Nintendo is hosting two Directs in the coming days, and it’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about since the announcement. On Tuesday, September 8, it’s The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct, followed by a more general Nintendo Direct on Wednesday, September 9. While we wait, it's predictions time!
Before we start, a couple of disclaimers: these are all purely my guesses based on public information and my analysis of Nintendo’s release patterns, and nothing more. Nothing here is based on any inside information. But, I will be discussing a couple of relevant leaks over the last few months, so if you have been steering clear of information like that, you may not want to read on.
Zelda is my favorite series, so I’m buzzing thinking about all the possibilities we could see Tuesday morning. But I’m trying to keep things realistic in this piece and only sharing predictions that I think have a legitimate chance of happening.
This will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of the presentation. We’ve only seen a few seconds of footage of the Ocarina of Time remake, which is set to come out in 2026. So, now’s the time for the full reveal trailer and release date. I can’t wait for this one; my imagination has been running wild over this remake for the last three months, and we’re finally going to see more about the scope of this remake. Is it faithful, or more of a reimagining? What does the kingdom of Hyrule look like beyond Link’s treehouse? All that and more will likely be answered by a more conventional trailer that gives us a proper look at the remake.
I don’t know exactly what Ocarina of Time will look like, but the teaser trailer from earlier this year tells me Nintendo is very confident in this game. You don’t set the internet’s imagination on fire with a 10-second tease of Link’s treehouse if you don’t have really satisfying answers to share when you do finally pull the curtain back, and I expect the Ocarina of Time remake to be a pretty big deal.
As for a release date, I’m expecting Ocarina of Time to arrive on Thursday, November 12. Nintendo doesn’t have a game dated for November yet (Fire Emblem arrives this month, with Nintendo Switch Sports slated for October), and it never misses putting out a big game in the weeks before Black Friday. Knowing it’s coming this year, Zelda feels primed for that spot. Nintendo is extremely unlikely to release a game on Thanksgiving (that’s Thursday, November 26 in the U.S.), and it has no reason to go head-to-head with Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19. That just leaves November 5 and 12 as available Thursdays to launch a game. A few weeks back, the Nintendo UK store briefly dated a couple of Kirby Air Riders amiibo for November 12, and Nintendo typically launches amiibo the same day as a first-party game, even if the franchises aren’t related. That date has since been removed, but I’m still pretty locked in on November 12 as Ocarina of Time’s release date.
With amiibo on the mind, I’m hopeful we’ll get a glimpse of a new amiibo line for Ocarina of Time alongside the reveal. Zelda games typically get tie-in amiibo figures (Echoes of Wisdom is a rare recent exception), so I’m expecting we’ll see figures of Young Link and Adult Link at the very least.
A few weeks ago, allegedly leaked designs surfaced for a Zelda-themed Nintendo Switch 2 console and Pro Controller. These don’t appear to be branded for Ocarina of Time specifically, but rather for the 40th anniversary as a whole. If they’re legitimate, it'd make the most sense to see the products formally announced on Tuesday, potentially alongside my predicted November 12 release for Ocarina of Time. And if they don’t show up, you can pretty confidently write that leak off as fake. Right now, my gut says they’re real and will show up.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/14-predictions-for-the-september-2026-nintendo-direct-and-zelda-40th-anniversary-direct
