Nintendo announces 40-minute Nintendo Direct for February 9, 2022

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On February 8, 2022, Nintendo announced it would hold a Nintendo Direct the following day, February 9, lasting about 40 minutes. The focus would be Nintendo Switch games planned for the first half of 2022.

Expectations were high. When the broadcast was scheduled on YouTube, almost 3,000 people were already waiting on the page, with 22 hours still to go before the start.

The format is familiar to anyone who follows Nintendo: a sequence of trailers and announcements, with release dates, news on games already revealed and a few surprises from partner studios. A 40-minute Direct usually indicates a general presentation, not an event dedicated to a single game, which fueled the guessing about what would appear.

What came next

The February 9 Direct delivered a lot. Among the announcements were Xenoblade Chronicles 3, from Monolith Soft, initially planned for September; Mario Strikers: Battle League, from Next Level Games; Nintendo Switch Sports, set for release on April 29, 2022; the Booster Course Pass, a paid track pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; and a trailer for Splatoon 3’s Salmon Run co-op mode.

These games took different paths. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was moved up and came out on July 29, 2022. Mario Strikers: Battle League arrived on June 10, 2022, with mixed reception. Nintendo Switch Sports came out on the promised date and became one of the console’s best sellers, with more than 18 million copies through March 2026. The Booster Course Pass was released in six waves between March 2022 and November 2023, adding 48 tracks and eight characters to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.