So, we all suspected a Nintendo Direct next week, right? But there have been rumors flying around lately regarding the potential for TWO presentations to take place next week: one for Zelda's 40th Anniversary, and the other being a general Direct.
I did not believe those rumors, anticipating that the Zelda 40th stuff would be roped into a bigger general Direct, like what they did with Mario's 40th Anniversary last year. I've never been happier and more excited to take an L and be proven wrong.
Earlier this morning, Nintendo confirmed the rumors to be true by announcing both a Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct for Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, and a full, general Nintendo Direct for the very next day, Wednesday, September 9th, 2026.
Both presentations start at 7AM PT/10AM PT, which is really, REALLY unfortunate for me, as on Tuesday I go into work at 10 for 5 hours straight, not getting off until 3PM, and on Wednesday I'm occupied all day until 5PM, not counting driving home and having dinner. It'll probably be nearly 7PM before I can sit down and watch the general Direct. I'll make it through, but it's going to be incredibly difficult.
Regardless, what makes all of this even more exciting is the approximate length of each presentation. The Zelda 40th Direct is estimated at 30 minutes long, and the general Direct will be approximately 45 minutes long. That's about an hour and 15 minutes of Nintendo Direct next week. Also, keep in mind that the average length for general Directs used to be ~40 minutes. So this general Direct, like pretty much every other general Direct in the Switch 2 generation so far, will be a bit longer than average, and that's with all the Zelda stuff being split into its own broadcast. I don't want to get my hopes too high, but, I can't help but wonder... just how much do they have to show?!
And that's not even everything, as the general Direct will be followed by another edition of Nintendo Treehouse Live, which I've loved seeing them use for lately, with segments following both the June Direct and Splatoon Raiders Direct. It's stated that the entire livestream will last about 110 minutes, so nearly 2 whole hours. Surely that means they've got a ton to show, right? That's my hope, at least.
The announcement timing is also fairly unusual with the presentations being announced a full weekend in advance. This is likely due to the fact that next Monday is Labor Day, so today is the last business day before the first of these presentations airs on Tuesday. It's nice to have more time to get my viewing plans situated given my circumstances, but it'll also make the wait that much harder. This is gonna be on my mind all weekend, I guarantee you.
The only other downside is that I now need to reformat my in-progress predictions post, but that aside, I think it's safe to say that this is going to be an incredibly exciting week for Nintendo fans. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but dang, I'm getting a gut feeling that this general Direct could end up being quite a bit bigger than we anticipated.
Buckle up and get hyped (responsibly, of course), everyone! Next week's gonna be fun!
