All the news from Nintendo’s March Direct showcase

The biggest news at Nintendo’s March Direct showcase was a software update. Mixed in amongst a trailer for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the surprise reveal of a mobile news app, the company also announced what it calls “virtual game cards.” They’re billed as a lending system that makes it relatively straightforward to share digital games between devices. But really, they’re a tool that could make the transition to the Switch 2 later this year much easier.

As Nintendo explains it, these virtual cards work a lot like physical cartridges. You can “eject” a game from one device and then load it onto another, so long as the second Switch is tied to your account or a member of your family plan. Digital games “can also be lent to a Nintendo Account family group member’s system via local wireless connection,” and they’ll be able to play the game for two weeks before it’s automatically returned to you.

While we expected to find out much more about Nintendo’s upcoming game system next week during the Switch 2 Direct event on April 2nd, a tiny new detail has been confirmed in this promo image for the new Nintendo Today news app. One of the screenshots listed in App Store and Google Play shows a Switch 2, and as VGC pointed out, features a “C” label on the right-side Joy-Con’s new button for the first time.

The Switch 2 images and teaser clips revealed by Nintendo until now have carefully hidden the labeling on that button, even though it’s been referred to in earlier leaks. We still don’t know exactly what it does, although there’s been speculation that C could refer to chat or community features, or that it could tie in to the rumored mouse-like functionality. Mostly, it’s just surprising that Nintendo appears to have revealed anything about its next console outside of the planned launch — we’ll keep an eye on Nintendo Today to see if it has any other secrets waiting.

Real time day / night cycles have been featured in a lot of Pokémon titles since the Gold and Silver era, but Pokémon Legends: Z-A is going to take the classic mechanic in a wild new direction. During today’s March Direct presentation, Nintendo dropped a new Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer showcasing a few of the game’s returning monsters and revealing more about how battling will work in this new take on Lumiose City.

Unlike the franchise’s previous games where you had to catch wild creatures out in, you know, the wild, Legends: Z-A will involve hunting down pokémon found throughout Lumiose itself as the city undergoes a massive redevelopment plan to make it more hospitable to both humans and pokémon.

In addition to showing off a bunch of new games including a brief glimpse at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Nintendo also shared some new features coming to the Switch. Coming in an April system update, Nintendo is introducing a new game management system called “virtual game cards.” Virtual game cards are meant to function similarly to physical ones. When the feature goes live, purchases of digital games on the Nintendo eShop will automatically create a virtual game card that you’ll be able to manage from a dedicated screen.

Virtual game cards also make sharing games between consoles simpler. Using a local wi-fi connection, you can use virtual game cards to transfer digital games between Switch 1 and Switch 2 consoles. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this feature is that now, you’ll be able to lend games to members of your Nintendo Switch Family account. You can only lend out one game per person and only for two weeks, but its still very neat that Nintendo has replicated the spirit of renting video games from Blockbuster.

Nintendo closed out today’s Direct with a surprise announcement: a news app that will keep players up to date on everything Nintendo. It’s called Nintendo Today, and it’ll be available on both iOS and Android. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the app was designed to compliment its event-like livestreams, which have become incredibly popular in the Switch era. After the Switch 2 Direct on April 2nd, the app will feature regular updates on the company’s next console.

Here’s how Nintendo explains it: “this smart-device app is like a daily calendar which delivers a variety of content including latest news, videos, and comics of your favorite Nintendo games and characters from select franchises.”

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is still alive — and it’s looking good. Nintendo unveiled a new trailer for the game that serves as an introduction of sorts, showcasing the alien world you’ll be exploring along with Samus’ various abilities, including new psychic powers that work both in combat and in puzzle solving. While no specific release date was announced, the game is due out in 2025 for the Switch.

Beyond has been in development for a quite a while. It was originally announced in 2017 shortly after the launch of the original Nintendo Switch, but in early 2019, Nintendo announced that it was rebooting the game’s development and bringing on Retro Studios to make it.

While the games industry patiently waits for the proper reveal of the Switch 2 on April 2nd, Nintendo isn’t quite done with its current console. The company announced that it will be holding a Nintendo Direct on March 27th at 10AM ET, which will feature “around 30 minutes” of news about upcoming Switch games. Notably, Nintendo says that “there will be no updates about Nintendo Switch 2 during this presentation.”

With the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition last week, there aren’t a lot of first-party games currently on the Switch calendar. But there are still some notable titles in the works including the long-in-development Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends: Z-A. It’s also possible we’ll see a few more remasters for the Switch, like the much-rumored Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.