Switch 2 doesn’t sound like it’s going to be short of games (Picture: Salvo Lo Cascio and Riccardo Cambò Breccia)
Nintendo might deny the successor to the Switch exists but 8% of developers polled said they’re already working on games for it.
The Nintendo Switch will be seven years old in March and it’s very obvious to everyone that Nintendo is planning a replacement – nicknamed the Switch 2 by fans – that will very probably be released this year.
They’ve even hinted at it themselves, despite denying all rumours and pretending publicly, and for the sake of their 2023 Christmas sales, that no such console exists.
There have been stories, but not proof, of developers receiving devkits (the hardware needed to make new games) as far back as 2021 but the best evidence that the Switch 2 exists is that over 240 developers have admitted they’re already working on it.
Those developers would be hung, drawn, and quartered by Nintendo’s lawyers if they said anything about it publicly but over 3,000 of them filled in the 2024 State of the Industry survey for GDC (Game Developers Conference) and 8% indicated they were already working on a Switch 2 game.
Many of those are likely to be working on the same game, so it’s not 240 separate titles, but it’s still a surprisingly large number, especially as it’s likely to involve a disproportionate number of Western, rather than Japanese, developers.
Although Nintendo will only have confided in certain developers, all that do know about the console will have had to sign strict NDAs. While some will have felt filling in a survey like this didn’t break it, others will have been more cautions, so the number who are working on games, that filled in this survey, is likely to be significantly more than 240.
Naturally, nobody said anything else – it was only a survey, covering many different topics – but another question about what format interested developers the most had the Switch 2 in third place, at 32%, behind the PlayStation 5 (41%) and PC (62%).
It was multiple choice, which is why the percentages don’t add up, but even so, considering it’s not out yet and many developers will currently know nothing about it, that’s an interesting result.
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The only way we’ll know for sure what’s going on with the Switch 2 is when Nintendo make an official announcement, but it’s very hard to guess when that might be.
A new Nintendo Direct has been predicted in the next few weeks but it’ll almost certainly focus on the 2024 slate for the current Switch.
The best guess is perhaps some kind of online reveal event in the summer but with no rumours to go on the announcement could literally happen at any moment.
Who knows what games the developers are working on (Picture: Nintendo)
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Nintendo might deny the successor to the Switch exists but 8% of developers polled said they’re already working on games for it.