With multiple sources telling us when the Japanese company plans to release its next-generation hardware, it’s worth believing the timeframe is already set.

VGC was the first to report, based on sources familiar with Nintendo’s next-generation console, that the new N platform will be released in the second half of 2024, in July at the earliest. The site also reported that the development kits are already in place at crucial partner studios. As we previously reported, as a rumor that an unnamed Spanish studio already had received it, that rumor was confirmed in the VGC article (and you can guess that it’s MercurySteam, who are developing Metroid Dread).

Two sources of VGC claim that the next Nintendo console will follow the Switch style and be available in portable mode, so it could be a sort of hybrid platform that can be docked. However, the display will not be OLED (although the Nintendo Switch does have a version with it!), but LCD to reduce costs. It could be offset by the fact that more storage space is planned for the platform to store games with higher resolution and detail. And a third source says that after the Switch, there will be a cartridge slot, so we’ll still be able to buy physical games from the store (skipping the Nintendo eShop, which is admittedly full of shovelware junk…).

It’s unclear whether there will be backward compatibility, i.e., whether Nintendo Switch games can run on it. Still, we’ve heard instead that the timing of the release is to avoid the Japanese company being in the same situation as Sony (PlayStation 5) and Microsoft (Xbox Series); they don’t want to run out of stock, which is a clever idea. And beyond VGC, Eurogamer also reported from its sources that the new platform will launch in the later half of 2024 and will still be handheld.

So these are no longer rumors worth waving away.

Source: Gematsu