The line between a bad video game showcase and a great one can be exceedingly slim. Often it only takes one or two surprise reveals targeting the right genres and nostalgia centers for most players to come away with generally positive vibes. The July Nintendo Direct failed on that count. It didn’t help that a fresh flood of Switch 2 game key cards is sapping even some of the most diehard fans of any surplus enthusiasm.
The Mario maker’s revelation that Thursday’s presentation would be a “Partner Showcase” instead of an all-out Nintendo Direct was the first blow to ambient online hype levels. Okay, no new 3D Mario announcements or Metroid Prime 4 release date. But hey, at least fans could count on some major third-party reveals, including another raft of big ports. Surely Microsoft, rumored to be bringing the big guns to Switch 2 any day now, would show up.
Alas, no. Instead, the July Direct offered only a few smaller new game announcements—Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Octopath Traveler 0, and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales—and mostly spent its time rehashing stuff we already knew about like Star Wars Outlaws, Borderlands 4, Madden 26, and FC Sports 26. Even a quick look at the next Hyrule Warriors felt thrown together and supremely underwhelming. And there was no big “oh shit!” moment like, say, Gears of War: Reloaded also coming to Switch 2.
The litany of Switch 2 fan wish-casting prior to the showcase had gotten out of control, but not even one of the numerous highly anticipated third-party updates made it into the showcase. No more footage of Hollow Knight: Silksong, no release date for Hades 2, and no mention of the rumored Red Dead Redemption 2 port. Switch 2 versions of other recent blockbusters were also MIA. No surprise port of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Lies of P. There weren’t even updates on when players will be able to get their hands on the Switch 2 versions of Final Fantasy VII Remake or Elden Ring.
Chillin’ by the Fire, one of the more unusual games announced during the Direct, now serves as the unlikely encapsulation of this disappointment. It’s a multiplayer game where you sit around a campfire with friends. “Your goal: Campfire Level 10,” reads the description. “The sense of accomplishment you feel when the firebed turns into bright red embers and the pillars of flame illuminate the night sky is more powerful than any scoreboard.” The gimmick is that it works with webcams to put players’ faces around the campfire. Fans were not impressed.
A Switch 2 port of last year’s Persona 3: Reloaded, one of the better pieces of news from the event, highlights the other prong of player disappointment. Diehard Nintendo fans like their physical games, RPG players more than most, but the physical version of Persona 3 is the latest to rely on a game key card instead of an actual cartridge with the game on it. It was far from the only game key card game announced during the Direct.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is key card only too, as well as Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac. Octopath Traveler 0 is a game key card on Switch 2, but fortunately it’s also coming to the original Switch where it will have a standard cartridge. Unfortunately, that version of the game will not have an upgrade path to the Switch 2 version, so anyone who opts for the only physical version of the game on a Nintendo platform won’t be able to take advantage of any upgraded performance from the Switch 2 version.
There are still notable exceptions when it comes to the third-party publishers opting to cut corners with game key cards. At launch, the big one was Cyberpunk 2077, which fit the entire base game and its massive expansion on a 64GB card. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is another, as is Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion which arrives in September. It can be done, and it’s unfortunate to see many of the publishers of games whose audiences care the most about that sort of the thing being precisely the ones to opt out. No one cares if Madden 26 comes on the cartridge, but why is Final Fantasy Tactics on Switch 2 just a download code in a box?
Does any of this matter to the average Switch 2 owner? Probably not. The console is good and there will be no shortage of games to play this fall. Nintendo’s slow-drip strategy is, all things considered, probably the smart thing to do. God knows there are more than enough games to keep everyone busy until long after they become worm food. But the last few years of the Switch 1 weren’t exactly blowing fans’ lids off, and the Switch 2’s first summer, with the notable exception of Donkey Kong Bananza, has been a bit of a snoozefest. The first Nintendo Direct since the Switch 2 launched could have jolted fans back awake. Instead, the post-launch lull continues.
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