The eagerly awaited Nintendo Switch successor, presently nicknamed the Switch 2, is coming, but it won’t be this year. While Bloomberg originally claimed Nintendo was aiming to have the new Switch out later in 2024, the company itself has noted the console will be revealed “this financial year”, which ends at the beginning of April 2025.
We do know one thing, though: the next Nintendo console will utilise the same Nintendo account system as the current Switch, and will be backwards compatible with games released on the current console, as revealed during the business’ financial briefing in November.
For those of us (like me) with a sizeable backlog, this is welcome news, and also means that the system’s launch lineup will be bolstered by a huge library of previously released titles.
Company president Doug Bowser (yes, his last name is really Bowser) previously said that Nintendo would look to make the transition to newer hardware easier than it had in previous generations.
Talking with Inverse, Bowser said, “Our goal is to minimise the dip you typically see in the last year of one cycle and the beginning of another. I can’t speak to the possible features of a new platform, but the Nintendo Account is a strong basis for having that communication as we make the transition.”
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Even though no pricing info was teased, Bloomberg reports that Hiroshi Hayase, an analyst from the independent consultancy firm Omdia, states that the new Nintendo console “will be responsible for a doubling in shipments of so-called amusement displays in 2024”. Moreover, Sharp Corp, the company that worked with Nintendo as the assembler for the original Switch, revealed last year that they are currently busy with the production of a mysterious upcoming gaming console along with the supply of LCD displays.
The news of the new LCD screen is definitely disappointing for Switch fans who prefer handheld gaming, as LCD screens usually don’t offer deep blacks or higher contrast. While Nintendo may release an OLED version of the Switch 2 later on, its absence at launch sure feels like a missed opportunity.
As for what the Switch 2 might feature beneath its screen, the rumoured specs, as highlighted by RedGamingTech in their YouTube video for the Switch 2, include an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 10 streaming multiprocessors, 8GB memory, and 64GB eMMC storage. Even though these specs appear relatively underwhelming and quite modest, we know how efficient Nintendo and its developers are in squeezing all the performance from the hardware. Also, these are only unconfirmed leaks, and the company may yet surprise us with hidden features or a potentially more powerful revision.
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