What just happened? We've been hearing rumors about a Nintendo Switch successor for years, but the Japanese gaming giant has kept quiet when it comes to official details. Now, however, the company has confirmed that the Switch 2, or whatever it might be called, will be announced this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made the announcement on the company's official X/Twitter account earlier today. The post notes that it will have been over nine years since the original Switch was announced back in March 2015, and there will be the usual Nintendo Direct event held this June.
Furukawa adds that Nintendo Direct will focus on the Switch software lineup coming out in the second half of 2024, emphasizing that there will be no mention of the Switch successor during the presentation, sadly.
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å Âæ ªå¼Âä¼Â社ï¼Âä¼Âæ¥åºÂå ±ã»IRï¼Â (@NintendoCoLtd) May 7, 2024
Back in February, rumors started swirling that claimed the Switch successor had seen its original 2024 release date pushed back to early 2025. Nintendo reportedly decided to postpone so it could stockpile consoles for the launch. It's hoped that the move will help avoid the nightmare scenario of scalpers buying up all the inventory and selling it at inflated prices, something we've seen many times when new consoles arrive.
Precisely when might the Switch 2 be available? March next year seems like a safe bet, given that the date lines up with the original Switch's announcement, though Nintendo could hold an announcement event in the fall.
There are plenty of rumors surrounding the Switch 2's hardware. The current hybrid handheld devices sport some aging internals, including Nvidia's Tegra X1 and, later, the X1+ SoC, combined with 4GB of RAM. The successor is likely to stick with a custom Team Green chip, rather than jump ship to AMD silicon. Previous reports say the new Nvidia SoC will be built on Samsung's 8nm process and based on Ampere, the architecture used in the RTX 3000-series GPUs.
Other rumored Switch 2 specs include a larger, 8-inch LCD screen with a 1080p resolution and an improved kickstand with a damping bracket for better angle adjustment. It's also said to come with larger Joy-Cons that attach magnetically, but support for existing Joy-Con and Pro controllers will remain via Bluetooth.
The Switch 2 will introduce a new cartridge format, too, though the console should be compatible with Switch 1 cartridges. The dock is also expected to support 4K resolution output via USB-C, and there could even be DLSS support.