Basically: It’s too early
Today’s Nintendo Direct sure revealed a lot, including brand new games in the Metroid and Kirby franchises. Yesterday the Big Red Machine revealed the next Zelda game, too. But where was Mario? Where’s the dude who just starred in a billion dollar movie and hasn’t had a new* 3D game since 2017?
(*Bowser’s Fury notwithstanding, even though it absolutely rippppped)
Well the answer isn’t all that complex, you see.
It’s just too early.
That’s it! It’s too early.
Donkey Kong Bananza is the next game in the 3D Mario series, according to Nintendo and its developers, though it’s not a MARIO Mario game. Bananza started life on the Switch a long, long time ago before finally moving over to the Switch 2 at launch. The development team behind Mario proper is HUGE, and while a good chunk of that team was working on DK that does leave room for others to work on the next game in the series.
And they probably are! But today’s Direct wasn’t the place to announce it.
The next 3D Mario game, whether it’s a sequel to Odyssey or it’s Galaxy 3 or it’s something something Titans, is likely going to be Nintendo’s big Holiday game in 2027. The last we checked that’s over a year away, and the company is now in full Ocarina of Time and 2026 gaming promotional mode. This is the time of year where the company usually reveals its upcoming slate for the first quarter or so of the following one, and with the Switch 2 recently receiving a price hike it was important to show why consumers should rush out this year to buy one. Announcing a Mario game now for late next year wouldn’t help sell consoles today; rather, it may do the opposite.
The way entertainment marketing can often work is to focus on immediate momentum, getting people to the stores to buy product right now instead of waiting until the game they may REALLY want comes out. Mario is Nintendo’s biggest franchise, bigger than Zelda, and would overshadow Link’s next adventure as fans would focus on THAT instead of Ocarina of Time, and marketing and planning dollars would be split even more. Right now it’s all-in on 2026 and early 2027, not Late 2027.
Very likely the next Mario game would be announced in a February or June Direct, with June being a full-on showcase of the game. Nintendo has more products on the way for their current console in the coming months than they did for the original Switch, and Mario would just blanket those out.
So there you have it: it’s just timing.
Now, I could be wrong. I don’t work for Nintendo. But, I also don’t think a 13-14 month lead time for a Mario announcement to launch would work in the modern gaming landscape.
