Nintendo fans looking for a strong second half of 2023 might find disappointment. Following the much-anticipated release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in May, it appears that the company is planning on a relatively quiet end to the year. After the news that Nintendo would be joining PlayStation and Xbox in skipping E3 this year, reports have been coming out that the reasoning behind this is the company apparently doesn’t have enough coming out in the second half of the year to justify taking up event space. Given that Metroid Prime 4 is likely to be a big focus whenever it’s ready to show, that may hint to the game still coming further down the line.
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Nintendo saying that it is expecting a light second half to 2023 doesn’t mean it won’t have any releases planned; it probably points more to there not being any big hitters. Zelda releases in May, while Pokémon just had two games come out in 2022, and there is no sign of Mario’s next big adventure yet. Even Kirby and Fire Emblem have had big recent releases.
As of what we know from the most recent Nintendo Direct, Pikmin 4 is still expected to come out this year and might be their big holiday title, but that series has never been a sales juggernaut for the company, so it may not want to put in the resources for a whole event dedicated to it. We likely will still see it shown off in a summertime Direct.
As for what else we may see from Nintendo this year, there will likely be more DLC announcements and smaller titles. Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp could potentially come out this year joined by a new Mario sports game, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet could see some expansions. While the new Metroid Prime game isn’t likely to come out soon, we could potentially see a remaster of the first title in the series that has been rumored for so long.
