The recent media reports claiming that Nintendo had briefed developers on plans for a Nintendo Switch successor have been denied by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa.
Earlier this year, Eurogamer and VGC reported that Nintendo had privately shown tech demos for its next console to select developers at Gamescom in Germany.
Correspondence unsealed as part of the US Federal Trade Commission’s legal battle with Microsoft indicated that Activision Blizzard had been briefed on Nintendo’s next-gen console plans in late 2022.
However, Japanese publication Mainichi reported that Nintendo boss Furukawa denied these reports, calling them “inaccurate” during a private earnings call on Tuesday.
Furukawa also dismissed a recent Nintendo patent filing for a device with multiple screens, stating that the plans detailed were not necessarily for any future device.
While Nintendo did not comment on the Gamescom reports, it has a history of denying press reports, only to have them later be proven correct.
Nintendo has not officially commented on plans for its next console. 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, given the projected declines in hardware and software sales for the Switch this year.
Today, Nintendo announced that Switch has now cleared 132.46 million lifetime sales.
