We might get our first official look at the Nintendo Switch 2 this week. According to leaker and podcast host Nate the Hate, Nintendo plans to reveal the successor to the Switch on Thursday, January 16. If that turns out to be the case, the reveal will come almost exactly eight years after the first hands-on showcase for the original Switch in 2017.
Nate says that the reveal will focus “almost exclusively on the console itself.” In other words, we shouldn’t expect to learn much about new games at the reveal. We’ll have to wait for a software showcase in February or March to see the launch lineup.
As Nate points out, Nintendo’s next investor meeting will take place on February 4. As such, the top priority this month will be getting investors excited about the future of Nintendo. Then, as the launch approaches, the focus will shift to the games.
This would be a similar strategy to the one Nintendo employed for the rollout of the Switch. We saw the console for the first time in October 2016 but learned more and more over the course of the next few months leading up to its launch in March 2017.
As for a release date, Nate is sticking to his guns. He heard last year that Nintendo isn’t planning to release the Switch 2 until May or June of this year. Rumors of an April 2025 launch have been spreading like wildfire, but he’s fairly confident that Nintendo is aiming for a summer launch. That said, he notes that the plans are fluid and could change at any time.
Finally, it’s worth noting that The Verge’s Tom Warren corroborated Nate’s reporting on Monday morning, citing his Notepad newsletter from last week:
This wouldn’t be the first time that a rumored Switch 2 reveal week has come and gone without any actual announcements, but everyone seems to be on the same page this time. So, we’ll mark our calendars for Thursday, January 16, and cross our fingers.
