Rumors of the Nintendo Switch 2 are all the months, but how long will the classic Switch be supported? Nintendo president has an answer
There is now hardly anyone who doubts that the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming. Even the year 2024 distills from many rumors – current forecasts assume the second half of the year, so just in time for the fall business 2024, the successor console to Nintendo’s perennial hit could be on store shelves.
But what does that mean for the current Nintendo Switch? Especially with Nintendo, nowhere is it written in stone how long an old platform will continue to be supported. The unsuccessful Wii U died almost instantaneously with the release of the Switch in 2017, while Nintendo’s 3DS handheld was still getting new games ten years after release and in parallel with the Switch.
In an interview with Nikkei (picked up by gamesradar), Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa now talks about the Nintendo Switch’s long- and medium-term support for the first time. Thus, he attests that the current Switch will in any case still be supported at full throttle during the fiscal year. The current fiscal year ends in March 2024.
This would overlap with the rumor that the Switch 2 will be released in the first half of 2024 after all, however it would be very curious if the console was already released in five months and we haven’t heard anything about it yet.
Inversely, Furukawa-san also talks in the same interview about new Switch games still being planned until spring 2025. We think this time frame is much more likely. If the rumors were confirmed, then the Switch 2 would be launched in the fall of 2024, while the current productions for the then old Switch would gradually come to an end in the first half of 2025.
At the same time, the first Switch should still be supported for quite a while beyond that with an updated online store and firmware updates. From experience, Nintendo shows staying power here – even the Wii U’s online features were only recently taken offline.
