As has been much rumored over the last couple of weeks, a Nintendo Direct has now been officially confirmed for September 12. That’s Friday this week, if you’ve lost track of your calendar. It’s timed to fall the day before Mario’s 40th birthday, so it seems likely that’ll be at least part of the focus. Of course, there’s also a lot of expectation around Metroid Prime 4.
Mario turning the big four-zero is obviously a very big deal for Nintendo, so it’s enormously unfortunate that this should have fallen on a Saturday. Presumably the console company has at least something cute to announce for the occasion, even if it’s not the next big Super Mario game we’re all hoping for, but it would get lost if announced over the weekend. The next choice would then be Thursday, Nintendo’s preferred day for Directs, and close enough that it could still create enough buzz for the big day. It’s just, this Thursday is September 11, and pretty much everyone knows it’s a disastrous day to announce anything as people will find some sort of negative association with the events from 24 years ago. So that pretty much left the company with Friday.
As for what will be revealed, as ever we have very little idea (although expect the reliable leakers to know at some point tomorrow).
(This post is being updated.)