Recent reports have suggested that the Switch 2, Nintendo's highly anticipated flagship console successor, is not expected to launch before April 2025, while Nintendo reiterates its plans for the current Switch model as it enters the end of its lifecycle.
“The Summer of Switch 2” Could Happen Next Year
Developers Reportedly Hope for April/May 2025 Switch 2 Launch
Nintendo’s highly anticipated successor to the Switch, aka the elusive "Switch 2," is reportedly not expected to launch before April 2025. This information came from a recent discussion on the GamesIndustry.biz podcast, where the media company’s head, Chris Dring, shared insights which he claimed came straightly from game developers.
According to Dring, several developers have been advised not to anticipate the Switch 2’s release within the current financial year (ending March 2025). "No developer I’ve spoken to expects it to be launching in this financial year," Dring said. "In fact, they’ve been told not to expect it in the financial year. A bunch of people I spoke to hope it’s out in April or May time, still early next year, not late."
Dring also mentioned that this could be part of a move to avoid a launch clash with other major releases, such as Rockstar Games' highly anticipated game, "GTA 6" which is speculated to come out sometime around the Fall of 2025 (September-November).
Adding to these release window speculations for Nintendo's next-gen console, journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, speaking on the O X do Controle podcast, suggested that Nintendo might announce the Switch 2 before the end of August this year, as translated and reported by news outlet BGR.
These coincide with Nintendo's plans to make an announcement regarding the Switch 2 well before the fiscal year ends on March 31, 2025. However, these reports remain unconfirmed given Nintendo’s silence on the matter. Nintendo has confirmed it will make an official announcement regarding the Switch’s successor within the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2025.
Nintendo Shares and Switch Sales Dip
Despite Decline, Current Model Switch Sales Still Go 'M for M' Year-on-Year
In other related news, Nintendo's shares dipped by around 2.3% in Tokyo on August 2 after it reported declining revenue from the current Switch console. Nintendo's Q1 FY2025 Financial Results showed that the Switch segment's hardware and software sales saw year-on-year declines, with Nintendo recording a -46.4% decrease in consolidated sales for its dedicated video game platform. 2.1 million units of the Switch, in its eighth year, were sold during the quarter. However, to put into perspective, Nintendo sold 15.7 million Switch consoles overall for the year ending March 2024, surpassing its full-year sales forecast of 13.5 million units.
More indications of where Nintendo currently is at with the Switch
Nintendo also highlighted that the number of annual playing users for the Nintendo Switch family of systems between July 2023 and June 2024 exceeded 128 million, showing sustained engagement with the current Switch at the end of its lifecycle. The stats refer to the "number of Nintendo Accounts, out of all Nintendo Accounts registered to a Nintendo Switch system, that used Nintendo Switch software one or more times during the 12-month data aggregation period."
In its latest financial report, Nintendo reiterated its commitment to "maximizing" both hardware and software sales, even as the highly-anticipated Switch 2 is on the horizon, and forecasted to sell 13.5 million units for FY2025. "Going forward, we will continue to work to maximize software sales as well as hardware sales in an environment where many people continue to play Nintendo Switch," the company concluded.
