Nintendo breaks silence on Switch 2, promises announcement by April 2025
But platform holder warns that June's Nintendo Direct will only focus on Switch games for the second half of 2024
Nintendo has given the first indications on when we can expect news on its next console, revealing that the device will be announced "within this fiscal year."
In a social media post released alongside its full-year financial results, the platform holder's president Shuntaro Furukawa wrote that the announcement of "the successor to the Nintendo Switch" will be made by March 31, 2025.
He also set expectations for this summer's Nintendo Direct, which will be released in June — the same month Nintendo has historically tied in announcements with the annual E3 trade show.
Furukawa emphasised that this Direct will be "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."
It's unclear how big the H2 2024 line-up will be at this stage, but Nintendo deciding to skip Gamescom suggests that it won't have much to show consumers come August.
Switch 2 — or whatever Nintendo ends up calling the successor device — was predicted to arrive in 2024 by many analysts, but reports in February suggested the launch has been pushed to 2025.
While it's still possible Nintendo could announce and release before March 31, 2025, the wording of Furukawa's post suggests we may only see the announcement.
Nintendo's forecast for the next financial year also does not suggest the platform holder expects a big release before April 2025.
The company is predicting net sales for the year ended March 31, 2025 to drop 19.3% year-on-year to ¥1.35 trillion ($8.7 billion)
Last week, Chinese peripherals manufacturer Mobapad claimed to have details on the Switch 2's hardware, including smaller, magnetic Joy-Cons and a larger, 1080p screen.