Nintendo finally acknowledges that it’s working on a Switch successor
By: Bradly Shankar Posted: May 8, 2024
Nintendo has finally made a formal acknowledgment about a successor to the Nintendo Switch.
The gaming giant referred to the upcoming console in a Tuesday morning tweet to its official Japanese X (Twitter) account. In a message attributed to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, the company confirmed that it “will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year.”
This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct…
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) May 7, 2024
Nintendo’s fiscal year ends in March 2025, so that doesn’t exactly narrow it down. Still, it’s a notable move from the company, which has been coy about even acknowledging that new hardware is on the way.
In the post, Nintendo also confirmed that it will hold its next Direct presentation sometime in June, although it will not feature any mention of this next console. Instead, this showcase will focus on Nintendo Switch games that will be released in the latter half of 2024. Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase and Ubisoft Forward will also be held in June.
Given that we know very little about what’s coming to Switch in the coming months, the Direct, as well as those other events, will help fill out the rest of the console’s calendar year. And since 2025 is expected to be the launch year for the next console, 2024 will presumably be the Switch’s swan song.
As it stands, we know little about the Switch successor — which people have colloquially been referring to as the ‘Switch 2’ — outside of some rumours. So far, we’ve heard reports from admittedly unknown sources that the Switch 2 will feature dual console-handheld functionality, magnetic Joy-Cons and an LCD screen. The system may also feature backwards compatibility with existing Switch games.
Ultimately, it seems that Nintendo will carry over at least some elements of the Switch, given how massively successful the console has been. Since launching in March 2017, Nintendo has sold over 141 million consoles, making it the third best-selling gaming system of all time behind only Sony’s PS2 (155 million units sold) and Nintendo’s own DS (154 million units sold).
Hopefully, we’ll learn more about the Switch 2 before too long.
Source: Nintendo
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