Reports have emerged that the planned launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has been pushed back from 2024 to Q1 2025.
While Nintendo has not announced a successor to the Nintendo Switch just yet, it’s been widely expected and reported that the extremely popular hybrid console is now in its final year as the company’s main console. Previous reporting had stated that Nintendo was targeting a 2024 release, but multiple sources now say that, while still within the same fiscal year, Nintendo is pushing the launch back to Q1 2025 to help boost the console’s line up of first party launch games.
The original reporting came from Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe in a OX do Controle video, noting that he had heard this from five separate sources. This has since been corroborated by Eurogamer, VGC, and Bloomberg.
The source of the leak is apparently just the game industry as a whole, with Nintendo necessarily briefing their third party partners on the shift in their plans.
All of this might mean that the Nintendo Switch 2 has the same February/March release window as the original Nintendo Switch, which will allow for true apples-to-apples comparisons sales figures.
Of course, there’s an awful lot of unknowns here until Nintendo actually makes their own announcements. While we expect that the company will stick with the same overall concept for the Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it’s called), of having a tablet with removable controllers that can be docked for TV play, we don’t know if there will be full or partial backward compatibility to the Switch’s vast library of games – Nintendo has seemingly acknowledged that this would be quite important, though. Additionally, while Microsoft and Sony both had cross-generational game releases through the first for years of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 life cycle, it’s not known if Nintendo will cut the outgoing generation loose entirely, even if they have a track record of cross-gen launch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess across GameCube and Wii, and Breath of the Wild across Wii U and Switch.
One thing we do know is that we can’t wait for the next Nintendo console. The current generation is treading water a little bit and we’re keen for a shot in the arm to allow more ambitious games to feature on Switch once more.
