Nintendo confirms Switch 2 is coming soon, backwards compatibility is in

In context: Anticipation for Nintendo's next-generation handheld console continues to build as the company faces its second consecutive quarter of declining profits and falling Switch sales. Until recently, Nintendo had maintained near-total silence regarding a successor to the Switch. Now, however, the company has confirmed that the new console will feature backward compatibility with original Switch games and will support Switch Online games on the upcoming Switch 2.

Those hoping for an official glimpse of the next-generation Switch will likely need to wait until at least January 2025. The only confirmed detail is that Nintendo plans to unveil the new handheld before April 1.

When Nintendo initially stated it would reveal the device within the current fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2025, many speculated it would follow a similar promotional cycle to the original Switch.

Nintendo announced the original Switch in October 2016, launching it in March 2017 – a schedule deemed unconventional at the time. The strategy, however, proved highly successful, with the Switch reaching 146 million units sold as of this month, making it one of Nintendo's most successful consoles.

However, Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda recently suggested that revealing a successor now could be a costly distraction as the holiday shopping season begins, especially with Nintendo in a precarious position. This week, the company reported a year-over-year declines in both Switch hardware and software sales and reduced its projected sales targets through next March.

Nintendo likely hopes to avoid further cannibalizing Switch sales as the console enters its eighth holiday season, highlighted by titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and Super Mario Party Jamboree. With today's announcement, Nintendo is reassuring customers they can purchase Switch games this holiday season, knowing these titles will be compatible with the next handheld console.

This stands in contrast to 2016, when Nintendo was eager to move on from the underperforming Wii U. Yasuda believes January is the most probable window for a Switch 2 reveal.

This is Furukawa. At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about…

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Following the recent financial report, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa affirmed that the company's plan to unveil the device before April 2025 remains unchanged. However, the launch window is still uncertain. Earlier this year, developers with insider knowledge expressed hope for an April or May release to avoid competing with the anticipated launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, which is expected to dominate attention in late 2025.

Nintendo's next handheld is anticipated to feature 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM with potential bandwidth up to 102GB/s, an 8-inch LCD screen, magnetically attachable Joy-Con controllers, and a custom chip based on Nvidia's Ampere architecture from the RTX 3000 series, with DLSS support.

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Nintendo confirms Switch 2 is coming soon, backwards compatibility is in

*yawn* More of the same underwhelming, under-powered junk. In before a Nintendo fanboy retorts with "But it's the games that matter and they're fun!"

Yeah, sure. But two things can be true at the same time. You can have a reasonably powerful handheld *and* fun games. I'm not saying the Switch needs to compete with something like the Steam Deck or Asus Ally X.

Nintendo could easily release a decently powerful handheld and take a hit on hardware profits that they make up on software sales. You know, like EVERY OTHER CONSOLE MAKER IN HISTORY.

But no, greed and profits are more important to Nintendo. They will use hardware that is 4-5 generations behind because they can buy it dirt cheap and make a tidy profit on every piece of hardware sold.

Nintendo as far as I am aware don’t have the same key target gamers as other platforms such as Sony and Microsoft. As you can tell, hit games on the Switch are mostly limited to Nintendo’s own in house titles, which are generally more party/ family friendly types of game. So graphics is not the key seller here, instead fun and group play are the main selling points just as you mentioned. I mean you play a game for entertainment, not for checking out good textures and fancy lightings no? There are a lot of good looking games that just can’t entertain you cause the gameplay is terrible.

I do think Nintendo should speed up the release of more updated hardware. The Nintendo switch has been out since 2017, and the hardware is clearly falling behind. The UI feels very sluggish, and even their new first party games had to suffer significant graphic downgrade to make it play close to 30 FPS. Normally, I am ok with lower quality graphics, but even on the small screen, some games look too blurry due to the extremely low resolution, and suffers from frame rate drop from time to time. It just shows how aged the hardware, or rather the increasing challenge running the updated software and new games. Like browsing the store requires patience as well because it loads very slowly, and just spoils the experience. I generally only check out the store for awhile because it takes time to load even with a fast broadband which the Switch cannot make use of. Installing games also takes ages… So if you have a game that uses a lot of space, you may have to wait north of an hour to download and install. SD cards are not fast, but I don’t see the same problem downloading to the same SD card on a Steam Deck. So it is clearly a problem with the Switch.