Nintendo announces 50-minute Direct coming this week

Nintendo announced Tuesday morning that it’ll hold a 50-minute Nintendo Direct presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET. Last year, Nintendo opted for shorter, more focused Nintendo Direct presentations — lots of Mini Directs. It’s the longest Nintendo Direct presentation we’ve seen in quite some time.

On Twitter, Nintendo said it will share news on “available games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” as well as upcoming games to be released in the “first half of 2021.”

No more details on the Nintendo Direct were given by Nintendo. However, there are a few games we knew are coming to Nintendo Switch, like Monster Hunter Rise in March and Pokémon Snap in April. Nintendo has plenty of other anticipated titles in development, like Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 — but there’s no release date information for any of those titles.

Nintendo has also been facing rumors of a so-called Switch Pro, a more powerful version of the portable video game console, for a while now, and fans would certainly be eager to see news on that front during the Nintendo Direct. Nintendo, however, has continuously denied ongoing rumors.

In December 2020, Nintendo of America CEO Doug Bowser told Polygon that Nintendo is “always looking at technology,” but that Nintendo would continue to focus its efforts on the “momentum” of the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.