The Nintendo Switch 2 Has Been Announced; Will Be Released in 2025

The Nintendo Switch 2 is official. Nintendo announced its next hardware today, releasing a “first look” trailer and revealing that the system will be coming out in 2025. It also announced a series of public previews happening around the world in April and May. The wordless trailer doesn’t give any specifics about the hardware or what games will be coming out for it, but it does show clips of what appears to be a new Mario Kart game, and confirms that the Switch 2 will play both its own exclusive titles as well as physical and digital Switch games.

Nintendo smartly seems to be going conservative with this one. The Switch 2 looks much like the original system, will retain the two detachable controllers that attach to the sides of the screen, and will connect to televisions through a dock. Based on the trailer, its body will be a little bit larger, and its screen will take up more of that space than it does on the original Switch. The Joy Con attachments will snap into place instead of sliding (hopefully they’ll retain that distinctive click sound). The kickstand used to prop the system up when it isn’t docked looks to be larger and,  presumably, sturdier on the Switch 2. Everything about the trailer seems engineered to tell people that the new Switch won’t be too different from the old one; indeed, in its 40 plus years of releasing gaming systems, this is the first time they’ve ever named a new one by simply slapping the number 2 on the previous one’s name. They clearly don’t want this to be like the Wii / Wii U situation, where many consumers were confused if the Wii U was an add-on or upgrade instead of an entirely new console.

The trailer also confirms that the new Switch will also be dockable, and shows clips from a previously unknown Mario Kart game. The desert track includes details not seen in (the now 11-year-old) Mario Kart 8, like a roadside diner owned by Yoshi that looks like Yoshi’s head but made out of a giant hamburger. (I would eat there. Every day.) There are also more racers on the course than currently possible in Mario Kart 8. Again, it’s been over a decade since that game was originally released for the Wii U, and eight years since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out for the Switch; it’s well past time for a whole new Mario Kart game.

At the end the trailer notes that the Switch 2 will play its own exclusive releases, obviously, but also play Nintendo Switch games, both physical and digital copies. It does note that not all original Switch games will be compatible or fully supported; let’s hope they’re talking about the likes of that swimming game that is constantly on sale for $1.99 and not, like, worthwhile games that people actually play.