Nintendo’s Plan for 2026 (according to NateTheHate2)

[Soundwave]

firebush03 said:

Soundwave said:

I think Mario Maker 3 could happen this year, I know that rumor is floating out there now too.

It would work well with the Switch 2's mouse controls for one, second the Mario Galaxy movie has a ton of Mario Maker references in it, not just like one "wink wink" kind of reference but like several.

Also the dev time line would fit ... the last Mario Maker game was in 2019 which is now seven years ago, and even for 2D Mario, Mario Wonder is coming up on 3 years ago. They should have ample time to make a new Mario Maker, I guess the big question would be would they consider having 3D Mario courses.

My prediction is 2028/2029 for the next 2D Mario. Whether that be something closer to Wonder or Maker? Hard to say. But if 3D Mario drops next year, then Nintendo will likely stick with every-other-year release pattern. After all, Mario Wonder was only wrapped up 3 years ago following a 4 year dev cycle.

Mario Maker 3 - 2026

Next 3D Mario - 2027

Next 2D Mario - 2029

Would probably work. The other tell is Mario Maker 2 seemingly doesn't have any content adds on Switch 2, like you would think they could add mouse controls to it for example ... unless they don't want to because MM3 is going to utilize that feature and it's coming soon-ish.