Nintendo Switch 2 Officially Announced For Release This Year
A first look at Nintendo’s newest console was released Wednesday
It’s not just a code or temp name anymore. Nintendo has followed through on its promise to announce its successor to the Nintendo Switch by March 2025 by officially announcing the straightforwardly-named Nintendo Switch 2 late Wednesday evening local time, early morning contiguous States time. And it’s been given a release of 2025.
Of course there’s going to be games made for the Nintendo Switch 2, including exclusives like the one showcased: the next Mario Kart installment that will seem to support up to 24 racers for every race. It will have backwards compatibility for both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games, but support and compatibility won’t be possible for everything in that manner. The screen is bigger, but dimensions haven’t been revealed yet. The Joy-Cons snap onto the console itself magnetically, said to be more user-friendly as opposed to the original Switch’s slide rail connections. A noted quality-of-life improvement is that there are two USB-C ports, one at the top of the console and one at the bottom, allowing for use of external accessories. The original Switch had a single one and it was quirky. Claimed to be compliant, Nintendo instead essentially created a custom spec that needed to be reverse-engineered before third-party docks and accessories functioned correctly without burning out pins inside the console.
More details on the Switch 2 will be announced on a Nintendo Direct that will serve as a global premiere event on April 2. Nintendo will also be bringing it on a tour around the world for hands-on experiences, called the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience, with planned stops in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Paris. Registration begins at 3 PM Eastern / Noon Pacific tomorrow, January 17 and runs until 11:59 PM local time on January 26. Results of the drawing will be revealed "soon after." Those wanting to participate will need to be over 18 years old and have a Nintendo Account. The New York and Paris events take place from April 4-6, in Los Angeles and London over April 11-13, and in Dallas, Toronto, Milan and Berlin from April 25-27. Tokyo only has April 26 and 27, while Madrid and Amsterdam have May 9-11, and Melbourne only has May 10 and 11. There’s a visit to Seoul from May 31 to June 1, and Hong Kong and Taipei at later dates. Which means most likely that at the very least the console won’t release until after these events so July at the earliest.
