After weeks of leaks and wild hypothesis, Nintendo has lastly introduced the Switch 2, the highly-anticipated successor to its wildly widespread hybrid handheld console. The gamemaker launched a two-minute teaser at this time with a primary have a look at the console, a handheld that seems similar to the unique Change, however larger.
Nintendo additionally introduced on Thursday that it will likely be holding a Direct presentation to supply extra particulars on the Change on April 2. Within the video announcement Nintendo debuted a bigger display screen with a pair of black and pink, and black and blue, Pleasure-Cons. The video additionally seems to tease a brand new Mario Kart sport with footage proven for only a few seconds.
The hand held will play each Change 2 and Change video games, Nintendo mentioned in a press launch, however added that “sure Nintendo Change video games is probably not supported on or absolutely suitable with Nintendo Change 2.”
The original Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, at a time when Nintendo was nonetheless recovering from poor sales of its earlier console, the Wii U. The place the Wii U failed to seek out an viewers, nevertheless, the Change soared. In 2023, it turned the third best-selling console of all time behind Nintendo’s DS and the PlayStation 2, a place it nonetheless holds.
By 2024, nevertheless, it appeared the console had peaked. Gross sales have been plummeting, and already rumors have been spreading of a next-gen entry. Almost a yr in the past, when Nintendo announced Pokémon Legends: Z-A can be coming to its “programs” in 2025, followers speculated {that a} new console was on the horizon. (By no means thoughts that the plural “programs” right here may have simply referred to Change’s Lite and OLED fashions.)
In Might of final yr, the corporate promised it could reveal a brand new console by April 2025. Final month, particulars and alleged photographs of the system leaked from manufacturers, and later on platforms like Reddit and X.
Nintendo diehards, at the least, have been having enjoyable with the leaks—whether or not it’s using Tarot card readings to divine the announcement date, or making spoofs about options like “imported Italian air” or screws. “It has 10 grooves. So reveal January tenth,” one Reddit person joked. One other constructed a “summoning circle” stuffed with previous video games and Mario and Luigi collectible figurines.
The subsequent-generation Change will likely be launched right into a a lot completely different console ecosystem than its predecessor. In 2022, Steam launched its handheld Steam Deck, which permits gamers to take extra PC video games on the go. Throughout CES this yr, Microsoft’s “Subsequent Technology” VP, Jason Ronald, hinted to The Verge that there can be updates this yr to the Home windows gaming expertise. Microsoft Gaming chief, Phil Spencer, has additionally alluded to the opportunity of a handheld Xbox device.
