Report: Nintendo Switch 2 is Not Launching in China on June 5 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 April 2025 / 2,369 Views
Nintendo last week announced the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on June 5, however, a new report states the console will not launch in mainland China on day one.
Nikkei (via VideoGamesChronicle) reports Nintendo is looking to see what demand there is for the Switch 2 before it decides to release it in China. The country has strict regulations on video games.
The Switch 1 in China in is sold in collaboration with Chinese tech company Tencent. Nikkei says Tencent declined to comment if it would distribute the Switch 2 in China.
Gamma Data chief analyst Wang Xu told Nikkei, "The hurdles to success in China remain high. They need to improve the consumer experience while complying with government policies, and there is also the issue of whether they will be able to introduce major international software."
Director of Research & Insights at Niko Partners Daniel Ahmad says the Switch 2 would not have launched day one in China as it needs to be approved by the Chinese government.
"Switch 2 wouldn't have launched in China on day 1 regardless, given the approvals needed," said Ahmad. "China will turn to the grey market to import consoles from overseas in June (Except from Japan maybe lol). Nintendo will explore options for an official launch in China."
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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During one of their Financial calls, Nintendo already said its launch will be simultaneously in North America, Japan and Europe. It never claimed it would be worldwide. So no news really.
Adolf's tariffs certainly won't help.
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PC will always rule in China. I have no idea how well the PS4/Switch sold over there.
The same could arguably be said for many European markets but they're still valuable. Chinese market is potentially huge even if second to PC... A lot of consoles get bought on the black market though. We don't have concrete numbers but enough to make PS5 look like it's outselling PS4 in Japan :p
This. With 1.4~ Billion people in China... Even if only 20% of the population buys a console... Any console, that's still 280~ million people for an addressable market which is still huge...
Long term China has a ballooning middle-class which is going to be ripe for consoles if only they can get around the Government approvals and restrictions.
Yes, PC has a strong presence there... But it's actually Android that dominates, Android devices are stupidly cheap (I.E. As low as $10-$20 USD) and are prolific.
PS4 sold 1.5m in its first 3.5 years in the region. PS5 is reportedly selling twice as fast.
It's a tiny amount of the whole Chinese gaming market but it's still a couple of million users added to your global installbase with the potential for a lot more.
https://nikopartners.com/sony-playstation-chinajoy-2018-press-conference/
One percent of a market with twice as many consumers as all of Europe (including the European part of Russia) combined is still a huge market.
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