For a video game console that didn’t even come out in 2024, the Nintendo Switch’s successor left quite an impact.
Colloquially known as the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo’s follow-up to its hit console-handheld hybrid had rampant speculation surrounding it the entire year. Even once Nintendo eventually confirmed it would talk about Switch 2 on its own terms, the rumors did not slow down. While it now seems highly unlikely that Nintendo will discuss Switch 2 again before the year is over, 2024 will, in my mind, forever be tied with ludicrous Switch 2 speculation.
It has been a comedy of errors, with the leaks and rumors for Nintendo Switch 2 ranging from preposterous to quite plausible. Before Nintendo shows off its next piece of gaming hardware, let’s stroll down memory lane and look back at the biggest Switch 2 leaks, real or not, that dropped throughout 2024.
AI, GDC, and dreams of a 2024 launch
As 2024 began, fans had a feeling that this could finally be the year Switch 2 was announced and released, especially as multiple developers claimed in an anonymous survey that they were working on games for the platform. A lie from an AI company played into those sentiments almost immediately. Around the time of CES in January 2024, Digital Trends spotted a press release for an AI version of GameShark that claimed that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be released in September 2024. It seemed suspicious that release date confirmation would come from a company other than Nintendo, and Digital Trends quickly confirmed that the company made that all up.
The GameShark Switch 2 kerfuffle set a tone that permeated throughout the rest of the year. Bloomberg reported that Nintendo wanted to produce 10 million consoles with an LCD screen within this fiscal year and release them. When Microsoft’s multiplatform plans started to leak in February, there were rumors that some of its games would end up on the Switch 2. Then, ahead of GDC 2024 in March, a wave of new rumors hit. Industry insider NateTheHate hyped up that Nintendo planned to reveal the console ahead of GDC in 2024 following a standard Nintendo Direct in February. It was also reported that Nintendo’s next gaming console would be backward compatible with Switch games.
But before GDC even began, several outlets claimed that Nintendo had internally delayed the Switch 2 to the first quarter of 2025. Eurogamer said this happened so Nintendo could create the strongest game lineup possible for the system, while Japanese outlet Nikkei claimed that a March 2025 launch was planned. GDC came and went, and no announcement of the Switch 2 happened. Was a reveal planned and canceled because of the internal delay? Are reports of that internal delay even accurate? It’s unlikely that we’ll ever learn the actual answers to those questions.
Nintendo joins the fray
After a no-show of the Switch 2 in the first quarter of 2024, Nintendo publicly commented on its next platform. In early May, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted the following message to the company’s corporate X account: “We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.”
This was the first time Nintendo publicly acknowledged that a “successor to Nintendo Switch” was in the works, and it even gave fans the knowledge that they’d learn what it was by the end of March 2025. That didn’t smother the embers of Switch 2 rumors, though; it only added fuel to the flames. Now, leakers knew it was real, and more information started flying around. Rumors of questionable credibility would pop up on sites like Reddit and 4Chan, with one even claiming the system is called ‘Nintendo Superior.”
Nintendo would occasionally give a sliver of information, like confirming early rumors that Switch 2 would be backward compatible with Switch games. As summer turned into fall, journalists from outlets like GamesIndustry.biz and Video Games Chronicle teased the possibility that the Switch 2 would be revealed in September. That didn’t happen. Lots of discourse also swirled around a possible release date. In fact, sites like Eurogamer implied Switch 2 had been pushed back yet again and wouldn’t be released before April 2025. While that may be true, the fact that release date speculation for something not even announced yet continues to be so prevalent shows how desperate fans are to get their hands on Nintendo’s next gaming device.
So close, yet so far
As the end of the year approached and Nintendo’s window to announce Switch 2 before the end of the fiscal year got tighter and tighter. Many wondered if the announcement would happen around the same time the original Switch’s did (October) or at The Game Awards (December), but neither came to fruition. Nintendo’s decision not to reveal the console drew all the more attention to leaks showcasing the actual hardware as hardware entered the manufacturing phase.
In September, images of a supposed factory prototype of the Switch 2 emerged, revealing a design similar to the original Switch’s. This continued into December, when Reddit user u/NextHandheld claimed to have their hands on the console and divulged more details about its design. Even third-party manufacturers like Satisfye and DBrand are giving us a better idea of what the Switch 2 will look like by unveiling peripherals for the still-unrevealed device.
From the earliest days of January to the final days of December, it has been impossible to go a week without hearing some sort of Switch 2 rumors. The circus around leaks, rumors, and speculation for the Switch 2 has gotten hilarious at this point, with fans desperate for any morsels of information they can get on whatever Nintendo is doing next. the Switch 2 hasn’t been revealed yet, and it already feels like the gaming device has a legendary status in a year that it hasn’t even come out during. Who knows what kind of impact the Switch 2 will have once it’s in players’ hands?
Hopefully, we learn more about the Switch 2 from Nintendo sooner rather than later in 2025 so this hubbub can quiet down or become focused on the games heading to Nintendo’s next platform.
