Over the past few months, it’s widely been rumoured that aNintendo Directis coming after the release ofDonkey Kong Bananza, something that former marketing lead Kit Ellis has now commented on.
As ifNintendohasn’t had a busy enough year with the launch of the long-awaitedNintendo Switch 2 and our first new Mario Kart game in more than a decade, things aren’t slowing down any time soon. Not only do we have the upcoming release of Donkey Kong Bananza (which is reviewing very well), but we also know about a few other games on Nintendo’s docket.
Alongside Kirby Air Riders, the biggest first-party game that Nintendo has confirmed for 2025so far is the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Strangely, despite being playable and shown off many times, we still don’t have a release date for Prime 4, which a Nintendo marketing lead thinks could be changed in the very near future.
Metroid Prime 4 could be the most solid piece of evidence for a Nintendo Direct this month
The long wait for a release date might be over soon
No matter when in the year we are, there are always rumours of an upcoming Nintendo Direct.Those endless whispers were given some credit recently when reliable leaker NateTheHate claimedthat Nintendo was planning on a Direct following the release of Donkey Kong Bananza.
As reported by GamesRadar+, those rumours have just got even more believable, asformer Nintendo marketing lead Kit Ellis has commented on them in a recent video. Ellis, who is no stranger to how Nintendo works and approaches things, noted that NateTheHate’s claim “does make a lot of sense for Nintendo”.
The main thing that Ellis says is evidence for a Direct happening this month is the lack of release dates for some of Nintendo’s big games coming later this year. Chief among them is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which Ellis points out is one of the biggest games coming to Switch 2 this year, and that it’s a little strange it doesn’t have a release date yet.
I generally agree with his points. Yeah, I do think that a Nintendo Direct in late July does make a lot of sense for Nintendo. They still have a lot of games for this year that don’t have actual release dates, like Metroid Prime 4, which is probably going to be one of their bigger games of the year. - Kit Ellis
Ellis notes that there are still a lot of Nintendo Switch 2 games that we have no idea about yet, which makes an appearance at an upcoming Nintendo Direct make a lot of sense. It sounds like, unless Nintendo changes its mind, that a Direct is indeed very likely to happen at some point this month.
