Nintendo teases Switch release dates for Pokémon, Smash Bros., Metroid, and more

Nintendo has a whole lot of games it's planning on bringing to the Nintendo Switch in the near future and we finally have an outline of when we can expect some of these heavy hitters.

In Nintendo's latest earnings release, the company gave a rough idea for when all of its biggest upcoming Switch games are coming, including the new Super Smash Bros., the first Pokémon RPG on consoles, Metroid Prime 4, and Bayonetta 3.

In its report, Nintendo confirmed that the new Super Smash Bros. game for Switch will be coming in 2018. The game was first revealed in a Nintendo Direct live stream in March and soon after Nintendo noted that the game would be playable at E3 in July, which gave fans hope that the game's full release would be coming soon after.

In addition to the 2018 launch window, the listing for the new Smash game in the report is "Super Smash Bros. (temp)," which basically confirms it will be a new entry in the series instead of a remaster of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Up next on the list is Pokémon's highly anticipated debut on a home console. The untitled Pokémon RPG is expected to launch in "2018 or later," which likely means that Nintendo is hoping for a release around the holiday season but is prepared to wait for the game to be ready in 2019. Game development is a tricky business, folks, you can't always judge when something will be ready when you're still almost a year away.

The last two game, Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 have launch dates listed as "TBA," which means you shouldn't get your hopes up for a 2018 release from either of those titles. Sure, Nintendo could throw a curveball and push these out sooner than expected, but it's more than likely that they'll hit in 2019 or even 2020.

But let's just hope for 2019 right now.

We may get a more solidified picture of Nintendo's launch schedule for the Switch around E3 with Nintendo's live stream happening at noon ET on July 12.