Update [Tue 7th May, 2024 19:12 BST]: On an earnings call following the release of the end-of-year financials, president Shuntaro Furakawa was reportedly asked whether the "successor to the Switch" will be an entirely new console.
According to David Gibson, senior research analyst an MST Financial, Furakwa's reply seems to suggest it will be similar to the current Switch:
Of course, the official translation will be available in the coming days, so it's worth taking this with a pinch of salt, but this isn't too surprising to hear given the huge success of the Switch and everything we've heard up to now.
Original article [Tue 7th May, 2024 08:22 BST]: The next Nintendo console will be announced "within this fiscal year," according to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa.
In a statement, released at the same time as Nintendo's end-of-year financials, the company president highlighted that it will have been over nine years since the current Nintendo Switch — or 'NX' as it was then known — was announced in 2015, and news on the upcoming system will follow sometime before the end of March 2025.
He also announced that there will be a Nintendo Direct in June, although it will focus on software for the current Nintendo Switch and the so-called 'Switch 2' will not be mentioned during the presentation.
Here is the statement in full, as posted on Twitter:
This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.
With the rumour mill working overtime when it comes to the so-called 'Switch 2', Nintendo is plainly attempting to set expectations with this statement and avoid disappointing anxious fans for the rest of the year. While a Nintendo Direct in June is a given looking at past years, confirming the presentation this early is an unusual move.
Back in February, Shuntaro Furukawa said that the current Switch would be Nintendo's "main business" heading into 2024, and at the time he declined to comment on new hardware plans.
Details and speculation about the long-rumoured new hardware have been coming to light recently, with one such tidbit suggesting the new console will have new Joy-Con-style controllers that attach to the console magnetically.