Eurogamer’s sources confirm that the Switch 2 has been delayed until the first quarter of 2025.
First published on February 19.
Updated, April 26, 2:07 p.m.:
According to a new source, who has supposedly seen the console, Switch 2 will be launched in the spring of next year and will be announced in June this year. It is also revealed that the Joy-Con controllers are more or less the same as the Switch 1, but that they connect to the Switch screen with “magnetic strips,” and that the first generation will therefore not work with the sequel.
Updated, February 26, 2:37 p.m.:
A new report from Nikkei claims that the Switch 2 will launch in March next year with the same hybrid design and a slightly larger screen. A March launch is pleasant reading after the console was postponed from winter 2024 to next year.
The sources are secure
Nintendo is actually under no time pressure: the Switch 1 still sells the best of the three consoles, helped by the company’s exclusive games, which usually always get close to the top score from reviewers. But the consoles, i.e. including the OLED model, are beginning to reveal themselves as too technically outdated even for Nintendo’s strategy – they is have to at least update to 4K resolution. The console should be powerful enough to run Call of Duty, it was previously revealed.
Back to the rumours, which are now far more tangible: both Eurogamer, as mentioned, and Video Games Chronicle claim the launch will happen early next year. Where did they get this from? There are game publishers who say that Nintendo recently briefed third-party developers for the Switch that they have moved the launch from late this year to early next year. This means that Nintendo will still stay within the same financial quarter.
There are still more games coming to Switch 1, such as Princess Peach in March, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Paper Mario: A Thousand Year Door.
More details about the console were revealed last September when it was shown at Gamescom – as early as July of the same year, developers should have had access to hardware:
“There are more revelations: according to the leaks, the Switch 2 shown to developers in August supports DLSS 3.1 and the machine has 12GB of RAM (more than the Xbox Series S’s 10GB, but less than the X’s 16GB) with ray tracing capabilities.”
