Nintendo has reportedly delayed its next-gen 'Switch 2' hardware to early 2025
With the Nintendo Switch just a month out from its seventh birthday and sales for the handheld/console hybrid starting to slow down, many gamers have been eagerly waiting to see what's next from the company. No surprise that a "Switch 2" (though that likely will not be the actual name) has been heavily rumored lately, with a few reports even going so far as to state that some developers already have access to dev kits for the next-gen Nintendo system.
That's all exciting, but the latest rumor is a little bit of a buzzkill. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Nintendo has informed multiple major video game publishers that the Switch 2 has been delayed. This is an internal delay only, of course—Nintendo hasn't announced the new system publicly yet—but it will mean that rather than launching during the holiday of 2024, the successor to the Switch will now arrive some time in early 2025.
The reason for the delay is not clear, but according to Bloomberg, publishers were told the new system will not launch "until March 2025 at the earliest." In other words, the follow-up for the Switch won't be here until at least eight years after the Switch's launch, which will make it the longest gap between new console hardware iterations that Nintendo has ever had.
For Nintendo fans, the wait might prove even more painful for one big reason. You may have noticed that the company hasn't announced many new games for 2024. One analyst Bloomberg spoke with, Serkan Toto, believes this is because Nintendo is holding back major new games to coincide with the launch of the next-gen hardware.
"The company will try to keep the blockbusters for the next console, so 2024 might see more remakes of old Nintendo hits," Toto said. Games that Nintendo has currently announced for 2024 include:
Metroid Prime 4 is also in development, although Nintendo hasn't talked much about it since it was revealed just after the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017. Maybe that will be one of the big launch games whenever the Switch 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) finally heads our way next year?
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