Nintendo Faces 'A Lot Tougher' Year After Switch 2 Delay, Analyst Says

17.02.2024 - 19:00 / gamerant.com / Serkan Toto / Dominik Bo / Nintendo

The Switch 2 delay means Nintendo is in for «a lot tougher» year than investors might have hoped for, an industry analyst said. This outlook was offered as part of a wider overview of the potential effects of the widely reported move, both for Nintendo and consumers alike.

While the Japanese gaming giant still refuses to even acknowledge that its next console is on the horizon, rumors about the upcoming system, tentatively dubbed the Switch 2, have been swirling around for years. And while reports about Nintendo's next hybrid device were sometimes contradictory, something resembling an insider consensus started emerging circa August 2023, when several sources claimed that the Switch 2 would launch in 2024.

A newly surfaced report has now suggested that the Switch 2 will slip into 2025, with Nintendo supposedly aiming to release it in the first quarter of the following year. While the reasons behind the purported internal delay remain unclear, it is likely that the move will result in fewer Switch exclusives and a more challenging fiscal year for Nintendo. That's according to Serkan Toto, the CEO of Tokyo-based analytics firm Kantan Games, who recently spoke with Bloomberg about the implications of Nintendo refraining from releasing a Switch successor for the eighth year in a row.

Reflecting on the news of the Switch 2 delay, which Bloomberg itself has now also corroborated independently, Toto opined that Nintendo's content pipeline is likely to be «pretty dry» this year. Elaborating on that point, the analyst predicted that Nintendo will plausibly hold on to its upcoming «blockbusters» until the next console is out. The Switch could consequently experience a somewhat lackluster year, during which Toto suggests Nintendo might intensify its focus on remakes, all the while original releases take a backseat.

The current state of the company's 2024 software lineup dovetails with the analyst's forecast; of the six upcoming Switch games that Nintendo recently highlighted to investors, half are remakes or remasters. Meanwhile, its original titles include niche puzzler Another Code: Recollection—released this Friday, February 16—and Metroid Prime 4, which is getting more likely to skip the Switch by the day, seeing how it was announced back in 2017 and is still waiting for a gameplay reveal, never mind a release date.

2024 will be a lot tougher for Nintendo without a new device.

Relying on the Switch for the eighth consecutive year is bound to result in a challenging period for the Japanese group, with Toto predicting that «2024 will be a lot tougher for Nintendo without a new device.» A Switch 2 announcement, whenever it happens, will also ostensibly lower the already declining sales of the existing console. But