Nintendo Announces Gamescom Return After Skipping Last Year’s Event, Raising Hopes of Switch 2 Game Reveals

Nintendo has confirmed it will return to Gamescom to showcase Switch 2 this year, after skipping 2024’s event.

Gamescom, the biggest games show by attendance in the world, will this year run from August 21 to August 24 at its usual home in Cologne, Germany.

A post by Nintendo on its German-language social media account has confirmed the company will be back on the show floor at the event. But does this mean we’ll get a new Nintendo Direct for Switch 2 at the same time?

Nintendo has not yet said what it plans to showcase at Gamescom 2025, but it’s worth bearing in mind that its two main titles for the Switch 2 launch window — Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza — will have been out for some time by that point.

What could Nintendo focus on next? Well, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 shooter Metroid Prime 4: Beyond currently still sits with a vague “2025” launch date, and seems likely to arrive this fall. We may see more of that, and a longer demo than the one previously shown to the public at the Nintendo Switch 2 Tour events made available.

There’s also Pokémon Legends Z-A, another title set to arrive for both Switch and Switch 2, which is down for a “late 2025” launch.

And while Nintendo could sail through the second half of 2025 with those two games, it seems possible the Mario maker may also have something else for this year still tucked up its sleeve.

Last year, Nintendo raised eyebrows by skipping Gamescom’s 2024 event — an ususual move that many saw as indication its aging Switch hardware was running out of steam, and the company did not have much else to show.

Gamescom is one of the key dates on the gaming calendar, with its in-person event regularly attracting more than 300,000 attendees. Online, the show is now accompanied by the Geoff Keighley-fronted Gamescom Opening Night Live, which in 2024 included looks at Borderlands 4, Monster Hunter Wilds and Dune: Awakening.