If you thought Nintendo confirming that the Switch 2 wouldn’t be out until at least next April would stop the rumours the opposite has happened.
Rumours had suggested that Nintendo’s next console would be released this year but while that might have been true at one point, they’ve since insisted that it won’t be out until after March next year.
With sales of the six-year-old Switch on the decline it’s obvious that a replacement can’t be that far away, but it’s now very difficult to guess exactly when it will arrive.
That’s especially true since Nintendo has implied the new console will be announced much closer to its launch than the Switch, which was first teased two years before it came out. Which means, in theory, the Switch 2 – or whatever it ends up being called – could arrive with relatively little announcement.
The Switch was first teased in March 2015, almost exactly two years before the console launched. However, when asked by investors whether the Switch 2 would be revealed in a similar manner, Nintendo indicated that was a special case, that’s unlikely to be repeated.
‘At that time, as we were venturing into the mobile business, we felt it was important to reassure our audience that Nintendo’s primary focus remained on our dedicated game console business. This is why the timing of the Nintendo Switch announcement was a unique situation,’ said president Shuntaro Furukawa, as translated by VGC.
The Switch itself wasn’t named or shown in public until October 2016, less than five months before its launch, and it’s likely this would be closer to the approach taken with the Switch 2.
Nintendo never said their new console would be released in 2024 but only days after they confirmed it wouldn’t be out this financial year reports have emerged that Sharp is making LCD screens for ‘a new console.’
According to a Bloomberg report, Sharp CEO Robert Wu indicated that the company would start manufacturing the displays this financial year, so whatever the new console is, that implies it’s relatively imminent.
‘I can’t comment on any details regarding specific customers. But as to a new gaming console, we’ve been involved in its R&D stage,’ he said.
There’s no guarantee that he’s talking about a Nintendo product but it’s hard to imagine who else it would be, unless it’s yet another Steam Deck rival – although it’s debatable whether Wu would’ve described that as a ‘console.’
According to Nikkei Asia, development of Nintendo’s new console ‘seems to be progressing well’ but their only clue as to the launch date is that it ‘won’t happen before next spring at the earliest.’
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