Nintendo's next console, tentatively called the Switch 2, may be released as early as March 2025. That's according to a newly emerged report that also revealed some other alleged details about Nintendo's plans for the upcoming system.

The Switch successor has long been expected to hit the market in the second half of 2024. Industry watchers' consensus on its availability changed in mid-February, when a number of reports alleged that the Switch 2 had been delayed until 2025. Nintendo is even said to have started briefing its biggest developer partners about the postponement, which is ostensibly how the news leaked in the first place.

A new report from Nikkei has now corroborated some of those claims, in addition to revealing several other alleged details about Nintendo's release plans for the console. Specifically, the Tokyo-based outlet narrowed down the Switch 2 release window to March 2025, citing sources close to Nintendo. Nikkei believes that time frame could be pushed back even further, depending on the state of Nintendo's production capabilities in early 2025. Specifically, the gaming giant is allegedly adamant about avoiding the shortages and price scalping that have troubled the Switch for months post-release, to the point that it's said to be willing to delay the console even further if it believes its production cannot meet the launch demand for the system.

Switch 2 First-Party Launch Lineup May Be Stronger Than Its Predecessor's
As for the previously reported postponement, Nikkei's report partially attributes it to Nintendo's desire to accompany the Switch 2 with a stronger first-party launch game lineup than what its predecessor had received. Although the Switch enjoyed a fairly steady influx of first-party titles in 2017, it launched with just three Nintendo-made games. Of those, only The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a true system-seller despite not even being a console exclusive, having also debuted on the Wii U. The other two titles were 1-2-Switch and Snipperclips, both of which were much less ambitious and more niche releases.

Nintendo Switch 2 Expected to Be Another Hybrid Console
One final detail mentioned in Nikkei's report concerns the overall design of the upcoming system, with the outlet claiming that the Switch 2 will continue the hybrid design philosophy introduced by its predecessor. Many industry insiders have already alleged the same over the years. The claims that the console will allow for both docked and handheld play are in line with the widespread reports of the Switch 2 using a mobile system-on-chip from Nvidia, much like Nintendo's 2017 device.

While the Switch was officially announced some four months before hitting the market, its successor may widen that reveal-to-release gap to nearly a year. That's according to a recent report from Brazil-based journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, who broke the story of the console's internal delay. In a follow-up to that scoop, Lippe said that Nintendo may reveal the Switch 2 in June 2024.

Posted: Mar 02, 2024 11:30 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/nintendo-switch-2-2025-release-month-window-report/