New reports suggest that the anticipated launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, which was rumoured to arrive later this year, has been moved to Q1 2025. The console’s launch window reportedly slipped out of its 2024 target and into early next year – a report corroborated by multiple media outlets over the past weekend.
Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe first claimed to have heard from five different sources that the Nintendo Switch 2 had been moved to 2025. The leaker added that Nintendo is working on first-party games to launch alongside the console itself. VGC later corroborated this report with its own sources which also claimed that the Q1 2025 window was accurate. Nintendo apparently pushed the next-gen console’s launch back in order to prepare “stronger first-party software” for the Switch successor.
Eurogamer and Bloomberg, two more reliable media outlets when it comes to industry information, also corrobrated the report hearing the same thing about the new console’s early launch next year instead of this year.
It seems like the main reason behind the internal delay has to do with making sure the Nintendo Switch 2 has a strong first-party offering to launch with the hardware, which is understandable considering that the original Switch launched with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Fans speculate that Nintendo might be gearing up to launch Metroid Prime 4 with the Switch 2 or a potential new 3D Mario game.
With these reports out in the wild, it’s unknown if Nintendo’s plans to reveal the console in March will continue as rumoured. The delay could also give the original Nintendo Switch more time to build up sales as it currently sits at 139 million units sold – about 15 million units shy of overtaking the PS2’s lifetime sales of 155 million. We doubt that it will be able to sell 15 million units in one year unless the aging hardware still has a few tricks up its sleeve.
Source: Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe
