Updated at 8.45pm in the UK: Eurogamer's sources can now confirm previous reports that Switch 2, which was scheduled to launch later in 2024, is now set for Q1 2025.
The console's launch early next year – but within the next financial year – is designed to ensure the Switch 2 launch lineup features as many titles as possible, Eurogamer understands.
separately, VGC It has also now reported a move to Q1 2025, with publication sources saying Nintendo recently briefed third-party game companies on the move from late 2024 to early 2025.
Original story at 6.15pm UK:A report is circulating online claiming that the Nintendo Switch 2 will now launch in the first quarter of 2025.
Brazilian matches journalist Pedro Henrique Lotti Lippi It stated that Nintendo is now looking to launch its next console in early 2025, although it is still within fiscal year 2024. The report is based on development sources who are now targeting a launch this quarter.
Eurogamer has heard similar whispers about an early 2025 launch from industry sources this week, though it hasn't been able to concretely prove them. The Nintendo Switch 2 was widely expected to arrive later this year. Moving to the other side of Christmas in early 2025 means more time to prepare the console's launch lineup, while maintaining the financial benefit of launching the Switch 2 within Nintendo's upcoming financial calendar.
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VGC reported this afternoon that two development sources working on Switch 2 games were actually aiming for a Q1 2025 launch, though they couldn't confirm that was due to the delay.
Currently, Nintendo only has a handful of games still scheduled to release for the current Switch in 2024: March's Princess Peach title, and ports of Luigi's Mansion 2 and Paper Mario: A Thousand Year Door.
Nintendo is also still listing Metroid Prime 4 for release as a Switch 1 game, despite its “TBA” date.
Eurogamer reported last year that Nintendo showed off the Switch 2's hardware capabilities to developers during Gamescom last August, with partners showing technical demos of how well the system was designed to run.
This came after early Switch 2 details were shared with major publishing partners at the end of 2022 — a fact that Activision Blizzard president Bobby Kotick discussed in an email posted online last year as part of an FTC court case over Microsoft's acquisition of the company. Emails showed Activision executives discussing the Switch 2's ability to run Call of Duty, following a conversation between Kotick and Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa.
However, in a newspaper interview last November, Furukawa described these reports as mere “rumors.”
Regardless, a GDC industry report published last month found that hundreds of developers are now working on projects scheduled to launch on Switch 2.
Eurogamer has contacted Nintendo for comment.
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