Nintendo Switch 2 rumors are blowing up. Christopher Dring, Head of GamesIndustry.biz, claimed on X that there are "industry whispers around 'something' Switch 2-related happening this month."
President of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa, previously confirmed on X that we would hear news about the Nintendo Switch successor in the current fiscal year, which lasts up until March 2025, so it seems a bit soon to hear something about it in September.
Dring also claimed on the GameIndustry.biz podcast last month that "no developer I've spoken to expects it to be launching this financial year," which means we probably won't see it until after March 2025.
However, not all industry analysts believe we'll hear Switch 2 news this month. Andy Robinson from VGC claimed on X yesterday that, while he confirms "a bunch of press have heard this," he says, "I still wouldn't bet my house on it."
It's hard to believe that Nintendo will actually unveil the Switch 2 this month, but maybe it should before it gets buried by rivals and emerging competition.
Nintendo Switch 2's new competition
It's hard to imagine Nintendo's Switch succesor not dominating, but the market has undeniably changed since its launch seven years ago. The company may have been the first to toe the line between handhelds and dedicated consoles, but its success has sent other companies looking for a piece of the action.
The Steam Deck, for example, launched in early 2022 and opened the floodgates, while the Asus ROG Ally launched halfway through 2023 to bring on a wave of Windows gaming handhelds.
Windows gaming handhelds like the MSI Claw and Lenovo Legion Go have launched since then, alongside refreshes like the Ally X, and upcoming successors like the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus or the rumored Lenovo Legion Go Lite. There are also unreleased devices like the Acer Nitro Blaze 7, Adata XPG Nia, and Zotac Zone.
And sure, Windows gaming handhelds aren't directly comparable to what the Nintendo Switch does — they're catering to entirely different markets, with the former being a facet of PC gaming — but Nintendo's two biggest competitors, Sony and Microsoft, also reportedly want a piece of the action.
Xbox has made it no secret that it wants to have a gaming handheld, with CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, stating that "I think we should have a handheld too" in an interview with IGN.
"The future for us in hardware is pretty awesome, and the work that the team is doing around different form factors and different ways to play, I'm incredibly excited about it," Spencer said.
It's not hard to read between the lines here: Xbox is almost certainly working on its own handheld gaming console, and several other rumors have suggested as such, including more buzz from Spencer, who said, "I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox," in an interview with Polygon.
Sony is also no stranger to the handheld market — the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita are legendary — even if it hasn't created a mobile gaming device in a long time.
The PlayStation Portal launched last year and allows the user to stream games from their PS5 to the device through Remote Play, but it can't play games on its own.
That mobile gaming device drought could end though, with rumors from Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming claiming that "PlayStation Portal was very successful and they are paying very close attention to the current handheld market."
Is Nintendo in any actual danger?
While Nintendo has found itself in a recently packed market, there's a valid question of whether or not it has anything to worry about. After all, as soon as a new Pokémon, Super Mario, or The Legend of Zelda are announced, the world will explode with excitement, right?
That's true, but imagine a future where players can purchase a new PlayStation handheld capable of running the same games its dedicated console siblings can. Suddenly, people have the ability to play God of War, Spider-Man, Astro Bot, Horizon, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and far more in the palm of their hands, potentially at a price competing with Nintendo Switch.
This is all theoretical for now, but Nintendo can't let its guard down. That's exactly how we got the Wii U, which turned out to be a financial flop that only sold 13.56 million units. Compare that to the Nintendo Switch's 143.42 million units, and it's pretty clear that the smallest mistakes can undo success at the snap of a finger.
It's hard to say if either Microsoft or Sony will have what it takes to actually steal Nintendo's thunder in the handheld market, but one thing is for sure: the competition isn't getting any less fierce.
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