A fresh source has claimed that the Nintendo Switch 2 has been delayed into next year, and more specifically that Nintendo’s follow-up to its best-selling handheld/home console hybrid will launch in March 2025, at the earliest.
This latest report comes from the popular Japanese media outlet Nikkei, and it corroborates a widely-circulated rumor from earlier this month that revealed the Switch 2 has been shifted from its planned launch in 2024 into Q1 2025.
This original rumor suggested that Nintendo had moved the release date of its next console to ensure its launch lineup was as strong as possible (rumors of Switch 2 launching with a new 3D Mario game are persistent), but Nikkei also offers up another reason for the delay.
Avoiding Switch 2 restock headaches
According to the publication, one of the primary reasons that the Switch 2 will be arriving a little later than initially expected is because Nintendo wants to ensure it can meet the expected demand at launch. The company is keen to avoid its own PS5 restock nightmare.
As somebody who tracked PS5 restocks every day for a living, I can personally attest to the significant frustration when that arose from Sony being unable to fulfill the demand for its current-gen console. Between the PS5’s launch in November 2020, and early 2023, finding the console in stock at a major retailer was hugely difficult and many gamers resorted to overpaying on the resale market in order to get their hands on a PS5 as soon as possible.
The first-generation Nintendo Switch has suffered stock shortages of its own. When it launched in March 2017, the console was sold out at the majority of retailers and remained extremely difficult to purchase through that year’s holiday season. Switch stock issues became a problem once again in early 2020 when demand for the console spiked in the wake of the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is almost certainly going to be a best-seller right out the gate, so if this latest report is accurate, it’s comforting to know that Nintendo is keen to avoid the situation that plagued the early years of the PS5’s lifecycle. And it might just save me from going a little loopy trying to track Switch 2 restocks every day, which is an additional bonus.
Nintendo Switch 2 — what we know
Nikkei also suggests that Nintendo’s next console, which is commonly referred to as the Switch 2, will be a proper successor to the gaming giant’s juggernaut Switch console. It will again be a hybrid system capable of connecting to a television or being used as a portable device. It will also reportedly pack a larger display.
This lines up with the many Nintendo Switch 2 rumors we’ve heard in the past, but to date, Nintendo has yet to go on the record and give us any concrete details about it's future hardware, so be sure to take everything in this report with a grain of salt.
An online tipster recently claimed that Switch 2 will be announced in March, so it may only be a matter of weeks before we get our first proper look at Nintendo's next-gen console. However, based on this report from Nikki, it could be more than a year before we actually have a Switch 2 in our hands.
