Nintendo Just Casually Dropped Some Huge Switch 2 Release Date Info, No Big Deal
The company announced their new console in the most Nintendo way ever.
After literal months of speculation, Nintendo has finally confirmed the existence of the Switch successor. But there’s a catch: the eager public won’t learn more about the console for at least another few months.
Nintendo’s President Shuntaro Furukawa laid out the company’s 2024 plans in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Those plans include a Nintendo Direct set for next month, and more surprisingly, an acknowledgment that the most anticipated piece of gaming hardware of the foreseeable future will be revealed before March 2025.
Considering how ready fans are for new Nintendo hardware, the company’s decision to confirm the new console in such a nonchalant, under-the-radar way marks a significant break from the typical announcement-to-release cycle gamers are used to. The Nintendo Switch, for example, was first announced in 2015, giving players two full years to get excited about the possibilities. It seems the Switch successor will have a fraction of that time to build hype before its imminent release.
“We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year,” Furukawa tweeted. “It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.”
With over 141 million units sold, the Switch has been a mega success for Nintendo.
This marks the first time Nintendo has outright mentioned the existence of a Switch successor. The closest thing to official confirmation before Tuesday was when Fukukawa told company investors a year ago that the next generation of Nintendo consoles, whatever it may be, would allow players to migrate their online accounts, and presumably their purchases, over from the Switch.
Getting ahead of the new console hype was a smart move by the Japanese tech company, especially if they want the eight-year-old Switch to have one final hurrah this holiday season. There are several Switch titles that players are still waiting to hear about, including Metroid Prime 4. There’s a real possibility that the sequel from Retro Studios will appear on a Switch 2, but it was originally announced for the Switch just months after the console’s release.
The Switch successor has been subject to speculation and possible leaks for years. The console will allegedly feature an 8-inch LED screen, a downer for fans of the OLED Switch model. The console is also rumored to retain the Switch’s console-handheld hybrid design and feature internal more comparable to today’s portable PCs like Valve’s Steam Deck.
Some developers allegedly had the opportunity to see the hardware’s capabilities last August during a secret meeting with the Japanese developer at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany sites like Eurogamer reported.
Before Nintendo moves on to the new console, there are still a few key titles in the pipeline for the original Switch. The remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is set to drop later this month, followed by Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD at the end of June. The company also has the next Pokémon title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, slated for next year.
The Switch has been a mega-success for Nintendo, a company that was struggling in the hardware space a decade ago with the Wii-U. Since its release in March 2017, the Switch has sold 141 million units becoming the second best-selling console of all time, just 19 million units short of Sony’s PlayStation 2. It’s likely why any info about the so-called Switch 2, even if it’s just a cursory tweet from the president of Nintendo, will be eagerly gobbled up by fans.
