It’s a thought-provoking situation for the successor to the Nintendo Switch, as the Japanese company will soon have to talk more about the yet-to-be-unveiled hardware; the Switch has been on the market for over seven years and is now overdue for its successor.

The gaming industry had three major events before the pandemic. In the middle of the year, E3 in Los Angeles in June, Gamescom in Cologne around August, and The Game Awards in December were the events where a lot of announcements were made. This year there will be no E3, that’s official, so Gamescom and The Game Awards will stay and the Summer Game Fest will take the place of E3. However, Nintendo made a surprise announcement regarding Gamescom: the Japanese company will not be there, even though it was last year (and the big N was not present in 2022).

“Gamescom is a great event, and every year we evaluate whether Nintendo should participate or not. After careful consideration from all angles, we’ve made the decision not to attend Gamescom 2024. Players will have the opportunity to try Nintendo Switch games at other events throughout the year,” Nintendo said in a statement to Eurogamer. Last year, the company was reportedly there to show off a prototype of the Switch 2 behind closed doors.

It’s a curious situation, as Nintendo is expected to reveal soon what console the company will come up with after the Switch. The platform has been rumored to be delayed from fall 2024 to early 2025, so the unveiling could be delayed. History could repeat itself and the launch could be in the fall, just like the Switch, which was launched in March 2017.

So Nintendo could even block the Switch 2 from the press (since the company hasn’t even publicly named the platform yet, we don’t have a better name for it) to be unveiled during a Nintendo Direct in the fall…

Source: WCCFTech, Eurogamer