Nintendo denies briefing developers on Switch 2, and dismisses multi-screen patent
President claims company didn’t brief Activision on its next-gen console plans
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has denied it briefed developers on plans for a Nintendo Switch successor, calling recent media reports “untrue”.
Earlier this year, both Eurogamer and VGC cited sources claiming that Nintendo had privately shown tech demos for its next console to select developers behind closed doors at Gamescom in Germany.
Correspondence unsealed as part of the US Federal Trade Commission’s legal battle with Microsoft also suggested that Activision Blizzard had been briefed on Nintendo’s next-gen console plans in late 2022.
However, according to Japanese publication Mainichi, Nintendo boss Furukawa denied both of these reports during a private earnings call on Tuesday, calling them “inaccurate”.
The president is also claimed to have dismissed a recent Nintendo patent filing for a device with multiple screens, and said that the plans detailed were not necessarily for any future device.
“We are aware that patent information is published upon application. However, this does not necessarily mean that it will be featured in future products,” he said, translated by VGC.
At the time of the Gamescom reports, Nintendo did not comment when approached for a response. However, it’s worth noting that it has denied press reports in the past, only for them to later be proven correct – sometimes a day later.
Nintendo is yet to officially comment on plans for Switch 2. However, according to VGC sources, the company has already dispatched Switch 2 development kits to key partners, with a launch planned for the second half of 2024.
Tokyo-based industry consultant Dr Serkan Toto told VGC in September that a 2024 console launch would make sense for Nintendo, since it’s projected to see double-digit declines in hardware and software sales this year for Switch, which launched in March 2017.
“I would generally say that looking at Nintendo’s financials, it seems clear that it’s time for a new piece of hardware in 2024,” he said. “Hardware is already projected to fall 16.5% year-on-year in the current fiscal, while the minus for software is expected to hit 15.9%.
“The only way to stop these losses from totally ballooning next fiscal is a new device, and the second half of 2024 sounds like a realistic release window to me.”
Nintendo announced today that Switch has now cleared 132.46 million lifetime sales.
