In the Switch's eighth year, Nintendo can still surprise | Opinion
It's almost a truism at this point, but there is arguably no company in the games industry that protects its secrecy quite as closely or as well as Nintendo.
Its tight control over information about its upcoming products rarely slips, and any third-party studio that has ever worked on a Nintendo property can vouch for how seriously the company takes information control and leak prevention.
The results are hard to disagree with; it's striking that the Nintendo Direct showcase which just wrapped up the nebulous (but very enjoyable) not-E3 season was filled with major reveals about which we had had no prior inkling.
Other companies do sometimes manage to pull off genuine surprises, but it's nonetheless common for showcase events to descend into exercises in ticking off rumoured and leaked products.
Nintendo's preference for tight control of information does, however, sometimes cross over into feeling like a parody of itself. The company's statements thus far about the successor console to the Switch have been a masterclass in saying nothing at all.
Pretty much the only things we know about the console (from the horse's mouth, at least) are that it will use Nintendo Accounts, as expected, and that it will be officially announced sometime before March 31, 2025.
From any other company, such exaggerated secrecy would seem a little ridiculous; we're so used to it from Nintendo that it actually feels like a major concession that the company has acknowledged the existence of a Switch successor at all.
One side-effect of all this secrecy is that rumours and leaks about Nintendo products tend to be especially widely reported. That can cause problems when those reports are inaccurate or, as seems to have happened repeatedly with the Switch successor, when Nintendo's internal plans change without any acknowledgement from the company itself.
Beyond the rumours and leaks, though, a little cottage industry has also sprung up in what effectively amounts to Nintendo Kremlinology, interpreting
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