In a recent investor-focused Q&A, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa commented on Nintendo’s plans to produce a sufficient number of successors to the Nintendo Switch as a way to combat scalpers. Though very little about the “Switch 2” is known at the moment, Furukawa recently announced over Twitter that details surrounding the mysterious console will be announced within this fiscal year — before March 31, 2025, in other words.
As it turns out, Nintendo recently released their hardware sales forecast for the current fiscal year, which did not include the forecast for the Nintendo Switch successor. Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about this during the investor-focused Q&A.
“It was announced that the hardware sales forecast for the current fiscal year does not include the successor to Nintendo Switch,” began the question. “However, I believe the full-year earnings forecast will be greatly affected by a successor system or a major software release. I would like to hear your thoughts on the need to announce the company’s full-year earnings forecasts.”
Though the new console is expected to be announced within the fiscal year for Nintendo, it’s not known when the console will be released. The fact that the Nintendo Switch successor’s forecast wasn’t included with the full-year earnings forecast does suggest that it won’t actually be released until next year, but Furukawa’s response does suggest the possibility that the new console could be released within the fiscal year as well.
“When we announce our financial results at the end of each fiscal year, we also announce our full-year financial forecast for the new fiscal year. We know that investors are very interested in these forecasts,” stated Furukawa. “Our basic policy for IR activities is to disclose information to shareholders and investors in a fair, timely, and appropriate manner.”
“However, in our business, it is important to surprise our consumers in a positive way. Sharing specific product information or sales strategies in advance would diminish the surprise,” continued Furukawa. “For that reason, we are often unable to disclose such information when announcing our earnings forecasts, and we find it challenging to announce earnings forecasts at that stage.”
Of course, it could also be argued that the decision to reveal the Switch 2’s impending announcement for this fiscal year could impact sales for the Nintendo Switch, which currently sits at 141.32 million units sold worldwide (third best-selling gaming device after the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2). Fortunately for Nintendo, it can be argued that they had a very strong Nintendo Direct presentation during the month of June.
Leading up to Furukawa’s announcement on Twitter, it was rumored that the release timing for the Switch 2 was delayed until 2025. Supposedly, this is being done to ensure that there’s plenty of first-party software with the console’s launch.
Notably, Studio 2 & Studio S of Bandai Namco, the studios behind the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, have seemingly filled their open positions that were seeking those experienced with action games played from a side view. This is merely a possibility, but there is a chance that a new Super Smash Bros. entry is already in development.
Masahiro Sakurai recently announced that the recording for the final video for his YouTube channel has been completed. Additionally, Sakurai noted in one of his videos that he’s still creating games for the time being even though he previously noted that he was “semi-retired” before that point.
Overall, there’s a ton of anticipation surrounding the Switch 2. The fact that Nintendo is avoiding mentioning even their forecasts for the new system as a way to “surprise [their] consumers in a positive way” really indicates just how aware they are of this anticipation. We’ll just have to keep waiting to find out what we’ll be in store for later down the road.