Next-gen Nintendo console likely to be announced soon

Posted on May 7, 2024

Well folks, it’s finally happening. From Nintendo’s official Japanese X (formerly Twitter) account, the company’s president tweeted today that they will be making an announcement about the successor to the Nintendo Switch “within this fiscal year”. Since Japan’s fiscal year is a little different to Australia or the United States (for government and organisations it usually begins in April), this announcement could literally come at any time between now and March 2025. However, Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa also mentions that while there will be a Nintendo Direct next month about upcoming games launching in the second half of 2024, there will be “…no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.”

That particular statement is likely intended to quell people’s expectations, as many Nintendo fans often get too excited for a new Direct only for it to disappoint. In the same thread (translated from his original tweet/post in Japanese), Furukawa mentions that the original announcement for the Nintendo Switch was over nine years ago. The Switch has obviously met Nintendo’s expectations, given that Wii U’s lifecycle was five years, and the Wii’s was roughly eleven years (inclusive of the revised Wii and the Wii Mini).

This is exciting news, but not wholly unexpected. While there isn’t much to go off aside from the tweet/post from Furukawa, the announcement is certainly nothing too surprising as the hardware limitations of the Switch have been a topic of discussion for the past few years. This came to a head with the launch of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, with fans criticising its poor performance. But we’ll have to wait and see what is in store for the Japanese company – and, importantly, what the next Switch iteration is called. Maybe we’ll see a Switch U in the future?