Rumor: New claim points to 2025 launch for Switch 2
Original: Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe has claimed that Switch 2 will be launching in 2025. That was shared during the latest OX do Controle podcast, which is based on what he’s heard from five sources.
If true, that would fly in the face of other rumors reported last year. It was previously claimed by other outlets that Nintendo’s next system would be launching in 2024.
Lippe points to Switch 2 launching in Q1 2025. Supposedly, he’s been in touch with sources who are working with that timeframe in mind. A 2024 launch may have been the plan at one point, but could have been delayed to the next calendar year.
We could hear about Switch 2 from Nintendo officially as soon as March. However, it seems that more concrete information would follow in June.
As for the current Switch, Lippe said there are still more games coming to the system this year. Right now Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door have been announced but are without release dates. According to Lippe, anything unannounced for the current Switch would be smaller titles – bigger games are being saved for the next console.
As with all rumors, we recommend maintaining some skepticism until Nintendo shares something officially.
Update: Eurogamer says it “has heard similar whispers of an early 2025 launch from industry sources this week, though has not been able to concretely substantiate them.”
Update: VGC now reports, based on talks with “multiple sources”, that Nintendo recently briefed third-parties on an internal delay for the hardware, and it has moved from late 2024 to Q1 2025. The outlet brings up one publishing source who indicated that the delay could allow Nintendo to prepare a stronger lineup of first-party software.
February 20: Lippe, who led the way on the most recent Switch rumors, now claims that there’ll be a Nintendo Direct in April (which format specifically is unclear) and an Indie World prior to that, likely in March. Now the plan is for Switch 2 to be revealed in June in light of the recent internal delay. Note that this is not official and everything is subject to change.
There’s yet another report on the situation, this time from Nikkei, who says things are currently on track for March 2025. The outlet claims that with the delay to 2025, Nintendo “has prioritized streamlining the initial sales of the new machine, and giving more time to game developers to create popular titles.” Apparently the company is also not against moving the launch back to later in 2025 if it believes it needs to.
