The wait for Nintendo’s next-gen console may have just gotten a little longer. According to multiple reports, Nintendo now plans to launch its Switch successor in the first quarter of 2025 — or about eight years after it launched the original Nintendo Switch.
Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, citing multiple sources, reported Friday in a new video that Nintendo recently briefed publishers on an updated launch window for the new console, colloquially known as “Switch 2.” That report has since been corroborated by reports from VGC and Eurogamer, also citing sources, that say Nintendo’s original plan for a next-gen launch in the second half of 2024 has been pushed to Q1 2025.
VGC’s report says that the delayed launch of the Switch 2 may be due to Nintendo’s desire to prepare “stronger first-party software for the console.”
Nintendo has not officially announced a successor to the Switch, nor has it indicated a potential launch window for the system. But multiple reports previously pegged it for a 2024 launch.
Company president Shuntaro Furukawa recently told investors that the original Switch would be Nintendo’s “main business” for its upcoming fiscal year, which runs from April 2024 through March 2025. Furukawa has also promised a “smooth transition” to any next-generation platform.
Nintendo’s current-generation console-handheld hybrid continues to sell well, despite its age. More than 139 million Switch systems have been sold to date, making it Nintendo’s second-best-selling console of all time.
If the Switch 2 has been delayed to 2025, Nintendo fans will have to sustain themselves on the company’s currently announced lineup. Mario vs. Donkey Kong just released Friday, and still to come are Princess Peach: Showtime!, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Nintendo also has Metroid Prime 4 on its release schedule but that long-awaited sequel does not have a release window.
Polygon has reached out to Nintendo for comment and will update when the company responds.
