The internet is boiling and wondering when the long awaited January Nintendo Direct will be held. The most anticipated day is January 11th. Many fans still believe that a Nintendo Direct will be held on that day. Rumors even suggest that the big N will announce Animal Crossing Switch with a release in Summer 2018. Keep in mind that at this point nothing has been confirmed. Let’s take a look at the most persistent rumors so far.

Nintendo fans on Twitter, reddit and other social websites strongly believe in a direct this week. Everything traces back to November of 2017, when an internal EA email had leaked. The marketing materials indicated that a Nintendo Direct held in January would feature EA games like FE.

A couple more things happened since that leak. Amazon has recently created placeholders for unannounced Switch games, and quickly took down the listings after. Though some fans were able to place orders for these games. All of the games featured an image that indicated that these games are from the recent Nintendo Direct. Gamestop has had a similar leak, with a mysterious listing of Switch games appearing in their inventory.

RUMOR – GameStop adds 6 Switch game SKUs to their internal systems https://t.co/6b50t9yUDX pic.twitter.com/PhwvyTHaxm

— GoNintendoTweet (@GoNintendoTweet) January 10, 2018

Nintendo is certainly aware of the rumors, and has pitched in to troll it’s fans. The big N has published a couple of tweets teasing it’s fans. Official twitter accounts from AAA games like Assassins Creed, Doom, Sonic and more joined the fun and commented on the tweets.  Leaving fans to believe that these games might see a future on the Nintendo Switch. If that wasn’t enough Nintendo of Russia tweeted that a Nintendo Direct was incoming, but moments later they took that tweet down.

What is the secret you're seeking? I know it, I know it, ha HA! I can't tell you! ♪ It's hiding somewhere and no peeking! ♪ Go find it, go find it, scra-CAW! pic.twitter.com/uOzojBR7A4

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 5, 2018

It is 2018, the Nintendo Switch is awesome, but there has yet to be any announcement of an Animal Crossing Switch game. Yes, we have Pocket Camp and it’s really not that bad, if you’re not a true fan of the series. If you are a die hard fan, then you’ll well be aware of the fact that since the first Animal Crossing game released back in 2001, the last main series installment (New Leaf,) was out on the 8th of November, 2012 for Japan and out in June for the rest of the world in 2013. Regardless of the fact spin-offs such as Happy Home Designer (2015,) amiibo Festival (2015) and the New Leaf expansion “Welcome amiibo” and the mobile app has graced our presence since, it has been well over 4 years since the last true installment.

Animal Crossing Switch is one of the most anticipated games for the Nintendo Switch. In the last week many rumors emerged on websites like Reddit, Neogaf and 4chang. Most of them point at a Q3, or even Q4 release for Animal Crossing Switch. Making it a Holiday game to help ship even more Switch units. However Nintendo is expected to release Bayonetta 3, possibly Smash Bros for the Switch. These games are also expected to be released by the end of 2018. Because of that,  Animal Crossing 2018 could be released as early as Summer 2018. This has been the case for New Leaf as well. Last year Nintendo gave us Splatoon 2 and ARMS. Both of them are fun games to play and were well worth the Summer status they were given and Animal Crossing 2018 could be a follow up to the success of Splatoon 2 and ARMS.

Even if the Nintendo Direct does not happen on 1.11.2018 it will most likely happen next week, or any day in January. Nintendo has to show what they have in store for it’s fans through 2018. The Animal Crossing franchise received a lot of hype with the recent release of the mobile game, there is a good chance Nintendo will ride that hype train to further push the franchise with an Animal Crossing Switch announcement. In the end Reggie, president of Nintendo North America did say that a future Animal Crossing is expected to tie in with the mobile version of the beloved village simulation game. Check out this post for a video of what Animal Crossing Switch could look like.