June 22 Nintendo Direct Will Focus on Xenoblade Chronicles 3

By Emily Price | June 21, 2022 | 4:39pm

Video Games News nintendo

June 22 Nintendo Direct Will Focus on Xenoblade Chronicles 3

There has been speculation for several weeks that Nintendo would hold a Direct in the latter half of June. After all, during the slot normally filled by E3, the company has been absent from events like Summer Game Fest that other publishers have presented at. The last Direct happened in February and focused on games releasing in the first half of the year. It might make sense to expect the June Direct to focus on games coming out in the second half of 2022. However, the just-confirmed event on June 22 will instead focus entirely on one game, Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

The originalXenoblade Chronicles was released for the Wii in 2010, and the sequel was released in 2017 for the Switch. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the next main-line game in the series, and is scheduled to release for the Switch on July 29. The series combines action-rpg combat and an open-world structure, and has been commercially successful since the release of the first game. The newest game will increase the party size from three to seven, and will take place in a separate setting from its predecessors.

The Xenoblade Direct will start at 10am EDT and will be 20 minutes long, about half the length of usual Directs. Several sources, most notably games writer Alana Pearce, have suggested that another, longer Direct could be coming next week on June 29, but this has not yet been confirmed.

You can watch the June 22 Direct below.