You’ve got to feel sorry for anyone working on Nintendo’s social media accounts right now. Just imagine the number of “Switch 2 announcement when?” comments you’d have to read every time you logged into the company account.
Apparently Nintendo as a collective has had enough of the rumours, heresay, lies and begging that always comes with a thing that people are waiting for the company to announce. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has issued a statement in which he confirmed that there was an impending Nintendo Direct, but no you would not be hearing about the Switch 2 in it.
That direct will be in June. What Furukawa did also say, however, is that Nintendo would announce the Switch two, but that would only happen sometime within the fiscal year. For those who are not sure how Nintendo does its accounting, that could be any time up until March 31, 2025.
And then, even when that is announced, the actual console will have a PR and marketing ramp until it is actually released. If I was inclined to make a prediction, I would think the Nintendo is gearing towards a Christmas 2025 release. But don’t quote me on that. It’s purely a guess based on what “best practice” would be for a console release, and Nintendo loves ignoring best practice with its big launches.
It does make sense that Nintendo would delay releasing its next console for as long as possible. If you look outside at the moment you might notice that the world is going through a cost of living crisis. This means that the current Switch, with a library of approximately 100,000 games, and which can be produced and sold relatively cheaply, is a far more responsible product than trying to launch something that would sell at a premium.
This is especially true given that there are a lot of components for devices that are expensive and being gobbled up to turn AI and pad out NVIDIA’s stock value, so it’s even more expensive to produce a new device now than it would normally be.
So kick back and just enjoy the games that are on then Switch. That little engine that could has quite some time left in it yet.
(And if you do want a “new” Switch experience and haven’t yet tried the OLED model, that’s something to treat yourself to. The screen is just that good that it’s like having an all-new experience with your existing Switch library).
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We’re starting to see the Switch hitting its limits tech-wise on “top end” titles — Mario Wonder had occasional judders and Princess Peach Showtime demonstrates why Unreal Engine has never been a great fit for the platform — but that doesn’t mean it’s time to replace it by any means.
There’s still a ton of scope for stuff that *doesn’t* push the tech boundaries, which is where the Switch shines, anyway — plus there’s a bunch of Vita ports/localisations I’d love to see on Switch, too. Not to mention how good the system is for retro games!
Nintendo are on to a winner with Switch and they’d be daft to abandon the momentum they still have. Here’s hoping any successor is backwards compatible.