Nintendo’s June Direct may have pleased fans with a broad and surprisingly strong software lineup, but investors reacted very differently: the company’s stock fell nearly 7 percent after the presentation failed to reveal a major new 3D Super Mario game.

Fan sentiment around yesterday’s Nintendo Direct was broadly positive, but the stock market clearly did not share that enthusiasm. Nintendo’s shares fell by as much as 8 percent during the day before recovering slightly, though they still hovered around a 6.75 percent decline. Analysts point to the absence of a genuine heavyweight announcement, especially a new mainline Super Mario game, as the key reason behind the market’s disappointment.

According to Reuters, Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a client note that the lack of a mainline 3D Mario for this year’s holiday shopping season is commercially meaningful. The Switch 2 launched last June with titles including Mario Kart World, followed later by Donkey Kong Bananza. Year two now heads into the holiday window without a franchise title carrying comparable commercial pull.

This is not the first time Nintendo’s stock has taken a heavy hit. The share price had previously declined for five consecutive months until early May, as investors pushed for a price increase for the Nintendo Switch 2. When that increase arrived a few days later, the stock fell another 12 percent, partly because of a relatively bleak forecast for fiscal year 2027. The priorities of investors and consumers are not the same: investors look for maximum profit, while players mainly want a healthy and exciting flow of games.

From that consumer perspective, the June 2026 Nintendo Direct delivered a strong showing. Third-party publishers are offering an almost unprecedented level of support for a Nintendo console, not only through ports of older titles, but also through brand-new releases. The lineup included Rise of the Tomb Raider, DayZ, Devil May Cry 5, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Stellar Blade, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Lies of P, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, Lords of the Fallen II, Final Fantasy Resonance, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Kingdom Hearts IV.

Nintendo’s own first-party output does not appear to be slowing down either. Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct showed Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, Xenoblade Genesis, and the long-rumored remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. On top of that, FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods is likely to draw more than a few fans of the Japanese studio toward the Switch 2, especially those who follow the developer for its darker and more demanding games.

At the same time, investors do have a point. There has not been a new 3D Super Mario game since 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey, meaning that next year will mark a full decade since the series last received a major new entry in that form. Nintendo is almost certainly working on another one, and it could well arrive in 2027, but investors wanted reassurance now. They did not get it, and the stock responded accordingly.

Source: Wccftech