Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase July 2025: Everything Announced
To ensure you don't miss a thing, we've gathered all the biggest announcements from today's direct below, and we'd love to know what game you are most excited for and what game you wish would have shown up!
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Gameplay Trailer Showcases More of How It Connects to Tears of the Kingdom
While we didn't get a release date beyond Winter, we were treated to a brand-new gameplay trailer of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, and it showed a bit more about how it will be a canonical story that connects to Tears of the Kingdom.
This new game will feature such characters as Princess Zelda, King Rauru, and more.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection Announced for 2026
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection was the first game to kick off this direct and it looks to cast you as a rider of a Rathalos in a world where the "environmental calamity" known as the Encroachment is threatening everything and causing two kingdoms to start a war. There is also a mysterious egg that looks to be holding two sounds inside. Oh, and we saw a Magnamalo!
Octopath Traveler 0 Brings a New HD-2D Adventure to Switch 2 This December
A new Octopath Traveler game is on the way to Switch 2, and it looks to tell a new prequel story with the incredible HD-2D look this series has become known for. This new adventure, called Octopath Traveler 0, will be released on December 4, 2025.
This new entry seems to let players customize their character and set off on a "journey of restoration" after their hometown of Wishvale burned to the ground. We also got a glimpse of turn-based battles and town-building elements in the debut trailer, and later learned there will be over 30 recruitable party members.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Is Square Enix's Latest New Action RPG Coming to Switch 2
The Nintendo Partner Direct ended with not one, but two HD-2D adventures headed to Switch 2 in 2026, and first one was The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. This adventure follows an adventurer named Elliot who has set off from the Kingdom of Huther to investigate a mysterious set of ruins that has been found in the wilds.
What sets this game apart from Octopath Traveler is it is more of an action RPG and you'll be controlling both Elliot and his fairy companion, Faie. Elliot will be able to wield seven different weapon types and Faie will attack enemies on her own and can be controlled by the player or a friend in co-op.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Gets a New Look
Ahead of its September 30 release date, we were given a new look at FInal Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles, which features fully voiced dialogue, enhanced graphics, and a ton of gameplay improvements.
Madden NFL 26 Heads to Switch 2 This August
Madden NFL 26 is marking the franchise's big return to Switch, as this "realest Madden ever" will make its way to Switch 2 on August 14, 2025. Those who pre-order the deluxe edition before August 7 will get seven days of early access.
EA Sports FC 26 Brings Soccer to Switch In September
EA Sports FC 26 is set for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 on September 26, 2025, and features an "overhauled gameplay exeprience powered by community feedback." There will also be Manager Live Challenges with "fresh and authentic storylines" and Archetypes inspired by the best to every play the game.
Persona 3 Reload Launches on Switch on October 23
Persona 3 Reload is headed to Switch 2 on October 23 and will allow players to enter the Dark hour and experience this updated version of the beloved RPG classic. Spend your days forging bonds and your nights fighting for your friends and awakening your "incredible power."
Hela Stars an Adorable Mouse With a Magical Frog Backpack
Hela stole our hearts with its adroable mouse protagonist and their magical frog backpack, and the world, inspired by Scandinavian folklore, made us want it now even more. Sadly, we'll have to wait until 2026, but this looks to be a wonderful journey where "hearwarming storytelling and the beauty of nature are intertwined." Oh, and it has online and local co-op!
Star Wars: Outlaws Gets a New Gameplay Trailer for Switch 2
Star Wars: Outlaws will make its way to Switch 2 on September 4, 2025, and today's direct gave a new look at how it will look running on Nintendo's latest console.
Plants Vs. Zombies: Replanted Brings Back the Beloved Tower Defense Game
Switch and Switch 2 will be getting Plants Vs. Zombies: Replanted on October 23, and it will present the game in HD with local co-op and PVP. If you pre-order the game, you can unlock a retro Peashooter skin.
Cronos: The New Dawn Confirms Bloober Horror for Nintendo Switch 2 Alongside September Release Date
Bloober Team's Cronos: The New Dawn will head to Nintendo Switch 2 on September 5, 2025, and will tell a terrifying third-person survival horror tale involving time travel, overwhelming foes, and much more. In this tale, players will explore two different era - a brutal future and a 1980s Poland.
Once Upon a Katamari Has You Restoring All the Stars of the Universe By Rolling Around
Once Upon a Katamari is the latest entry in the beloved series, and this new game looks to be just as wacky and wonderful as the rest. In this tale, Earth was accidentially destroyed and the starry sky has vanished. Your job is to restore the stars of the universe, and you'll have plenty of fun rolling up everything on the way to completing your message. There will also be online modes like KatamariBall, a ton of customization options for your character, new songs, and much more.
Once Upon a Katamari will be released on October 24, 2025.
Chillin' by the Fire Is Out Now and It Looks Very Cozy
Chillin' by the Fire is a new "campfire simulation game" that tasks players with keeping their flame alive on beaches, forests, snowy mountain tops, and more. Players can team up with a few friends online or via GameShare, and they'll even appear on screen if a camera is connected. This game is all about slowing down and reclaiming the "simple joy of just sitting around and watching a campfire grow."
Yakuza Kiwami 1 & 2 Bring the Updated Versions of the PS2 Classics to Switch 2
Yakuza Kiwami 1 & 2 will bring the two more chapters of Kazuma Kiryu's tale to Switch 2, and this time its the 2016 and 2017 remake of the PS2's Yakuza and Yakuza 2, respectively. These Switch 2 versions will be released on November 13, 2025.
If you own Yakuza Kiwami on the original Switch, you can upgrade for a discounted price.
Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac Brings the Classic Back in a 'Modernized, Enhanced, and Upgraded' Way
Pac-Man World 2 is back in a big way with Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac, as it returns in a "modernized, enhanced, and upgraded" way on September 26, 2025.
Just Dance 2026 Edition Grooves Its Way to Switch in October
We couldn't have a year without a Just Dance and 2026's edition looks to bring all the fun we've come to love from this series. This year, it comes with 40 new tracks, including APT. by Rosé & Bruno Mars, Houdini by Dua Lipa, Counting Stars by OneRepublic, and Hung Up by Madonna. This version also supports local dancing with up to six players.
Apex Legends Arrives on Switch 2 Very Soon
Apex Legends will be released on Switch 2 on August 5, 2025, alongside the new season, Showdown. If you long in on your Switch, you can grab the exclusive Legendary Pathfinder skin - P.A.T.H. until September 16.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Headed to Nintendo Switch 2
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero will be headed to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 and let players relive the greatest moments in Dragon Ball. as well as alternate timeline scenarios you can create yourself. The Switch 2 version will also support motion controls.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero will arrive on both Switch models on November 14, 2025.
Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase Quick Hits
There were a handful of upcoming games featured in montages that we wanted to highlight here, and they are as follows;
Borderlands 4 (October 3)
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (Out Today!)
Hello Kitty Island Adventure - Wheatflour Wonderland (Fall 2025)
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (Demo Available Now Before Its Launch Date of August 29)
NBA Bounce (September 26)
Goodnight Universe (November 11)
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CNET
8 minutes ago
- CNET
I Played Battlefield 6: Hands-On With the Return To Big Battle Warfare
After a few hours playing the upcoming Battlefield 6, it's clear the game is designed to be a mea culpa to fans: Trust us, we're bringing back the Battlefield you remember. At a massive preview event in Los Angeles, I sat down to play a slice of the game's multiplayer mode -- and came off it suitably whelmed with a mix of raucous moments and tedious deaths. Ultimately, it feels like it will deliver the kind of big team battles players have been craving, with technical flourishes that amplify the gleeful chaos of a warzone. Developer DICE has a lot to prove with Battlefield 6. Its predecessors, 2018's World War II-themed Battlefield V and 2021's near-future Battlefield 2042, made unpopular changes to the game's formula, but subsequent updates salvaged some goodwill. So there's a reason the developers emphasized that DICE's newest game drew from the wells of Battlefield 3 and 4, returning to a successful era of big, destructive battles and retreating from some of the more drastic deviations. "We approached [this project] with this idea that not only do we want to draw inspiration from Battlefield 3 and 4, and sort of the best of the best in our series, we wanted to do it with our players," said Christian Grass, vice president and executive producer at DICE's Ripple Effect studios. "That was a big thing early on, get Battlefield Labs stood up, get [the game] out there, get players to play, and then start that conversation with them, listen to the feedback they're giving us and sort of build this game together." With the Battlefield Labs feedback program DICE set up, it's clear the studio wants to head off any potentially unpopular changes to the core gameplay people have come to expect from Battlefield. "With [Battlefield] Labs, everything that we're doing and communicating with our community early on, we want to make sure that we are landing it when [Battlefield 6] comes out," said Thomas "Tompen" Andersson, creative director at Ripple Effect. He noted that the team wants to "make sure that we don't have to counter some decisions that the community doesn't agree with." Labs has already provided Battlefield 6's developers with a wealth of data, from weapon pick rates to map movement patterns, that's led developers to tune the guns and different game modes. Their attention zooms down to the level of destructibility in objects, gathering feedback on whether walls are too sturdy or fragile and how that affects the player experience. "OK, maybe no one is using this lane, why aren't they using that? Oh, they feel like it's a kill zone, or there's not enough coverage," Andersson said. "We're taking that internally and testing and seeing if we can make that better." Read more: How to Join the Battlefield 6 Open Beta: Early Access Sign Up and Weekend Dates Balancing old and new Battlefield Battlefield 6 isn't a full rejection of modernity to embrace tradition. For instance, the game offers "closed weapon" modes that only let classes field select weapon categories to reinforce roles, while "open weapon" modes give everyone access to the game's full arsenal. But for the most part, it's a return to the arcade-y modern military shooter days that the community remembers more fondly than DICE's more recent experiments. The result, at least from the few hours of Battlefield 6 multiplayer I played, is a polished shooter with a lot of focus on making skirmishes exciting at any scale. Long-range sniper duels and tank battles felt as intense as close-quarters gunfights, all of which could be happening mere feet from each other on the same map. There are enough modes, guns, tools and play styles to give players whatever experience they crave in a military shooter. Whether that's tight-knit squad fights in alleyways or large-scale clashes between platoons of dozens of players each, you can pick weapons and a kit to customize to your liking -- running and gunning, fixing up armored vehicles, sniping from afar or reviving teammates -- all strategies felt viable. I felt that I contributed to the victory even if I wasn't leading my team in kills, and had the freedom to play out my little medic or tank commander fantasies. The preview didn't include any single-player content, leaving us in the dark about what's in store for the game's globe-trotting story campaign, which pitches a beleaguered NATO against the mysterious private military corporation, Pax Armata. But to be frank, single-player content is a nice extra -- it's far more important to evaluate the game's bones, which feel solid, if teetering on the edge of flooding players with complexity. Maps, classes, kits and guns: Grappling with too many options My Battlefield 6 preview rotated me between four modes, showing off different battle scales, goals and objectives. Conquest is the classic Battlefield experience, big maps split into multiple objective zones to capture, which fragments the fight into small areas with their own quirks and features. Breakthrough is still a big map, but you only play in thin sections of it at a time -- if the attacking team wins control of objective zones, the defenders retreat to the next slice of the map. Domination ditches vehicles for small-scale squad battles that rack up points with captured zones, king-of-the-hill style. Squad Deathmatch is a simple four-squad competition for who reaches the kill limit first. Unsurprisingly, the maps are split according to size. The larger maps in the preview included Liberation Peak, which felt like the platonic ideal of a Battlefield map -- a mountainous desert with small bases to hold, rocky outcrops to perch behind while sniping, buildings to swarm and wide roads to race down with tanks and light armored vehicles, all while helicopters and jets race overhead. The other big map, Siege of Cairo, is an urban battlefield with plenty of wide shooting lanes for vehicles and tight buildings for alleyway combat. The big maps captured my attention, but the smaller ones still held a lot of charm, particularly Iberian Offensive, where I held strong on several rounds of Domination, leaping between and on top of buildings to hold zones. Empire State was also in our rotation, a close-quarters slugfest with too many corners, I found myself getting smoked from behind frequently. While we didn't play them, our guide noted five other maps coming to the game at launch, including Operation Firestorm which is returning from Battlefield 3. Through all this, players deploy with one of four classes: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. Each has its unique perks: Assault heals faster and has explosive gadgets like grenade launchers, Engineer has a vehicle-fixing blowtorch and auto-repairs vehicles they ride in, Support has a healing resupply pack they can throw to the ground and uses defibrillators to quickly revive teammates and Recon can call UAVs and use motion sensor gadgets. Each class has an active skill that I honestly forgot about in the heat of battle -- including Assault's ability to see outlines of enemies through walls if they're making enough noise. EA DICE You can sit with the pre-made weapon-and-gear loadouts and dive into the game or customize them. I found it satisfying to get just the right attachments on my guns, but that's as far as I took it. Gadgets, explosives, grenades and sidearms stack up so many options that I didn't bother with much beyond my main weapon. Perhaps I could've gotten a better edge with all those extras, and Andersson described some truly novel gadgets coming in the main game like a sniper decoy that distracts enemies from far away and up close and personal laser devices that act as sniping rangefinders. But the quick time-to-kill made it feel like any moment I wasn't ready to snap my assault rifle to someone popping out of a corner would be a duel I'd lose. I did okay -- heck, in a couple matches I was even near the top of the scoreboards -- but I never dominated. At the best moments, I was in tune with my squad, often using the new anyone-can-revive feature to put my teammates back on their feet (Support class does this faster). In the worst moments, I got shot in the back over and over as enemies seemingly came out of nowhere, with no time to shoot back. High highs and low lows abound. It wasn't that the game felt unfair or that there was a skill cap I wasn't close to reaching (though obviously there were plenty of players even in my preview who had no trouble taking me down). It felt like it walked a tightrope balancing lethality, movement and slight tactical choices. That refinement feels like the result of all the aforementioned player feedback DICE is getting with Battlefield Labs -- including how to blow buildings up just right. EA DICE Nailing the right flavor of Battlefield-style map destruction A staple of Battlefield games is environmental destruction -- how much of the map crumbles and explodes as it's peppered with tank shells and grenades over the course of a match. As I played these maps over and over again, I saw how certain high-traffic zones would get obliterated by the time the match ended, with buildings reduced to rubble and areas around objectives flattened. It's technically impressive, and if I believe what the developers say, potentially useful. This is Battlefield's so-called Tactical Destruction, it's the idea that you can blow holes in walls or take out sniper nests to change the terrain. Through testing, the game's developers honed the destruction to reliably operate the same way every time -- something players can depend on to give them options in firefights. "We know that people love when things blow up, but there needs to be substance to all of these things that you're doing, right? So that's why it's so central to me that it's deterministic -- that you can rely on 'if I nail this rocket right here in this house, then exactly this is going to happen'," Andersson said. While DICE included visual language to communicate conditions to the players -- like cracks in the walls that are ready to shatter on the next explosion -- they don't expect folks to take advantage of Tactical Destruction at first. That comes from map knowledge gained over time, and players could eventually start seeing the logic in paving the way toward objectives with explosives. Then they can combine this with other items like the assault ladder gadget, which Andersson notes could give squads second-floor access to surprise enemies. In my preview, I didn't even get close to destroying the environment to my advantage. But the explosions were impressively immersive. While hunkered down in a building in the Siege of Cairo map, tank shells and rockets turned our shelter into rubble as the roof caved in around us, flooding the room in dust and blinding us as we rushed out. Occasionally overwhelming and often distracting me from firefights, the game's destruction tech put me more firmly in my soldier's boots, escalating the chaos and locking me into skirmishes that ratcheted up in tension, with each boom echoing in my headphones. In this, I felt DICE looking to recapture the controlled chaos that makes Battlefield games unique among the military shooters of today -- namely Call of Duty. But returning to the successful Battlefield titles from a decade ago means, hopefully, giving players a chance to recreate moments they loved. In that, it's looking like Battlefield 6 could be what those nostalgic gamers are waiting for. "If you start with Battlefield 3 and 4 that we know is loved and [say] let's execute on those staples and pillars, I feel like this is almost like a cheat code -- this is what Battlefield should be," Andersson said. Battlefield 6 launches on Oct. 10 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Free open beta weekends will run on Aug. 9-10 and Aug. 14-16.
Forbes
9 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘Squid Game' Over As Media Tires Of Survival Series
Netflix survival thriller series Squid Game has ended its run with a season which got less than half the media coverage it had during the month following its debut four years ago. The Korean streaming show became an almost-overnight success when it was released in September 2021 thanks to its timely viral premise. Its name refers to a deadly series of secret games which cash-strapped players compete in for the chance to win $30 million. The games are overseen by the Front Man, a mysterious character who is clad in black and protected by an army of masked guards in pink jumpsuits. The story is told from the perspective of Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father and indebted gambling addict who lives with his elderly mother. He soon finds that if a player loses a game it results in their death which increases the prize pool. It makes for tense storytelling as Gi-hun triumphs and sets out for revenge against the Front Man only to be told that he can't stop the games because human nature perpetuates them. Squid Game's debut season still stands as Netflix's most-watched show with 265.2 million views in its first 91 days of streaming. Its success was all the more surprising given that the show is in Korean so English viewers have to watch it dubbed or with subtitles. As a result, the show launched with little fanfare and caught the media completely off guard. This is reflected in data from Factiva, a search engine owned by Dow Jones which includes content from 33,000 news, data and information sources in 32 languages. It shows that Squid Game wasn't mentioned in the media at all in June and July 2021, just a matter of months before its debut. It attracted 1,524 articles when it launched in September 2021 and rose almost eight-fold to 11,943 the following month as word spread. Despite its dystopian and far-fetched premise, many viewers remarked on how relatable the show is and there is good reason for this. Squid Game was created, written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Hwang Dong-hyuk who based it on his own economic struggles as well as the class disparity in his home country. This authenticity paid off as the show earned a flurry of awards including six Primetime Emmys and one Golden Globe. As the hype continued to build, it set the scene for season two to get even more media coverage than its predecessor but it was not to be. The second season launched on Boxing Day last year and became Netflix's biggest television debut ever with a total of 126.2 million views across 11 days. However, by then saturation had begun to set in as Squid Game hadn't just taken Netflix by storm, it had also partnered with everything from Domino's pizza to the Duolingo online language learning program in an attempt to drive even more exposure. This appears to have had the opposite effect as the number of times Squid Game was mentioned in the media fell to 7,890 in December last year which presumably would not have happened if the public had still been lapping it up as much as when it debuted. No doubt this wasn't helped by the fact that the show's novelty had worn off and, to his credit, Dong-hyuk could see the writing on the wall. In stark contrast to filmmakers for studios such as Disney, Dong-hyuk said that the third season of Squid Game would be the "finale" and it was filmed back-to-back with the second one. Season three was released in June this year and was yet another knockout for Netflix as it became the first show in the streamer's history to debut at number one in all 93 countries where its users are based. What's more, the 60.1 million views that season three attracted in its first three days were more than any other show has attained in the same period. However, it failed to reach the heady heights of its predecessors and currently stands in third place on the list of the ten most popular non-English Netflix shows of all time as shown in the table below. Tellingly, both the number of views and the number of hours viewed have fallen sharply with the release of each season since the first debuted in 2021. Similarly, Google records show that the peak number of times 'Squid Game' was searched during June this year was around a third lower than in October 2021 following the release of the first season. Likewise, the 5,343 media mentions of the show in June were less than half the total from October four years ago. Both season one and three launched towards the end of the month and the bulk of the media coverage would usually be expected in advance to promote them. A different picture emerges when comparing the coverage during the week of release as the third season leads the way with 2,742 mentions in the media followed by 2,047 for season two and just 227 for the inaugural instalment. This suggests that the core fanbase of Squid Game fans became increasingly interested with every season whilst the wider appeal waned which is why the coverage of the show didn't increase as time went by. It highlights the need for Netflix to continue commissioning new content as even shows which once seemed to be bulletproof can eventually fall in popularity. Squid Game isn't the streamer's only show which is ending in 2025. Hit retro-style supernatural drama Stranger Things will also come to a close with the debut of its fifth season at the end of the year. However, unlike Squid Game, it is finishing on a high as its fourth season became Netflix's most-watched English language series when it debuted in 2022. Squid Game does however still have some fight left in it as an English-language version directed by David Fincher is under development. It is rumoured that it will star Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, who made a cameo in Season 3 of the Korean version. Time will tell whether it can get back to its winning ways in the media.
The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
Nintendo raises the Switch 1 price from $299 to $339
The original Nintendo Switch, which has cost $299.99 in the US since its release in 2017, is now priced at $339.99 on Nintendo's online store. Other first-gen Switch models are now more expensive, too, with the Switch OLED going from $349.99 to $399.99, and the Switch Lite increasing from $199.99 to $229.99. Nintendo said on Friday that its decision to raise the price was 'based on market conditions,' just after implementing a similar new set of prices in Canada on August 1st. The US announcement came just one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will impose new 'reciprocal' tariffs on a range of countries. Trump's growing list of tariffs now includes a 20 percent levy on products imported from Vietnam, where Nintendo has transferred most of its production. Nintendo also issued $10 price increases for the Alarmo and Switch 1 Joy-Cons, which now cost $109.99 and $89.99, respectively. Prices aren't changing for the Switch 2 console, as well as Switch and Switch 2 games, whether physical or digital. With the price increase, the Switch OLED is now only slightly less expensive than the $449.99 Switch 2 (which doesn't have an OLED display). The Switch 2 has been a massive hit so far, selling over 6 million units since launch despite Nintendo struggling to keep up with demand. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Emma Roth Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Nintendo
