Leaks, rumors, and speculation have defined these early days leading up to Nintendo’s official reveal of theNintendo Switch 2, which was confirmed to be in development earlier this year. The console is expected to bea direct successor to the first Switch, iterating on its design and core set of features—a rarity for modern Nintendo home consoles.
For the longest time, it was posited that the newNintendo Switchwould be available for purchase near the start of 2025, or at least during its first half. Intel straight from the horse’s mouth has been fairly sparse, though Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has previously gone on record claiming that the console will be revealed at some point before March of next year. This has led many to believe that some sort of official reveal would occur this fall or early winter, chased by a wide-scale release only a few months later. But now, new rumors are suggesting that the Switch 2’s launch date might be further off than many first anticipated.
Why Some Believe the Nintendo Switch 2’s Release Has Been Pushed Back
The Famiboards Nintendo Switch 2 Leaks
Themost recent bit of Switch 2 newscomes courtesy of a user called RandomlyRandom67 on Famiboards, a forum associated with Nintendo leaks and general speculation. In a hidden post, RandomlyRandom67 claims to have details about Switch 2 component shipments, which seem to indicate that the console hasn’t entered mass production as of August of this year. The reasoning here is that, if Nintendo was planning to launch its next flagship console in early 2025, then mass production would likely have begun by this August, especially since Nintendo has been transparent about its hopes to avoid the supply chain issues faced by its competitors back in 2020 and 2021.
Can The Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date Rumors Be Trusted?
The frustrating thing aboutNintendo Switch 2 leaks and rumorsis that, because Nintendo itself has revealed next to nothing about the system at the time of writing, it’s nearly impossible to verify the validity of most sources. News outlets, discussion forums, and individual reporters often have little more than their source’s track record to go off when evaluating the veracity of Switch 2 claims, and even the most consistent leakers make mistakes sometimes. So, as always, RandomlyRandom67’s claims need to be taken with a healthy dose of salt.
Having said that, there are a few aspects of the aforementioned Famiboards post that are worth dissecting. RandomlyRandom67, who claims to have access to shipping records from Vietnamese Switch manufacturer HVBG, highlights a few key components, including HDMI port testers, circuit boards, and something called a “game console external connecting device.” It seems reasonable to assume that these components are tied to thehardware of the Nintendo Switch 2, given their vague descriptions and HVBG’s professional relationship with Nintendo.
Apparently, the volume of these component shipments to HVBG are dwarfed by the monthly component shipments for the production of the original Switch—a ratio of 4:1 in some cases. Sincethe first Nintendo Switch is over seven years oldat this point, and demand for the Switch 2 will naturally be much higher, this difference in component shipments certainly suggests that the latter hasn’t yet entered mass production.
At the same time, one mustn’t rule out alternative explanations. For one thing, while it may be natural to link these components to the Switch 2, this connection isn’t beyond scrutiny, especially since most laypeople aren’t privy to everything produced at HVBG and the machinations of other tech companies; they could be intended for another product entirely. So, claims such as these could be useful for establishing context and expectations, but audiences should wait foran actual Switch 2 hardware revealbefore jumping to conclusions.
Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console launched in 2017, capable of being played in handheld mode or docked to a television. The Switch Lite, a handheld-only model, followed in 2019, with an OLED refresh coming in 2021.
