The first Nintendo Direct of 2024 is happening on February 21

After plenty of rumours and speculation about Nintendo's future with the Switch 2 potentially delayed to 2025 fans will finally get to see what the company has in store for the first half of 2024 with an upcoming Nintendo Direct, the first of the year.

Via social media, Nintendo confirmed the official date and time when they'll drop their first Direct of the year - February 21 at 6 AM PT/2 PM GMT.

Speculation suggested that this Direct was originally planned to go live on February 15 but was pushed as it coincided with Xbox's podcast event where they unveiled plans to go multiplatform with at least four titles and hinted at a new console being developed.

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Credit: Nintendo

The event won't feature news on upcoming first-party titles, being labelled a Partner Showcase for third-party developers and publishers. Having said that, there are rumours from credible sources that some partners very close to Nintendo could be making an appearance.

Leaker Pyoro, who has a near-perfect record when it comes to Nintendo Direct leaks, has teased that Game Freak could be one of the featured partners in the Direct.

It's worth noting that while Nintendo co-owns The Pokémon Company alongside Game Freak, the Japanese developer is still very much its own entity and has been working on other projects outside the big Poké-franchise, namely, Project Bloom.

If this is the case, plenty of other developers could be brought up during the Direct, such as Intelligent Systems, developers of the Fire Emblem series, who aren't owned by Nintendo and thus, by definition, are a third-party developer, albeit one that almost exclusively develops for them.

This is mere speculation, but rumblings surfaced of a potential Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War remake in 2021, some even suggesting that this title was supposed to be released before Fire Emblem Engage. We've heard nothing to suggest this could be a reality, so tactical RPG fans shouldn't get their hopes up.

The biggest news could be the confirmation that Hi-Fi Rush is coming to Nintendo Switch. Back in January, an insider leaked that the Tango Gameworks rhythmic action game was going to come to the Nintendo handheld in the future, with those reports being backed up by other sources that added it was bound to hit PlayStation as well.