We're officially less than five months away from Nintendo announcing the Nintendo Switch's successor. During the company's latest earnings calls, President Shuntaro Furukawa reaffirmed plans to announce the the successor to the Nintendo Switch "within the fiscal year."
Furukawa first confirmed Nintendo's plan to announce the Switch's successor — which is currently being referred to in the media and by many as the Nintendo Switch 2 — back in May. “We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year," he said.
Nintendo's fiscal year concludes on March 31, 2025, which means the announcement could come at any time before that. With The Game Awards scheduled for December, it's possible Nintendo could tease the console, setting up a more formal reveal in 2025.
With the reveal just around the corner, we're starting to see more and more supposed leaks of the highly anticipated console appear online. Back in September, leaked renders showcased the supposed Switch 2, seemingly confirming a design similar to the current Switch but with some tweaks to the Joy-Concontrollers and an additional USB-C port on the top of the system. VGC said it confirmed the renderings which reportedly originated on a Chinese social media site and made their way to Reddit.
The renderings showed a similar hybrid gaming console with an 8-inch screen, which would be larger than the original Switch's 7.2-inch screen and the OLED Switch's 7-inch screen. The images also showed a different placement for the LEDs on the Joy-Con controllers which would attach magnetically to the console.
Specific hardware details have not been leaked, although the Switch 2 is expected to have a significantly higher amount of RAM and more internal storage for games. This would be a welcome upgrade from the current Switch, which often lags behind the Xbox and PlayStation in terms of processing power and graphics.
Not that frame rate or graphics have hampered the Switch's sales. Nintendo's novelty tends to make up for the lack of console power and the Switch's hybrid portable design has been a smash hit with gamers.
As of September 2024, the Switch had shipped over 146 million units worldwide, making it Nintendo's best-selling home console. It's also the third-best-selling game console of all time, trailing only the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS.
Given the console's incredible number to date, it's no surprise that sales are starting to slow down. In the latest earnings report for the three months ended September 30th, Nintendo lowered its Switch hardware sales forecast to 12.5M for the fiscal year, down from 13.5M.
“For a platform that is in its 8th year in the market, both hardware and software enjoy stable demand and brisk sales,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said at the time. “But sales so far fell short of our original projections. Taking into consideration their sales in the first half, we revised our forecasts for both hardware and software, and that led to the earnings revision.”
What do you hope to see from the Nintendo Switch 2 when it's finally revealed?