Report: Developers Told Not to Expect Switch 2 to Launch Until April 2025 or Later - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 August 2024 / 3,447 Views
Developers have been told not to expect the Nintendo Switch 2 to launch until Nintendo's next fiscal year, which starts April 2025. This is according to the head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring in the latest episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Microcast.
"No developer I've spoken to expects it to be launching this financial year," said Dring (via VideoGamesChronicle). "In fact, they've been told not to expect it in the [current] financial year. A bunch of people I spoke to hope it's out in April or May time, still early next year, not late.
"I don't think any of us wants a late launch for Switch 2 because we all want a new Nintendo console, everyone gets very excited for it, and we don’t want that crunch of Grand Theft Auto VI and Switch and all that kind of stuff on top of each other."
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa in a recent Q&A session stated the company will try to release enough Switch 2 consoles at launch to meet as much of the demand as possible in order to prevent scalping.
"As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a sufficient number to meet customer demand, and this idea has not changed since last year," said Furukawa at the time.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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the switch has more life with zelda and a few heavy hitters on the way
Switch passing ps2 sales pretty much confirmed now
It's much more important for their new platform to get sales than for their over 7 year old one to get sales. That's why Sony isn't porting Lego Horizon adventures to PS4. They know it's more important to incentivise people to get a PS5 than to get a few extra PS4 sales
Not a good example considering Lego Horizon Adventures is also coming to PC and Switch at launch. Sony is incentivizing people to just buy the game considering it's not a system seller title. Astro Bot would be a better example. Just the fact that the PS4 is still half of Sony's playerbase after 4 years is sad enough.
I doubt Nintendo is concerned if the Switch passes the PS2. There's been a lot of leaks about Nintendo gearing up for the successors launch with major first and third party exclusives and just big AAA third party games that wouldn't be able to work on the Switch.
Errrrrr... But Sony was releasing cross gen titles when PS5 released and PS4 was 7 years old @_@...
Even if it does, it's not a dedicated home console, so for me, it won't mean anything (and the same is true for the DS; it's not the number two console ever; it's the number one handheld ever; there is a difference).
But nevertheless, the Switch is going to be the number one handheld of all time, and that is still freakin' awesome. Not many people would have predicted that back in 2017. And to those who did... wow! Total respect!
cry and cry, and cry little baby sony
Switch is a console that also allows hybrid mode play. The thing comes with a dock and a power plug with HDMI. That’s a console.
Nah, not really.
A power plug is just the consequence of not using batteries
And playing on your TV doesnt define a console either, arcade machines exist after all, and those can be massive enough that they aint portable yet have their screen integrated into their system just like a handheld would.
Plus, being able to display the image on an external screen has alsways been a potential use case of mobile systems. Phones, Laptops, Tablets, even the PSP and SEGA Nomad all connect to your TV.
Switch ist just a regular handheld that utilizes more of the possibilities portable systems can offer than Nintendo used to.
Plus;
if a system is a console because it plays on a TV and "plays on a TV" is then used to identify home consoles,
then the same logic applies in this case too:
apples are red/green/yellow, therefore, if something is red/green/yellow, it is an apple
lol you talked yourself in circles with that logic. .
The fact that a media device can be plugged into a TV is like saying any device can be potentially portable with the right accessories. If I bring my XB on family road trips with a portable tv screen and a battery,. Does that make it portable? lol.
The graphics are turned down on handheld mode on Switch. Clear indicator its main full resolution “normal” mode is docked. Aka if it’s resting and most powerful mode available is docked, it’s a console
difference in graphics is just a software setting, this has nothing to do with the hardware. It's preference like a device's color. The switch is completely able sustain docked mode when undocked, Nintendo just doesnt want you to do that, not because the hardware cant.
Also the only thing you have proven with your first paragraph is that the screen doesnt play a role in a device's definition at all. It's a neutral element.
What makes a portable is that you can easily carry it around, that's the focus and that focus then puts limitations on the hardware that can be used. A home console on the other hand isnt meant to be portable. You may be able to "force" it into a semi-portable state, but you're just moving it around like a moving box. In the end, you'll put everything down on your road trip when you want to use it.
What makes home consoles different from Handhelds is that you can basically put anything into it, because it doesnt change the use case.
The system may be a few cm³ big or a few m³, it may weigh 1kg or 10 tons, it doesnt change how the user uses it.
This is not possible with portables. Try moving around a 10m³ device that weighs 10.000 kg in your hand, pocket or back pack. not gonna happen.
And the switch... everything it needs to play games is right there in the portable unit. The only way for the switch to become a home console is, if the dock doesnt just deliver power and passes the image to the screen.
It needs its own set of hardware: CPU, GPU, RAM, fan, you name it.
And yes, @JackHandy is right.
This is the way I see it.
If you can hold a console in your hands and play it without it being altered, plugged into an external screen, or plugged into an outlet, then it's a handheld. If, however, you can not, then it's a home console.
Since the Switch can be run on batteries and played in your hands, it's a handheld. The dock just allows the handheld to be played on a TV (it's the same principle as the GBA player back in the day; the GBA was not a home console just because it could be played on a TV; it was a handheld).
When it comes down to it, it's the physical dimensions that are defining what's possible and what's not.
Just ask yourself, could the manufaturer change the physical dimensions of the device in whatever way he wanted without changing how the user interacts with the device?
If yes, then it's a home console at heart.
If not, then it's a handheld.
Adding a thousand NVidia 4090 to a home console would be no problem.
I dont think I'd be necessary, would look horrible and eat a month's worth of electricity per hour but it's theoretically possible.
Try the same with handheld and you wouldnt even be able to lift it.
The definitions have never been clear cut, people just accepted things as what they were called. But a lot of times, these namings are just wrong, and the same applies here.
Definitions by which I seperate handhelds from home consoles.
HH = must be naturally portable, may also be used stationary
HC = is not usable on the go in a natural/easy manner, must be usable stationary
I agree with your definition. It's very close to my own.
Either way, they are radically different products used in radically different ways... which is why for multiple decades, their sales were separate. I don't know the exact year it changed, but it happened at some point over the last fourteen or so years. One day, there were handhelds and home consoles, the next, there were threads, talking about how the DS was the second best selling console ever, and I was like, "What?!?!" lol
It's truly bizarre.
The switch is both a home console and a handheld. That’s the whole point of its appeal. The seamless ability to transition does not change what it is. It’s.a new device category, a hybrid console . Switch players can experience fully immersive Skyrim identical to its console counterpart with pro controllers. Or they can take it and play it like a game boy during lunch, Although the battery life sucks, like 3-5 hours. Game boybatteries lasted for days
The Switch is not a home console. It's a handheld that can be played on a TV, like the GBA was. Back in the day, you could buy this device that plugged into your TV and your GBA. When hooked up, you could sit there with your GBA and play Metroid Fusion right there in your living room... but that didn't make it a hybrid, or a home console. It made it a handheld that could be hooked to a TV.
If the Switch was a home console, it wouldn't have its own screen. It wouldn't have built-in controllers, and it wouldn't have batteries that it could run off of. And it most certainly wouldn't be able to be played in your hands in your back yard without anything else attached. The PS2 could not do that. The PS4 could not do that. The Wii-U couldn't even do that. Because those were home consoles. The Switch is not.
Wrong. The GBA player was a GameCube accessory and playing GBA games on TV made it feel like a home console experience. Some switch games are meant to be played on TV as preference. The screen shuts off while docked to TV. It’s not simple Mirroring. There is no cable direct from switch it is running through a dock. That is a console
I'm not talking about the GBA player (although I did mention it earlier). There was a device I bought for it back in the day that hooked right onto it. It had composite/component cables that you plugged into your TV. When you did, presto, suddenly you were playing all your favorite GBA titles on the big screen, just like the Switch. When you were was done playing, you simply unhooked it and it was portable again.
But that didn't make it a DEDICATED home console (notice the use of the word dedicated; that's what their proper name is). It made it a portable console that could be played on a TV. A dedicated home console is a console meant for the TV alone. A portable is meant for portable gaming alone. The Switch, by default, can not be the former. It can only be the latter, since it has a screen built in and runs without being plugged into a wall. The fact that it comes with a dock to let you play on the TV is just a bonus.
Why rush it?, the more time in the oven for the launch games, the better. There’s tons of games to play till then
That, and there's no reason not to expect an enormous demand this time, so take the time to produce as many units as possible to get them into the hands of real customers who want access to the games without having to succumb to inflated scalp prices.
Before the launch of Wii U people also thought that there would be an enormous demand...
Before the launch of the Wii, people had no idea there would be an enormous demand...
A couple of key differences this time around. The Wii was on a huge downturn the last couple of years before the Wii U launched. Like, spectacularly. The over reliance on the casual market with the Wii really dried up demand for the console and the requirement of motion controls that the gaming audience, especially the hardcore gaming audience, just got tired of.
The Switch has not experienced this issue. Even on a downward trend, it's still doing incredibly well for its age, and at still the same price it was at launch 7 years ago.
But also most importantly, the Wii U conceptually was such a bizarre design, and because it was so bizarre, the marketing really floundered in conveying what it even was. I thought it was just a Wii add-on when I first saw it, let alone realizing it was Nintendo's next generation console.
The marketing for the Switch was simple. It's a game console that you can take with you anywhere, and you can dock it to your TV to play it as a traditional console. And that's the entire sell of a Switch. Granted, we don't know the name or concept of the Switch's successor, but with such a winning formula the Switch had, I'd be shocked if Nintendo deviated too far from that core design.
Well, depends what you mean by before the launch. Before the announcement maybe, but a lot of people were skeptical once they saw it.
Hard to see that demand exceed what the switch had. But nintendo has such a good brand figure now that the switch 2 will print money that's pretty sure.
When it comes it comes, i have plenty to play in the meantime.
Eh, take your time, Nintendo.
At this point I would think late 2025 or even the beginning of 2026 is starting to feel more likely than the first half of 2025
Its ok to me, switch still has a lot of gas in its tank
Well this almost guarantees Switch 1 will outsell PS2 now, as the Switch 2's reveal and launch were the biggest obstacles in that being a probability.
I envision a January reveal trailer (thereby protecting Switch 1's Xmas sales) which will also reveal the launch date.
A press event in Feb/March
Followed by a launch in April/May.
It'll own the summer before the GTA 6 onslaught of Oct/November
