A major 2025 game scheduled to release later this year is going to skip Nintendo Switch 2, which has left Nintendo fans disappointed as a result. Looking toward the remainder of the year, Nintendo fans arguably have the most to be excited for with exclusive games such as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Drag x Drive, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, and Kirby Air Riders all looming. While things look solid on the exclusives front, things don’t look as great on the third-party front. And this was the problem with the Nintendo Switch, which quickly became an exclusives and indies machine as larger third-parties and makers of AAA games skipped the console for various reasons.
Videos by ComicBook.com
To this end, a popular EA series that never featured on the Nintendo Switch is continuing this pattern of abscence on the Nintendo Switch 2. And if the first game from it since the Nintendo Switch 2 launch is skipping the console, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the generation because if there was an installment you would want on the console, it would be the one releasing around the console’s launch due to the very high attachment rate of early launch window games. EA doesn’t seem to agree though or simply doesn’t have any interest in the first place.
On September 13, EA is set to release NHL 26, which is obviously not a release for everyone, but it is a release for many. The NHL series isn’t as popular as EA’s other sports series, but it is still popular compared the majority of game releases. And it skipped the entire Nintendo Switch generation. Now, it looks poised to skip the entire Nintendo Switch 2 generation, and some Nintendo fans who had hoped the Nintendo Switch 2 would be a new start are now disappointed.
“So NHL 26 was announced and it’s not coming to Switch 2,” reads a recent post on the Nintendo Switch 2 Reddit page. “I wanted to make a post for this as a lot of people including myself were hoping to get this game. I’m pretty disappointed, hopefully it comes next year but I don’t see any reason to be optimistic.”
A comment adds to the disappointment: “I was hoping for NHL on the Switch 2, but after no announcement today, I think I’m giving up.” Another comment further drives home the point: “Damn this sucks I’d love a portable one.”
What makes the situation all the more odd is that EA is finally bringing Madden NFL to Nintendo fans with Madden NFL 25, which is scheduled to release on August 14 via a variety of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch 2. This could be an indicator NHL will follow in the future, but it could also be an indicator of the exact opposite because why wait? Clearly, EA was able to get development units early enough because Madden NFL is Switch 2 bound, and it is releasing a month earlier. More than this, if the plan was to bring NHL to Nintendo Switch 2 in the future, this would have presumably been communicated rather than be left up for speculation.
Most Viewed
-
Image via THQ Nordic -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
