of the Kingdom to live up to expectations. Is that even possible? Well, Nintendo has gone above and beyond our wildest expectations in the past, multiple times, so it’s certainly possible. Assuming TOTK does its job and props up Switch’s 2023, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the last couple of Wii U ports pop up in the latter half of the year to flesh out the release calendar. Nintendo’s been sitting on ‘Wind Waker HD Deluxe’ and ‘Twilight Princess HD Deluxe’ for years now, right?
But who can say? If there’s any company willing to tear up the playbook, it’s Nintendo. Whatever the future holds, we’re overjoyed to have you aboard the good ship USS Nintendo Life as we voyage into the uncharted waters of 2023. From all NL staff, management, and contributors, Happy New Year to you all. It’s gonna be a good ‘un.
