While Nintendo still has a few first-party games like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi: Brothership in the works for 2024, it appears Nintendo’s gamescom presence is so small that even the event organizer has confirmed it will not issue a Best Nintendo Switch Game award this year.
A gamescom spokesperson confirmed to TheGamer today that it will not issue a “Best Nintendo Switch Game” award because the event organizers received a small number of submissions to warrant an award at gamescom 2024.
“There were too few submissions for the Best Nintendo Switch category this year,” the spokesperson confirmed to TheGamer. “The award committee, therefore, decided to cancel the category.”
This marks the first year the Nintendo Switch will not have its own award category since the hybrid gaming system was released in 2017. Last year, the recipient of the Best Switch Game award was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which also won three additional awards, including Best Audio and Best Gameplay.
Of course, it may come as a surprise to no one. In April, Nintendo of Europe representative Games Wirtschaft told IGN sister site GamesIndustry.biz that Nintendo would not be physically appearing at gamescom 2024. This news is part of the wider rumor mill as Nintendo begins to gear up for the next hardware successor for the Switch, which is often regarded as the “Switch 2.”
While Nintendo has yet to reveal its next gaming system endeavor properly, the company does not anticipate the release of new hardware before April 2025.
gamescom 2024 is set to kick off on August 2024 with Opening Night Live, which will provide a ton of major news, reveals, and announcements. For more on gamescom 2024, check out our piece, where we predict what we can expect from this year’s event and what streams are scheduled throughout the week.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
