Summary
TheSwitch 2will not be released during Nintendo’s current fiscal year, according to one newly emerged report. The claim reinforces some recent rumors about the timing of theSwitchsuccessor’s market debut.
Back in spring, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that theSwitch 2 will be announced during the company’s ongoing fiscal year, which ends in March 2025. Some industry watchers took this comment to mean that the much-anticipated console is unlikely to be released before the company’s fiscal year ending March 2026, especially since Nintendo’s forecast for the ongoing 12-month period does not anticipate any kind of revenue boost that would be consistent with a new hardware launch in FY25.
Nintendo Partners Reportedly Told ‘Not to Expect’ Switch 2 Before April 2025
More evidence substantiating that theory has now been offered by Christopher Dring, the head of games B2B at GamesIndustry.biz. During the latest episode of theGI Microcastpodcast, Dring said that “no developer” he has spoken to on the matter expects the Switch 2 to be released during the ongoing fiscal year. On the contrary, some Nintendo partners have reportedly been told not to expect the console to hit the market in this period, indicating that the earliestpossible release window for the Switch 2would be April 2024.
Given that state of affairs, many developers are currently hoping to see the new Nintendo console hit the store shelves in April or May 2025, Dring said. But the chances of those wishes being fulfilled remain unclear. According to a February 2024 report from Nikkei,Nintendo wants to avoid Switch 2 launch shortages at all costs, and is prepared to delay the console for as long as necessary to ensure that. That ambition is said to stem from the company’s experience with the Switch, whose 2017 launch was plagued by shortages and scalpers.
Switch 2 Could Have At Least a 6-Month Gap Between Announcement and Release
Building up enough stock to avoid shortages of a highly anticipated gadget would ostensibly take quite a bit of time. For reference, the Switch reportedly started mass production in October 2016, immediately following its announcement. And if four-plus months weren’t enough for it to avoid shortages, Nintendo could go at least half a year between the announcement and release of its next console, assuming it didn’t manage to increase its production capabilities over the last seven years. While the company could shorten that gap by starting Switch 2 mass production prior to announcing the device, it is unlikely to do so due to the extremely high risk of factory floor leaks spoiling its reveal.
During a May 2024 earnings call, Furukawasuggested that the Switch 2 will look similar to its predecessor, meaning it’s likely to be another hybrid device capable of both handheld and docked play. The console is rumored to utilize a custom Nvidia system-on-chip code-named the T239.
Nintendo Switch Lite
The Nintendo Switch Lite was released in 2019 as a low-cost, handheld-only game system. It’s designed specifically for handheld play, offering a lightweight design as part of its portable offerings. The controllers are built into the system for handheld play, unlike the larger Switch models. The console itself retains full functionality as a standard Switch, but it does not support docked mode.
