This morning everyone is saying that Nintendo has confirmed that Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, the new Kirby game, and others, will all be hitting the Nintendo Switch in 2018. This is an incredibly exciting statement, since a lineup like this would all but guarantee Nintendo’s continued (and insane) momentum in 2018. While I think it’s possible we see all of these games this year, we have to be careful about where the information is coming from:
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Nintendo Norway says Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4 in 2018 (Google translated) https://t.co/YRrHaZqlUc pic.twitter.com/8iRKn8Puhf
— Wario64 (@Wario64) January 5, 2018
I love Wario64, and we source him for a lot of our sales and even for some hard news. It’s important to keep in mind that he’s just passing this tweet along, though, and it’s not from an official Nintendo account. The translation is coming from “Nintendo of Norway,” but Nintendo doesn’t actually have an official Norwegian branch that publishes news about releases.
Nintendo Norway is really Bergsala, a company that works with Nintendo to import games and products into the region. So here is my “grain of salt:” There is a pretty good chance that this company that everyone is considering to be “Nintendo Norway” is in fact working closely with Nintendo, and does in fact have some solid information regarding the release date of Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3. The information in that tweet could be accurate. However, none of this should be taken as official information until we get some kind of statement from Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Europe, or NCL.
With the Bayonetta 1 & 2 bundle coming to Switch this February, I feel like Bayonetta 3 launching in 2018 could very well happen. That doesn’t seem like a long-shot to me. I am a little more doubtful when it comes to Metroid. Next week’s supposed Nintendo Direct should give us a good idea about the state of Metroid. If we actually see some solid gameplay or a great trailer (or both), a 2018 release could be likely. If we don’t actually get to lay eyes on the game, that may speak to an earlier stage of development, and indicative of a 2019 launch.
Stay tuned.
