Rumor: Nintendo Switch 2 to Have 3-Phase Launch for Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 April 2025 / 3,783 Views
Nintendo is set to unveil more details on the Nintendo Switch 2 in a week on Wednesday, April 2 at 6:00 am PT / 9:00 am ET / 2:00 PM GMT / 3:00 pm CEST during the Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2.
Insider Gaming is reporting Nintendo will have a three-phase strategy when it comes to game releases for the Nintendo Switch 2 and the upcoming console will launch in June.
The first-phase is launch the console with mainly first-party games, while the second-phase will take place in October and November and focus more on third-party games. The third-phase will be games for the holiday period.
Select media and creators will reportedly be attending a Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on event next week. Dev kits are expected to be sent to developers in June.
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 Bluesky.
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I'm sure they're concerned with the launch being flooded with late ports but I think the biggest third party teams will already have a kits and be prepping their launch titles for day one.
As long as they're not rushed out the door.
If this is true, it's pretty dumb. Nintendo games are going to sell no matter what, I don't get why the third-party games (at least the retail ones) have to wait until Autumn or later.
Because they'd be run over by first parties at launch look at what happened with WiiU, people bought the first party games at launch and ignored the third party games released alongside them. This release strategy is what they did with the Switch were third parties mainly land after the launch window where the is a userbase who have bought the launching first party titles already and looking to supplement their library.
It's the same reason why developers avoid releasing right next to a game like GTA.
It doesn't make any sense. Lunch of new console is always with first and third party support. Devkits in June? That's way to late.
They want to ensure the millions buying in launch week are buying Nintendo games and not third party I guess. It would be a very weird and petty situation if true.
Aren't you the guy who was posting about how people believed the FF16 number, reported only by one source, "doesn't pass an eyeball check"?
But this sounds legit enough for a guess that lands right on top of your narrative. Would you look at that.
I literally stated “if true”. I have no idea if this is true. Tom Henderson is a somewhat reliable source I believe.
https://td.hunterhog.app/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1bfozpz/tom_henderson_the_ps5_pro_specs_leak_was_real_and/kv1vvqm/
It will have 1st and 3rd party support for launch. It said "mainly" 1st party for the initial batch of titles not only 1st party. So that also means that 3rd party already have dev kits. Those not receiving dev kits until June are likely smaller devs or ones not considered key partners that Nintendo felt they could trust with Switch 2 info early on ahead of the full unveiling. Key partners such as Ubisoft, Capcom, Sega, Square Enix and Microsoft will be on board from day 1 no doubt
Wait, devs don't have dev kits yet? That is a terrible idea, game devs need at least PC with equivalent spec dev kits like a year in advance, and final hardware dev kits should be in their hand 6 months before release at the latest.
I believe some of their biggest partners already have them like Square Enix and Capcom.
Makes sense.
I just hope metroid 4 is backwards compatible
oh dang just stealth dropped June release date in the article here haha. I've fully expected May/June for the past year though so not surprising.
Not really getting the three phase thing though. I'm guessing it isn't quite cut and dry like that cuz that would be weird to be like nah big third parties can't release until the Fall haha.
But uhh devkits in June...maybe they are serious wth. Shouldn't all developers already have devkits since like last Fall at least?? Is Nintendo doing a classic Nintendo thing where they make bizarre irrational business decisions for no reason? Sounds like it. Hopefully this is rumor and is over-exaggerated. It'd be super weird if they didn't allow third parties to get their hands on devkits until the system released in order to artificially force a weak game library the first few months after launch.
I mean sure I get it 3D Mario and MK9 are gonna be launch games and are gonna be huge and everybody is going to be buying them...but that in no way means third parties games shouldn't be hitting the system as well. And certainly not forcing like a 4 months dryspell right after the system launches! But I guess we'll find out next week.
Pretty much the same as with Switch 1 then, mainly had first party titles at launch and through out Q1 and Q2 then when we got to Q3 that's when third parties really started arriving along with more first party titles.
Dev kits in June, games by Christmas. What a load of crap.
Sounds like a regular expected launch to me without the need of calling it 'phases' lol
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