Nintendo makes first Switch 2 announcement

Nintendo has officially discussed Switch 2 for the first time, and laid out a rough timetable for when we’ll see the much-discussed but still under-wraps console publicly unveiled.

TO messages from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, posted this morning to social media platform X, confirms we’ll hear of Switch 2 “this fiscal year” – before the end of March 2025.

But the message also dampens down any expectations we’ll hear about Switch 2 in the next few months – as Furukawa rules out any further details being shared in an upcoming Nintendo Direct scheduled for June.

“This is Furukawa, president of Nintendo,” Furukawa wrote. “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 this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.”

Nintendo had, until now, kept quiet on its plans for a successor to the long-lived Switch – despite a steady stream of leaks detailing Switch 2’s progress to release.

Eurogamer reported last summer that Nintendo had demoed Switch 2’s hardware capabilities to a number of developers around the Gamescom event in August. Eurogamer sources later confirmed Switch 2 was now on track to launch in 2025 – a little later than planned, to allow the machine to arrive with a robust software line-up.

Subsequent reports have detailed a little of what we can expect of the Switch 2 itself, which is widely expected to be another hybrid console similar to Switch, albeit with upgraded technical power. Switch 2 is expected to offer a larger eight-inch screen, albeit LCD rather than OLED, and attach its new Joy-Con magnetically.

Finally, today’s announcement of a June Nintendo Direct is confirmation the company will once again update fans on its plans during the usual E3 (RIP) timeframe. Maybe Metroid Prime 4, first confirmed for Switch 1 back in 2017, will finally get a mention?