Step aside, Animal Crossing: Loveably weird life sim Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is getting a dedicated Nintendo Direct this week

Tomodachi Life living the dream screenshot showing a giant woman looking at a smaller woman — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is getting its own dedicated Nintendo Direct this week, showing off around 20 minutes of details about the delightfully bizarre upcoming life sim.

Last year, over 12 years since Tomodachi Life was first released (a sequel to the Japan-exclusive Tomodachi Collection), Nintendo unveiled the upcoming sequel in an announcement so earth-shattering that its Japanese Twitter post ended up receiving more likes than the reveal of the Switch 2. Needless to say, the return of this beloved but deeply strange life sim series about your Miis consuming JPEGs of food, falling in love, having weird dreams, and singing truly cursed editable songs has been a long time coming, and the upcoming Direct should shed some more light on what we can expect from it.

Nintendo confirms that the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Direct will be taking place on Thursday, January 29 at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm GMT, and "will last roughly 20 minutes and provide more info on the upcoming Nintendo Switch game." There's a reminder there for anyone who needed it that Living the Dream is currently slated as a Switch 1 game – while, of course, it'll be playable on Switch 2, no Switch 2 Edition with added improvements or features has been revealed at the time of writing.

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Join us on Jan 29 at 6am PT for the #TomodachiLife: Living the Dream Direct! The presentation will last roughly 20 minutes and provide more info on the upcoming Nintendo Switch game. #NintendoDirectWatch here: https://t.co/COS9STbtoB pic.twitter.com/ZdsEQpHTFDJanuary 26, 2026

We'll just have to wait and see what Nintendo has in store for us. One of fans' biggest hopes for the sequel is the inclusion of queer romances – in Tomodachi Life on the 3DS, there were no same-sex couples, but following backlash at the time, Nintendo stated (thanks, IGN) that: "We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players." Hopefully, that means more romance options for Miis this time around.

Fingers crossed we might be getting a proper release date, too – previously, a spring 2026 window was announced, meaning that in theory we shouldn't be waiting too much longer for the game.

In the meantime, at least we have the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update and Switch 2 Edition to keep us busy – be sure to check out our On the Radar with Animal Crossing: New Horizons hub for feature pieces and more.

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.