If you need a break from your laptop — or just want to try a different form factor — you could do much worse than the Nintendo Switch, first released more than seven years ago.
Release date rumors for the so-called "Switch 2" have been swirling since May, when company leaders said there were no plans to release a sequel to the Switch during this current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025.
That led to speculation that nothing new would be announced until at least April 1, 2025, when Nintendo begins a new financial year.
What did Nintendo say about the original Switch?
"We try to not only put one system in every home, but several in every home, or even one for every person."
The Switchuation got slightly crunchier on Tuesday when Nintendo released its quarterly earnings report. A statement nestled in those earnings shows that Nintendo still has bold plans for its handheld wonder.
"For hardware, by continuing to convey the appeal of Nintendo Switch, we try to not only put one system in every home, but several in every home, or even one for every person," the corporation declares.
It's not quite "a Switch for every man, woman, and child" — to paraphrase a bit of political art from more than 80 years ago — but it's close.
The company goes into further detail about how it plans to keep the focus on the original Switch by releasing more games:
"Another objective is to continually release new offerings so more consumers keep playing Nintendo Switch even longer and we can maximize hardware sales. For software, in addition to Super Mario Party Jamboree, released in October, we have other titles planned for release, such as Mario & Luigi: Brothership (November) and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (January 2025). Other software publishers plan to release a wide variety of titles, and we will strive to invigorate the platform by continually introducing new titles in addition to the existing titles."
What are the rumored specs of the Switch 2?
Rumors of Switch 2 have been growing this year. In May, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said during a Q&A with investors, "The sales forecast for the [April 2024-March 2025] year does not include the successor to Nintendo Switch."
Of course, that led to speculation that a new Switch could debut as early as the next month — April 2025. "Nintendo Switch 2 is Still Planned to be Announced Before April 2025, Says Nintendo," inferred Insider Gaming in the days after Furukawa's comments.
In September, Laptop Mag reported on purportedly leaked images of the Switch successor device: It would have an eight-inch screen (larger than the original device's 6.2 inches and the OLED model's 7 inches) and be bigger: 270 x 115 x 14 millimeters with the Joy-Cons attached (larger than the original Switch's 239 x 102 x 14-millimeter footprint).
Laptop also reported that the leaks indicate the Switch 2 would include a stunning 12GB of RAM, far larger than the original model's 4GB. As for storage space, the September 2024 Switch 2 rumors also claim that it would come with 256GB of memory, more than 32GB in the original Switch, and 64GB in the OLED model, released in October 2021.
No matter what the Switch 2 specs are, or when it comes out, look for the original Switch to burn brightly until then.
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