Nintendo has announced Xenoblade Chronicles 3 during its most recent Nintendo Direct and will launch in September later this year. Unfortunately, we didn't get a more concrete release date than that, but we likely won't have to wait long until we find out more.
Shortly after the game's announcement, executive producer Tetsuya Takahashi published a blog post on the official Nintendo website detailing what fans can expect from the upcoming installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, along with key details regarding development.
According to Takahashi, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be enjoyable for long-time fans of the series as well as newcomers who may want to play a Xenoblade Chronicles title for the first time. Takahashi also explains that key members in the development team for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be returning for the third game, including character designer Masatsugu Saito and composer Yasunori Mitsuda.
It's a good sign that a lot of the core developers that worked on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be returning for the third game, meaning that the game won't deviate too much in terms of quality from previous entries. It's also a pretty clear indicator that a lot of passion has gone into the game, with the developers having been connected to the world for such a long time.
If you liked the look of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and want to catch up before its release, both Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are both currently available on Nintendo Switch. That way you'll have all the games in the franchise in one place - apart from Xenoblade Chronicles X that is.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was the closer for what was a pretty good Nintendo Direct that included a bunch on interesting and exciting announcements. We also got the announcement that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be getting a bunch of remastered tracks from across the Mario Kart series, the news that a Chrono Cross remaster is in the works and will launch on April 7 later this year, and that a new Mario Strikers is on the way and will launch in June later this year.