Everything we know about ‘Switch 2,’ Nintendo’s next-gen console

polygon.com:

Nintendo, notoriously secretive, has so far said nothing — or almost nothing — on the record about its next game console. As Nintendo Switch approaches its seventh birthday in March 2024, questions about how much longer it will last are natural: Seven years is a typical lifespan for a console generation, Switch sales are falling fast, and the technology powering the console is showing its age. But Nintendo has flatly refused to engage with those questions.

Behind the scenes, however, Nintendo is gearing up for the release of its new machine, briefing its partners, and releasing development kits. Information has started to leak, and a picture of what form the console will take has begun to emerge, as well as when we can expect to hear about it and when we can expect to buy one.

It’s no surprise that Nintendo is treading carefully. The Switch has been an enormous success — it’s the third-best-selling console of all time, behind only PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s own DS handheld — which presents both a big opportunity and a big risk. Historically, Nintendo has struggled to follow its most popular formats: Wii and DS were followed by the flop of Wii U and the relative disappointment (in sales terms) of 3DS. Nintendo’s usual insistence on hardware innovation has proven as likely to alienate its audience as to find a new one. Will Nintendo break with its own tradition and follow the Switch with a more powerful take on the same formula, or will it try something different?

In an interview with Nikkei, as reported by VGC, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has laid out the Switch’s future in a way that strongly supports the release of a successor console in Nintendo’s next fiscal year — so, between April 2024 and March 2025.

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