Based on a report by Japanese publication Nikkei, the Nintendo Switch 2 will not hit stores until March 2025 at the earliest time.
The COVID-19 pandemic was rough on many fronts for the gaming industry and for the gamers, from price gouging consoles to scalpers buying out GPUs and selling them three times the cost. Now, in an effort to combat scalping on the new Nintendo Switch 2, the upcoming console is reportedly not launching until March 2025 at best. This information was revealed through a report by Japanese publication Nikkei.
Nintendo had originally planned to launch their successive console around late 2024, but Nikkei’s report contained the release window, among other leaked information on the console. The ideal thought about pushing the release a year later is to avoid mass reselling as much as possible. Nikkei wrote, “Priority was given to ensure the initial inventory of the successor console and a lineup of software titles at the time of its launch.”
This makes a lot of sense; if a company has enough supply to meet a decent demand threshold, then the chances of price gouging and reselling will theoretically be lowered. Some of the other details in the report included that the Switch 2 would again be a hybrid portable home device like the original Switch, and it will have larger screen. That could mean the base model of the Switch 2 could potentially be as big as the Switch OLED, which has a 7-inch screen compared to 6.2 inches for the base.
While March 2025 would be the earliest approximate time the new console could release, it is not definitive. It will also be dependent on how manufacturing is going and how much software would be available at launch. So, do not get your hopes up too fast! But this is definitely a smart move to avoid the PlayStation 5’s launch, which scared the supply due to the pandemic. While the world manufacturing chain still recovers, it is a good idea to consider the continued supply shortages.
With this information, it is possible to expect more thorough previews of the Switch 2 throughout the next year. It may finally get spotlighted at Summer Games Fest or many other gaming events of the upcoming season. Nintendo’s share price also dropped on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the report, dipping by as much as 8.8% before settling on an overall loss in value of 5.8%.
