The latest Nintendo Direct that went down earlier this month has proven once again that Nintendo's third party relations are arguably stronger than they've ever been, with the only eras that can really compare being the NES and SNES days, when Nintendo was top dog and got pretty much every big game coming out.
I'd say this is the second general Direct in a row where you could remove the first party content and have yourself a pretty darn strong Partner Showcase, way better than whatever we got back in February of this year. And it continues to prove that third parties are a massive part of Nintendo's strategy this generation, serving to fill out the Switch 2's lineup alongside their still quite frequent and consistently high quality first party output. It all adds up to the Switch 2 continuing to build an incredibly broad, dense, and impressive library of games.
The presentation opened with Monster Hunter Wilds, which, to be honest, I found to be a bit underwhelming as a cold open simply because Capcom had already announced that a Switch 2 port was in development earlier in the year. It was still good to see, though, and got a release date pencilled in for December 4th, 2026, earlier than I was expecting! Sadly, no new amiibo were announced as I had hoped, so no Seikret amiibo for me just yet. Hopefully when the Ascendance expansion comes out...
That wasn't all for Capcom, though, who once again had a strong presence in this Direct. Following the ports of 7 and Village, along with the day and date release of Requiem earlier this year, Capcom announced that they're bringing over the remakes of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4 remakes to Switch 2 next month, all on the same day, October 16th, 2026. The Resident Evil series already had a strong presence on Switch 1, but with the arrival of the modern titles in February and the modern remakes next month on Switch 2, plus next year's Veronica already being confirmed for the platform, it would appear that Switch 2 will be a big part of the Resident Evil franchise's long-term future going forwards.
Also from Capcom was another look at the hotly anticipated next Mega Man game, Dual Override, which doesn't have a specific release date yet, only targeting Spring 2027 at the moment. But we did learn that the game will launch alongside a pair of new amiibo for both playable characters, Mega Man and Proto Man, continuing the trend of Capcom being the biggest source of third-party amiibo by FAR.
One of the games that really caught my attention was Onyx: The Dark Grip from Bloober Team, the developers behind the Layers of Fear series and the Silent Hill 2 remake. I had heard rumblings of a Switch 2 exclusive title in the works from them, and wow. This is one of the most unique games I've seen in a while, one that takes full advantage of its Switch 2 exclusivity. It's a 2.5D supernatural horror game that immediately sets itself apart from almost every other game on the platform by being playable exclusively in handheld mode. You play as an entity capable of manipulating the game world to solve puzzles and guide a traveler through a terrifying journey. It sounds super compelling, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one, which launches sometime next year.
And, as the penultimate announcement(s) of the presentation and final third-party announcement, Atlus confirmed that both Persona 4 Revival (May 20th, 2027) and Persona 6 (TBA) were Switch 2 bound. This felt very similar to the Kingdom Hearts segment from the previous Direct, being sandwiched between the typical sizzle reel and the closing announcement, being the last third-party announcement of the presentation, and featuring news of an older game/games coming to the platform in some way (in this case, a ground-up remake of Persona 4), before confirming that the upcoming, highly anticipated next entry in the series would be coming to Switch 2 as well. It definitely differed from the Kingdom Hearts segment, as Persona 6 was announced very recently and this trailer provided no new information, as opposed to the Kingdom Hearts IV trailer which served as the first new trailer for the game since its initial teaser over 4 years ago, and also marked the opening of the floodgates for information and news on KHIV and the KH series as a whole, as we'd see two months later at D23. Still, both segments had similar vibes, and I wouldn't be opposed to this 'final big third party announcement' thing (we also saw this in last year's September Direct with RE Requiem) become standard practice in Nintendo Directs going forward.
Those were the big ones in my opinion, but it's really just scratching the surface of what the third-parties brought to the table in this Nintendo Direct.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation (April 8th, 2027) made a brief appearance towards the beginning of the Direct, and was accompanied by a shadowdrop of a native Switch 2 version of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion, though sadly there doesn't seem to be an upgrade path, as seems to be common practice for Square Enix unfortunately.
Meccha Chameleon, the viral multiplayer hide-and-seek game where players paint their bodies to try and disguise themselves amongst the environment, was also shadowdropped on Switch 2 after the Direct!
Level-5 had a strong presence, confirming a December 10th, 2026 release date for the long-awaited Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, as well as announcing a remake of Yo-kai Watch 2, subtitled Haunted Domain.
The developers behind Overcooked debuted an awesome looking new escape room-inspired co-op game, Stage Fright, that seems to be bursting with creative ideas and launches next year.
The sizzle reel towards the end even had some really cool reveals. Ubisoft announced that they are bringing Far Cry 3 (Spring 2027), Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (Spring 2027), and The Crew Motorfest (October 8th, 2026) over to Switch 2. I find the Far Cry games particularly notable, since as far as I'm aware, this is the first time a proper mainline Far Cry game has been on a Nintendo platform. There was Far Cry Vengeance on the Wii, which from what I can gather was a somewhat stripped down remake of an Xbox port of the original Far Cry. But in terms of straight ports? I believe these are the first ones to appear on Nintendo, and I just think that's neat.
The sizzle reel also revealed native Switch 2 versions of a few games released on Switch 1 in some capacity, including Palia (December 2026), It Takes Two (October 15th, 2026), and, most surprisingly, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (November 5th, 2026), a game which got a Cloud Version on Switch 1 that I thought we'd never see again due to it seeming to greatly underperform. Yet, I've heard a lot of good things about it as a highly underrated superhero game, so it's great to see it given a second shot at life on Switch 2.
Sonic Pico Park was also given a release date of November 12th, 2026, marking yet another game brave enough to go up against GTA VI in November, and the world continued to taunt me and my desire for a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon by shadowdropping Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko's Mystery Dungeon -Classic HD-. Don't get me wrong, that's really cool, but I swear man, anything but a new PMD huh?
There's still a lot more in this Direct that I don't have as much to say about, so here's a rapidfire list of all the other third party news from the presentation!
- Cairn comes to Switch 2 early next year, with a free demo available now
- Danganronpa 2x2 launches on Switch and Switch 2 on January 14th, 2027, including a brand new story scenario featuring the same characters, but new cases, victims, and culprits
- Disney Dreamlight Valley: The Keepsake Sea Expansion arrives on Switch and Switch 2 in November, notably featuring Milo Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire
- Eternal Anima launches on Switch 2 on March 4th, 2027
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves comes to Switch 2 digitally on October 22nd, 2026. A physical version launches in January 2027
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Royal Edition launches on Switch 2 in 2027, including all premium story expansions
- LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was highlighted briefly, alongside the Mayhem Collection DLC. The game launched for Switch 2 on September 18th, 2026, and is now available at the time of writing
- Metal Slug Ultimate Collection, featuring 10 classic Metal Slug games in commemoration of the series' 30th anniversary, comes to Switch and Switch 2 in 2027
- Ondeh Ondeh Kaya's Tasty Tale, a 3D platformer with an emphasis on music and rhythm, comes to Switch 2 in 2027
- Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United, a full modern remake of the 1995 RPG classic, launches on Switch and Switch 2 on February 16th, 2027
- Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches on Switch 2 on February 12th, 2027
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered brings the GOTY winning RPG natively to Switch 2 on September 29th, 2026, with a free upgrade on offer for owners of the Switch 1 version
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past Expansion will also come to Switch 2 in 2027, though it is seemingly skipping the Switch 1 version of Witcher 3
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force GX, a remake of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 3 from the PSP, launches on Switch and Switch 2 on February 16th, 2027
- 007 First Light briefly appeared in the sizzle reel with a vague 2026 window for its release on Switch 2, though it has since been delayed to March 2027
- The Ascent Ultimate Edition launches on Switch 2 in early 2027
- The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother comes to Switch and Switch 2 in early 2027
- Bluey's Happy Snaps comes to Switch and Switch 2 on October 15th, 2026
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World launches on Switch and Switch 2 on December 3rd, 2026, with a free demo available now
- Erikshom: The Stolen Dream comes to Switch 2 on December 3rd, 2026
- Fading Echo launched on September 17th, 2026, and both a free demo and the full game are available at the time of writing
- Hela: of Mice & Magic not only has an excellent subtitle, but is finally releasing on December 1st, 2026
- Hell is Us comes to Switch 2 on October 8th, 2026
- Hot Wheels Infinite Rush launched on September 10th, 2026 for Switch 2, and is available now at the time of writing
- House Flipper 2 comes to Switch 2 on October 15th, 2026
- Stellar Blade Complete Edition launches for Switch 2 on November 5th, 2026, and includes previous NieR:Automata and Goddess of Victory: Nikke collaboration content, plus new Bayonetta costumes
That should do it for the third-party content from this month's Nintendo Direct. As you can probably see, it's a wide array of titles spanning numerous genres, and I'd bet that most everyone can find something for them in this lineup.
One thing I do want to mention is a game that curiously no-showed at this Direct: From Soft's The Duskbloods. With it having recently wrapped up its Closed Network Test and still supposedly releasing this year, a proper look at The Duskbloods alongside a release date announcement felt all but locked in. And yet, it wasn't there. Obviously, thid has folks, myself included, wondering if the game will end up pushed to 2027. We're rapidly running out of runway for From to actually, y'know, show us the game, as I'm pretty sure we've still barely seen any gameplay officially, besides what people posted from the network test. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the game ends up slipping to 2027, but I could also still see it showing up in December. I just hope From tells us what's going on soon.
That aside, it's becoming increasingly obvious that third-parties will continue to play a major role in Nintendo Directs going forwards, and that we can continue to expect the kinds of games and announcements we never would've seen in the Directs of old.
Having all of these high profile third party titles is helping these Directs to feel more complete and content-packed than ever before in my opinion, with very little downtime and filler in between big, noteworthy games. Of course, there's still no guarantee a Direct will cater to any one person's tastes, but with how many games are being stuffed into these things these days, I'd have to imagine that most people will almost always come away from these things with something new to look forward to!
And, as the Switch 2 generation progresses and the current development pipeline catches up to where we start seeing more day-and-date releases on the platform, I get the feeling that the prestige of third-party content in Nintendo Directs is only going to keep going up.
I gotta say, that's super exciting to think about!
