Best Buy is providing Switch owners everywhere with an all-expenses paid trip aboard the hype train, as the electronics retailer has presumably leaked potential releases of Persona 5 and Metroid Prime Trilogy for Nintendo’s flagship console in online listings. Though the validity of the leaks aren’t ironclad, some reliable industry insiders seem confident that these listings point to the likelihood of the games’ existence, as retailers often jump the gun before publishers are given a chance to make formal announcements.
Hot off the heels of Persona 5 The Royal’s surprise announcement, this leak seems to confirm the long-rumored Switch release of Persona 5. Originally speculated after Persona 5’s Joker was announced as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s first DLC character (with slots in the first-party fighting series’ roster often being used to market outside franchises and gauge players’ reception of them), this latest development makes the possibility of a Switch port of the critically acclaimed JRPG appear all the more likely. Meanwhile, a Switch port of the Wii U’s Metroid Prime Trilogy seems like a no-brainer on Nintendo’s part considering that all prior work on Metroid Prime 4 was scrapped, pushing the game’s unknown release date even further into the future.
The rumor began when Imgur user Groo0731 posted a series of images taken of a Best Buy point-of-sale terminal, featuring “Persona 5 - Nintendo Switch” as a product complete with its own SKU. This prompted well-known industry insider Wario64 to investigate, posting screenshots of his own to Twitter. The tweets can be found below, containing similar Best Buy listings for Metroid Prime Trilogy and, even more out of left-field, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, each with unique SKUs.
While Persona 5 and an updated collection of the beloved Metroid Prime games could be at least somewhat foreseen, Nintendo porting A Link to the Past to Switch would be a wholly unprecedented turn of events, especially when considering that a stylish remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was announced just this February. As tempting as it may be to take Best Buy’s listings at face value, however, things that seem too good to be true are often just that. While none of these titles would be entirely out of character for Nintendo to bring to Switch, prospective players should keep their expectations metered in the event that the listings ultimately turn out to be bogus.
Nevertheless, there is a chance that the above tweets and images are indicators of real products that will hit the Switch’s already stellar library of games sometime in the future. With Persona 5 being rumored to arrive on the hybrid console sometime in Fall 2019, who knows—if these leaks are accurate, perhaps Switch owners can get their hands on these titles sooner rather than later.
More: Metroid Prime 4’s Original Announcement Was Irresponsible
Source: Groo0731/Imgur, @Wario64
