Speculation about Nintendo’s new console, intended to succeed its very popular Switch, has intensified this week, with specialist media banking on an imminent announcement from the Japanese video game giant.
The Kyoto-based group had previously indicated that it would present its next console by the end of March, intended to take over from the aging Switch, released in 2017.
Could the timeline speed up? The Eurogamer site reported “echoes in the sector” according to which the “Switch 2” could be unveiled as early as this Thursday, a date also put forward by an influential podcaster. A journalist from the specialized media the Verge mentioned an announcement “this week”, without specifying sources.
“There is nothing we can share,” a Nintendo spokesperson simply commented on Thursday when interviewed by AFP.
These various echoes, even hypothetical, from specialized media contribute to exacerbating the questions on social networks from players impatient to discover the successor to the Switch.
Released in March 2017, this hybrid console, playable both on the go and connected to a television, has become a huge success for Nintendo.
It had sold 146 million copies at the end of September 2024, making it the third most popular console in the history of video games behind Sony’s PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS.
Nintendo estimates that it has sold a total of 1.3 billion games running on the Switch, and it announced in early November that these will be compatible with its new console. Certain titles, including “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, had become essential, all age groups combined, during the confinements linked to covid-19.
But while waiting for the announcement of a successor to its aging machine, the Japanese giant saw its net profit fall by 60% year-on-year in the first half of its staggered financial year started in April 2024, and had revised downward in November its annual forecasts.
If Nintendo refuses to comment on supposed leaks, this “Switch 2” is probably already being produced in factories “to ensure sufficient stock, because the demand for the new console will certainly be very high” once it is released, Darang said Candra, from Niko Partners.
Sony, its Japanese rival in video games, had suffered supply failures preventing it from meeting demand during the launch of the PlayStation 5 in 2020.
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