Nintendo has scheduled two broadcasts for September 8 and September 9, GameSpot reported. The Legend of Zelda: 40th Anniversary Direct runs on September 8 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET and lasts 30 minutes. A general Nintendo Direct follows on September 9 at the same times and runs for 45 minutes.
GameSpot said Nintendo has not detailed what either broadcast will contain.
Expectations of a Direct had been building before the confirmation. GameSpot reported that speculation picked up after Ubisoft announced a new look at Just Dance: Decades of Hits, which the publisher dated to September 10. The outlet noted that Just Dance games appear often enough in Nintendo broadcasts that the date was read as a hint at a Direct.
GameSpot also pointed to Nintendo's own pattern, saying the company has held a September Direct in almost every year of the past decade, with 2024 the exception. The September 2025 broadcast covered several first-party games and smaller third-party titles, and included the surprise reveal of a new Virtual Boy headset designed for Switch consoles.
On the Zelda side, GameSpot wrote that Nintendo has barely acknowledged that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the series. The outlet said the remake of Ocarina of Time is supposed to launch this year and speculated it would arrive in December, once attention to Grand Theft Auto 6 has died down, and raised a teaser for the live-action film and a Switch release of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD as other possibilities for the presentation.
GameSpot described 2026 as a slower year for Nintendo by comparison with 2025, which brought the launch of the Switch 2 and a steady run of first-party games. The outlet said Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is due out in September 2026, and expects a new trailer for the turn-based tactics game in one of the two broadcasts.