On the heels of claims that the Nintendo Switch 2 and its alleged summer launch timing will finally be revealed as early as this Thursday, industry insider Nate the Hate reports that the new console's third-party lineup includes long-awaited remaster Metal Gear Solid Delta and a raft of Ubisoft games like Assassin's Creed Mirage.
In a new video collecting predictions and rumors regarding Nintendo's Switch 2 plans, Nate the Hate claims that "one title that will be there within the launch window comes from Ubisoft, and it's going to be Assassin's Creed Mirage." The mercifully compact and more stealth-focused game was originally released in 2023, and as we noted in our Assassin's Creed Mirage review, brought the series away from its mega-RPG reputation and back to its roots.
Further commenting on the Switch 2 launch lineup, Nate the Hate adds that "Assassin's Creed Shadows is one of those in-development ports, it just won't be ready for launch and probably won't be ready for the launch window. I've been told that Ubisoft is doing more than half a dozen games for the Switch 2, and a lot of them are going to be late ports. These are from a range of franchises like The Division, Rainbow Six Siege. There's also discussion and some consideration for a Mario Rabbids collection, so it'd have 1 and 2 in a single package ... I think, for Ubisoft, if they can port the game, they will port the game."
The Switch 2 is expected to bring some welcome movement and investment back to the largely stagnant console hardware market, with one analyst predicting Nintendo will run into supply issues amid a launch demand boom. With Ubisoft treading water after a few underwhelming years, and doing everything it can to shut down reports of a buyout, it wouldn't be a surprise for the publisher to pounce on the new platform as a way to wring more money out of its games. Nintendo Switch 2 will support backwards compatibility with original Switch games, but a new console launch is still prime time to bundle and repackage existing games.
Ubisoft aside, Nate the Hate says "some other third-party games I have heard [about] include Metal Gear Solid Delta," which is set to launch later this year and is currently only listed for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on creator Konami's website. "I'm hopeful that maybe it is a day-and-date release when it does come to Switch 2, because if that game, let's say, comes out in summer of 2025, there's no reason it shouldn't," Nate the Hate adds.
The somewhat confusingly named Metal Gear Solid 3 remake doesn't have an exact release date just yet, so this summer timing is more speculative. In September 2024, we learned that the game is "already playable" from start to finish and now in more of a polishing phase. At the time, production producer Noriaki Okamura said "it's not going to be years and years" before we get to play it, though he also said "we're just not yet at the stage where we can say with confidence exactly when it will be out."
One former Nintendo Switch marketing lead reckons Nintendo probably "don't like what's happening" with all these leaks, but doesn't expect this pre-reveal back-and-forth, which only matters to a small and Extremely Online portion of the console's potential audience, to affect the company's plans.
Metal Gear Solid Delta exists because Konami was starting to get worried that the “younger generation of gamers aren’t familiar with the Metal Gear series anymore.”
