Predicting Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remaster’s Release Date

Highlights

• Nintendo announces remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for Switch, exciting for fans of the acclaimed RPG.
• Release date for the game is still unknown, but historical patterns suggest it may arrive in October or November 2024.
• Based on Intelligent Systems’ release history, it’s likely the remake will take at least a year to complete and may not be released later than November.

Nintendo has announced several games for 2024, and among them is a remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The game originally launched on the Gamecube back in 2004 and was met with critical acclaim, earning a score of 87 on Metacritic. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is considered one of the best RPGs to have been released on the Gamecube, so it is exciting to see that it is being ported to the Switch.

There isn’t a release date for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door just yet, but it may be possible to deduce its release date based on what is known about Nintendo and its history of game releases. This is largely speculative, taking into consideration patterns and recent news to make an educated guess.

Nintendo’s 2024 Lineup

Nintendo has a few games announced for 2024 already. Some of them have fixed release dates already, such as Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Princess Peach: Showtime, releasing on February 16 and March 22 respectively. Luigi’s Mansion 2 has also been announced, but Nintendo only revealed that it could be expected in the summer, so it could be released anywhere between June and September 2024.

Below is a list of how many games Nintendo has released each month in North America. This list ignores the Switch’s launch year since it was not a full year. It also ignores Nintendo’s known release schedule for 2024.

• January: 4
• February: 4
• March: 6
• April: 5
• May: 5
• June: 10
• July: 8
• August: 1
• September: 8
• October: 9
• November: 6
• December: 2

Narrowing Down The Thousand-Year Door’s Release Date

This paints a picture of Nintendo’s release habits based on 6 full years of game releases. Nintendo is more likely to release games in June than any other month. The company disfavors the months of August and December. There are games announced for January, February, and March 2024 so far. Luigi’s Mansion is set for a summer release, presumably sometime in September since it’s closer to Halloween. As for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it seems reasonable to assume that it will arrive after Luigi’s Mansion 2 since it hasn’t got a release window yet. If one makes this assumption, TTYD will most likely arrive in October or November.

Disregarding the known release schedule and the number of games Nintendo has published on the Switch each month, there is further reason to believe that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will arrive in either October or November of 2024. This comes from looking at the release history of the developer, Intelligent Systems. The last game from the developer is WarioWare: Move It!, which was released in November 2023. October or November seem like good candidates based on the fact that Intelligent Systems has historically taken roughly a year to develop games for the Switch, with a few exceptions. Notably, the Fire Emblem titles seem to take a little longer in the oven since they are larger in scale.

Below is a list of all the games Intelligent Systems has released for the Switch so far:

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses (July 26, 2019)
• Paper Mario: The Origami King (July 17, 2020)
• WarioWare: Get It Together! (September 10, 2021)
• Fire Emblem: Engage (January 20, 2023)
• WarioWare: Move It! (November 3, 2023)

Intelligent Systems Release History

It seems wise to err on the side of caution and anticipate that the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake will take no less than a year to complete. Nintendo doesn’t seem to like releasing games in December, so it probably will not come later than November.

Ultimately, this is merely an attempt at making an educated guess about when Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will arrive. As always, there is the possibility that the game could be delayed. It could also arrive earlier than anticipated, especially if the recent news regarding its ESRB rating is any indication, considering that Nintendo typically releases games up to six months after their rating. Outside of that, based on the history of both Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, November is looking like the safest bet.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is currently in development for Switch.