New details have emerged on Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 console, following the company officially confirming that it was in development. During a briefing for the financial year ending on March 31, 2024, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa briefly touched on several topics regarding the upcoming games system.
Several times in the briefing, Furukawa spoke about the “successor to the Nintendo Switch,” suggesting that the new device will build on the foundation established by the Switch console.
“At this stage, we cannot say anything more about the successor to Nintendo Switch,” Furukawa said when asked why that term was used specifically. “For today’s announcement, we determined that the most appropriate expression to use was ‘successor to Nintendo Switch.’ Information will be released in stages leading up to the launch, as we have done with previous new hardware announcements.”
While Switch sales boomed during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global semiconductor shortage presented new challenges for Nintendo as it struggled to meet demand. For the Switch 2, Nintendo doesn’t “anticipate” this to be a problem ahead of the launch of the Switch 2. At the same time, Nintendo’s sales forecast for the financial year doesn’t currently factor in Switch 2 sales, but that could change in time.
Nintendo says it is also being “somewhat ambitious” with its hardware sales forecast for the current financial year and it plans to implement various initiatives to sell the forecasted number of Nintendo Switch consoles and games. Part of this strategy also reveals why Nintendo took so long to confirm the Switch 2, as it was concerned that the announcement could negatively impact sales of available Switch consoles.
“We do not think the announcement of the successor to Nintendo Switch and future related communications will have zero impact on Nintendo Switch sales,” Furukawa said. “However, we hope to maximize sales this fiscal year by maintaining a good balance between new demand and demand for multiple systems.”
For its 2023-2024 fiscal year, Nintendo said that Switch hardware declined by 12.6% year-on-year from 17.97 million to 15.70 million. Lifetime sales for the Switch are at 141.32 million consoles sold, and on the software side, 1.235 billion games have been sold. Out of all those games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has emerged as Nintendo’s best-selling game of all time–with one minor caveat–and the company has confirmed that it will host a Nintendo Direct in June. Just don’t expect details about its Switch 2 console, as this event will be focused purely on what Switch fans can expect to play in the second half of the year.
