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When and where to watch the Nintendo Direct for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Giovanni Colantonio
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It’s been a long time since the last proper Nintendo Direct, but the drought is almost over. Nintendo revealed the date of its next video presentation, which centers around Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Here are all the details on the upcoming Direct.

When is the Nintendo Direct?

The Direct goes live at 6 a.m. PT on February 20. It is roughly 25-minutes long, which is a little shorter than usual for Nintendo’s presentations.

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How can you watch the Direct?

As is the case with most Directs, the presentation should be available to livestream through Nintendo’s YouTube channel. The videos typically broadcast live and can be rewatched immediately afterward.

What is the Direct about?

Nintendo billed this presentation as an Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct specifically, so it’s not clear if any other games will get a mention. The short run time is a little more in line with Nintendo’s game-specific Directs, which it tends to do before one of its flagship games launches.

Details about the game have been slowly trickling out for months, but there hasn’t been a big dump of information on the game since E3 2019 in June. Nintendo promises an in-depth look at the game, which launches March 20, one month after the Direct airs. The video package will hopefully shed some more light on the game’s lack of cloud save data, which left fans scratching their heads over the past few weeks.

It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo mentions the new special-edition Animal Crossing Switch, which recently saw a delay in Japan due to the coronavirus outbreak. Fans are clamoring for the console’s pastel Joy-Cons and custom dock to get individual releases without the need to buy a whole console. The Direct would be a good time to see if Nintendo fulfills those wishes.

When was the last Nintendo Direct?

Nintendo’s last full-blown Direct was on September 4, 2019. The presentation covered a wide range of games, including Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Pokemon Sword and Shield. Since then, Nintendo has remained relatively quiet about its upcoming games. Fans are used to new Directs every few months, so the gap in presentations is noticeable.

The Animal Crossing-centric nature of the Direct might still be disappointing for fans hoping to get an update on Nintendo’s 2020 calendar, which currently looks sparse beyond New Horizons.

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Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni Colantonio
Section Editor, Gaming
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
Everything announced at the September 2022 Nintendo Direct
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While digital video game showcases are more frequent than ever, no one does it quite as well as Nintendo. As such, this September 2022 Nintendo Direct really excited Nintendo Switch fans. So far, 2022 has been a great year for Nintendo thanks tp games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Splatoon 3. During this show, we received a clear idea of how Nintendo plans to close this year out and kick off 2023.
We hoped to see a mix of announced games, DLC, remasters, and Nintendo's early 2023 lineup. While not every leak was true, we were pleasantly surprised by the likes of Fire Emblem Engage and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (yes, Breath of the Wild's sequel finally has a name). If you weren't able to watch it live or just want a recap of what was shown, this is everything Nintendo announced during the September 2022 Nintendo Direct.
Nintendo Direct 9.13.2022
Breath of the Wild 2 is officially titled The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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Fire Emblem Engage lets you fight with classic Fire Emblem characters
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To kick off the show, Nintendo announced a brand new traditional Fire Emblem game called Fire Emblem Engage. We saw both cinematics and tactics gameplay, and while it plays like the strategy game fans would expect, players can also equip rings to get help from classic Fire Emblem characters.
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Pikmin 4 is finally launching in 2023
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Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe announced
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To continue the Kirby 30th anniversary celebration this year, Nintendo announced that the Wii game Kirby's Return to Dream Land is coming to Nintendo Switch. Titled Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, it adds a Mecha copy ability, a new subgame, and the ability for everyone to play as Kirby.
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Octopath Traveler II is coming to Nintendo Switch
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Although it leaked just beforehand, this Nintendo Direct couldn't go without an HD-2D game as Square Enix announced Octopath Traveler II. Like the original, this is a turn-based RPG stylized like the SNES classics where players follow the journey of eight different characters in a fantasy world.
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Everything else

It Takes Two is coming to Nintendo Switch on November 4.
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Following months of Nintendo-related leaks and a third-party showcase in June, the second full-fledged Nintendo Direct of 2022 is finally happening. February's show had neat reveals of games like Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Mario Strikers: Battle League, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Nintendo Switch Sports. Now, Nintendo Switch players hope the September 2022 Nintendo Direct will give a clear idea of what to expect throughout the rest of this year and into the first months of 2023.
Ahead of the showcase's announcements, rumors about a couple of key Nintendo classic remasters heavily circulated. There are also delayed Nintendo Switch titles that we hope finally get release dates. Although there's a chance that none of the following predictions will come to fruition tomorrow, it's still fun to guess what might pop up. As such, here are five announcements we hope to see at the September 2022 Nintendo Direct.
Metroid Prime returns

 
Metroid fans ate well last year with the release of Metroid Dread, but they've still waited since 2017 for the long-delayed Metroid Prime 4. Although there's nothing to suggest that Metroid Prime 4 will pop up here just yet, a remaster or remake of Metroid Prime seems much more likely. A Nintendo Switch version of the GameCube classic was subject to rumors for years, but rumblings of the game's existence really ramped up in 2022. 
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Nintendo Direct September 2022: How to watch and what to expect
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After a long summer of waiting, we're finally getting a full-sized Nintendo Direct on September 13. The presentation will mostly focus on games launching on Nintendo Switch this winter, but that doesn't mean it won't have some surprises in store for viewers. Here's how you can watch the event and what to expect.
When is the September Nintendo Direct?
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You can catch the Direct on Nintendo's YouTube channel at 7 a.m. PT, and it will last 40 minutes. It's worth noting that this will be a livestream everywhere except for the U.K., which will be published as a video instead at 8 a.m. PT, due to the recent passing of the Queen.
What to expect from the September 2022 Nintendo Direct
As for what Nintendo will show, the two biggest games that are launching this fall are Bayonetta 3 and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, so they will most likely make an appearance there. Advance Wars was also delayed from Spring 2022 indefinitely due to the war in Ukraine, so it might possibly see a new release date in this presentation. Harvestella is launching on Nintendo Switch and PC in November, so there could be a deeper dive into that game as well.

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