Game Devs Reportedly Told Do Not Expect Nintendo Switch 2 Before April 2025

Nintendo is much more patient about the release of its much-hyped Nintendo Switch 2 than consumers are. The Japanese game monolith reportedly plans to hold the console back until April or May next year, after the end of the company’s fiscal year. It’s a few more months than the company previously proposed, but two months feels like a lifetime for those anticipating Nintendo’s first major hardware release in over seven years.

In May, Nintendo finally confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 is real. The Japanese game giant said it planned to release the console this fiscal year. However, all signs pointed to the company waiting until March—the very end of the fiscal year—before it showed off its new hardware. 

Now comes the bad news. GamesIndustry.biz head Chris Dring said on the outlet’s latest podcast (via VGC) that developers do not expect the console to launch in March. The industry insider said it wasn’t in Nintendo’s playbook to announce a console in its financial statements and then release it the same year. 

“I’m going to say now, that console is not coming out before this financial year,” Dring said on the podcast, transcribed by Gizmodo. “No developer I’ve spoken to expects it to be launching in the financial year. They’ve been told not to expect it in the financial year.”

Dring further claimed that insiders hope the console will be out in April or May next year, but either way, it will likely be early into 2025 rather than later. In an interview, Publisher Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick hammered the point that Grand Theft Auto 6 will hit store shelves in the latter half of 2025. Nintendo likely doesn’t want to compete with that titan of a game, even if it’s still unclear if the sequel Switch will get the next GTA on release day. 

Nintendo promised its shareholders that it was planning to make enough Switch 2s so the scalpers wouldn’t end up with all the stock. Perhaps this April or May date was always the plan, and Nintendo is planning to ramp up production before we get into spring 2025. Nintendo likes to have a game that straddles consoles on launch date like it previously did with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That game was available on both Wii U and Nintendo Switch on launch. Nintendo’s bridge game could be Metroid Prime 4: Beyond with its anticipated 2025 release date, but we’ll have to wait and see if the title can launch in time for the new console.

In its first-quarter earnings report published earlier this month, Nintendo declared it has sold 143.42 million Nintendo Switch consoles in its lifetime. The company hopes to sell another 13.5 million units this year, even as sales continue to decline year-over-year as we head into 2025. It’s getting harder and harder to market the original Switch when so many consumers are ready to bite through chain link fences and storm a factory to get their hands on Nintendo’s next portable console.