Nintendo's first Direct of 2022 was a pretty big hit last month. Highlights included the reveal of an all-new Mario Strikers, DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the sleeper hit of the whole presentation, Live A Live. However, the biggest talking point of the entire Direct might well have been the announcement that the Switch is getting its very own version of Wii Sports. The aptly named Nintendo Switch Sports.
During the reveal for Switch Sports, the Direct hosts showed off how volleyball will work, and returning sports like bowling and tennis were also confirmed to be in the game. Football, chambara, golf, and badminton will complete the line-up at launch. Specifically launch because a datamine of Switch Sports may have hinted that there will be more sports added to the game after in the future.
Wipeoutjack7 shared the discovered code on Twitter which makes mention of dodgeball and basketball. They added that fellow dataminer ToyConGarageVR has confirmed the discovery to be an accurate one since. They do also highlight that this doesn't necessarily mean the two sports will be added to the game in the future. They may well have been sports that were going to be in the game during development but were eventually scrapped.
Even though Switch Sports doesn't launch until April 29, 2022, some people have already had a chance to play a few of the sports that will be available on day one. Nintendo ran a test weekend last month, but if you're looking for feedback from those who took part on how it went, you'll likely come up short. Nintendo made those taking part agree not to share any information about what they experienced, including videos captured and any screenshots taken.
Adding more sports during the period after its initial launch certainly makes sense. While Switch Sports might be the spiritual successor to Wii Sports, one of the best-selling games of all time, it may not have the initial appeal or staying power of its older sibling. For starters, Wii Sports was only so popular because it was given away free with Wii consoles. Since Switch Sports won't be a free game, it will only sell a fraction of the copies and will likely have to add new content to keep people playing.