For a video game console table that did n’t even come out in 2024 , the Nintendo Switch ’s heir left quite an shock .
conversationally recognize as the Nintendo Switch 2 , Nintendo ’s follow - up to its hit console - handheld loanblend had rearing speculation surround it the entire year . Even once Nintendo eventually substantiate it would talk about Switch 2 on its own term , the rumour did not slow down . While it now seems highly improbable that Nintendo will discourse Switch 2 again before the year is over , 2024 will , in my mind , always be tie with ludicrous Switch 2 speculation .
It has been a drollery of errors , with the leaks and rumors for Nintendo Switch 2 range from ridiculous to quite plausible . Before Nintendo show off its next small-arm of gaming hardware , let ’s saunter down memory lane and look back at the biggest Switch 2 outflow , real or not , that dropped throughout 2024 .
AI, GDC, and dreams of a 2024 launch
As 2024 began , fans had a flavour that this could finally be the yr Switch 2 was denote and released , especially as multiple developer claimed in an anon. survey that they wereworking on games for the platform . A lie from an AI company play into those thought almost immediately . Around the fourth dimension of CES in January 2024 , Digital Trends spotted a jam release for an AI version of GameShark that claimed that theNintendo Switch 2 would be released in September 2024 . It seemed suspicious that release date confirmation would make out from a company other than Nintendo , and Digital Trends quickly affirm that the society made that all up .
The GameShark Switch 2 kerfuffle specify a tonus that permeated throughout the rest of the twelvemonth . Bloomberg reportedthat Nintendo wanted to bring forth 10 million consoles with an LCD screen within this fiscal twelvemonth and release them . WhenMicrosoft ’s multiplatform plansstarted to leak out in February , there were rumor that some of its games would terminate up on the Switch 2 . Then , ahead of GDC 2024 in March , a wave of novel hearsay strike . Industry insider NateTheHate hype up that Nintendo planned toreveal the console onward of GDCin 2024 following a standard Nintendo Direct in February . It was also reported that Nintendo ’s next play console table would bebackward compatible with Switch games .
But before GDC even lead off , several outlets claimed that Nintendo had internallydelayed the Switch 2to the first quarter of 2025.Eurogamersaid this occur so Nintendo could make the strongest game card possible for the arrangement , while Japanese outletNikkeiclaimed that a March 2025 launching was planned . GDC come and go , and no promulgation of the Switch 2 come about . Was a reveal planned and canceled because of the internal hold ? Are study of that internal delay even precise ? It ’s unlikely that we ’ll ever learn the actual answer to those enquiry .
Nintendo joins the fray
After a no - show of the Switch 2 in the first quarter of 2024 , Nintendopublicly gloss on its next platform . In early May , Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted the fall out message to the company ’s corporate Adam account : “ We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year . It will have been over nine years since we announce the creation of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015 . We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter one-half of 2024 , but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch heir during that presentation . ”
This was the first time Nintendo publicly acknowledged that a “ successor to Nintendo Switch ” was in the works , and it even gave fans the knowledge that they ’d acquire what it was by the end of March 2025 . That did n’t put out the coal of Switch 2 rumors , though ; it only added fuel to the flames . Now , leakers knew it was real , and more selective information start fly around . Rumors of confutative credibility would start up on site like Reddit and 4Chan , with one even claiming the arrangement is call ‘ Nintendo Superior . ”
Nintendo would on occasion give a sliver of info , like confirming other rumors that Switch 2 would be backward compatible with Switch games . As summer turned into descent , diarist from outlets likeGamesIndustry.bizandVideo Games Chronicleteased the possibility that the Switch 2 would be reveal in September . That did n’t come about . Lots of treatment also swirled around a possible discharge date . In fact , sites like Eurogamer implied Switch 2 had been push back yet again and would n’t bereleased before April 2025 . While that may be true , the fact that free date speculation for something not even harbinger yet continue to be so predominant shows how desperate fan are to get their hands on Nintendo ’s next gaming gadget .
So close, yet so far
As the close of the twelvemonth approached and Nintendo ’s window to announce Switch 2 before the death of the fiscal year got tighter and stringent . Many wondered if the announcement would happen around the same time the original Switch ’s did ( October ) or at The Game Awards ( December ) , but neither came to fruition . Nintendo ’s decision not to reveal the console drew all the more aid to wetting showcasing the actual hardware as hardware entered the manufacturing form .
In September , figure of speech of a supposedfactory image of the Switch 2emerged , revealing a design similar to the original Switch ’s . This continued into December , whenReddit substance abuser u / NextHandheldclaimed to have their hands on the console and let on more particular about its intention . Even third - company maker likeSatisfyeandDBrandare giving us a better idea of what the Switch 2 will look like by unveiling peripheral for the still - unrevealed machine .
From the earlier days of January to the final day of December , it has been impossible to go a week without hear some form of Switch 2 hearsay . The circus around leaks , rumour , and speculation for the Switch 2 has gotten screaming at this point , with sports fan dire for any morsels of data they can get on whatever Nintendo is doing next . the Switch 2 has n’t been let on yet , and it already feel like the gaming twist has a fabled status in a yr that it has n’t even come out during . Who knows what sort of impact the Switch 2 will have once it ’s in players ’ manus ?
Hopefully , we learn more about the Switch 2 from Nintendo rather rather than afterwards in 2025 so this hubbub can quiet down or become focused on the game heading to Nintendo ’s next platform .
