It’s been nearly a decade since the release of the Nintendo Switch (it feels like just yesterday that the console stirred excitement with an innovative hybrid form), and an upgrade will soon be in order. According to the Japanese giant, the device’s highly-anticipated next-gen successor is now set to arrive “within this fiscal year”, aligning with previous rumours of a delayed Q1 2025 launch.
“We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015,” company president Shuntaro Furukawa said on X/Twitter. “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.”
The update was released as part of Nintendo’s quarterly earnings report, which forecasts a total sales of 13.5 million units for this year — down from 15.7 million in 2023. Net profit during the upcoming year is also expected to drop by 39 percent, with a project 19 percent decline in revenue.
Meanwhile, the OLED model, which debuted in 2021, saw a 1.1 percent increase in sales year over year. The user base remains healthy, hitting its peak between April 2023 and March 2024 with 123 million annual players.
Nintendo has just kicked off its new fiscal year, so Furukawa’s statement means the Switch successor will debut latest by March 2025. Initially slated to launch in the second half of this year, the console became the focus of speculation in the last year or so due to its sparse 2024 lineup, especially coming off a hot streak with heavyweights like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
It’s nice to receive official confirmation from Nintendo, even if the news of a Switch 2 has been a long time coming. There’s no word yet on the release plan moving forward, but it’s entirely reasonable to assume that upcoming titles like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the sequel to 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, will be part of the console’s launch window.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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Kaylyn Lim
