Having sold more than 130 million consoles and a billion games in its first seven years, it’s no surprise that Nintendo is beginning to ratchet up excitement for its next piece of hardware.
While some early reports floated a 2024 release, rumors now point to a 2025 release window, a timeline consistent with Nintendo’s acknowledgment in 2021 that the Switch is ‘in the middle’ of its lifecycle.
And yet, despite the many unknowns, one thing seems clear: fans continue to crave the innovation and excitement that Nintendo’s consoles bring into the marketplace. The story of gaming’s next generation is only just beginning, and we’ll be watching with anticipation to see what exactly Nintendo’s Switch successor will look like.
Rumored Release Date
When it will be released is impossible to say. The Switch was released in March 2017, and console generations – the period between console releases – tend to be 5-10 years. That is to say, the Switch’s successor could be released sometime between 2022 and 2027. But it’s not certain that Nintendo will stick to that schedule. And as the gaming industry constantly evolves, so too can the factors affecting the release of new consoles and the strategies of companies that release them. This is why we can only speculate that the Switch’s successor will be released in 2024 or 2025. Nintendo might have a different plan for the release of its next piece of hardware.
Rumored Specs
In a fascinating deep dive into the potential of Switch 2’s specs, the expert tech analysis site Digital Foundry considered that it could use a custom Nvidia processor. Codenamed the T239, this chipset is similar to the one found in a recent gaming laptop, and the team built a PC to their guesses and ran it through some demanding games to see how well it would function. The Switch 2 would be able to manage a resolution of 1080p and an average of 35 frames per second, which would be a significant boost over the original.
Backward Compatibility
Perhaps the greatest uncertainty regarding the Switch’s successor is whether or not the console is backward compatible with older Switch games. Nintendo has yet to officially confirm anything, but their comments about the Nintendo Account carrying over between generations seem to offer some hope. There could be some backward compatibility going on here, perhaps giving access to digital eShop games on the Switch. And backed up by a former Nintendo employee’s speculation, it has been theorized that the Switch 2 will actually be backward compatible with digital titles. So, until official details from Nintendo come in, the only thing we can say for certain is that the future of gaming remains blurry.
Conclusion
And while Nintendo has been mum about the possibility of announcing hardware, some gamers expect it to be connected to the fiscal calendar, as Nintendo’s new financial year started on April 1st. If Nintendo made an announcement right before that, it could drive up the stock price just in time for the next quarter. This speculation isn’t helped by the fact that Nintendo’s share price hit a record high recently, with the possibility of announcing new hardware being seen as a way to bump up the company’s financials even further. However, whether Nintendo will announce any hardware soon remains to be seen.
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