Predictions time once again.
For our sixth attempt at this, let’s try to figure out what Nintendo is up to in 2025.
Without spoiling the text below, we got a lot of predictions wrong last year. Usually, we’re pretty good at this, but now, as we head into 2025—a year full of uncertainty—it could go either way.
Here’s what we do know: we’ll learn more about the Switch successor before the end of March 2025, Donkey Kong Country Returns goes HD in just a couple of weeks, and Xenoblade is back on the menu. That’s it. The rest is up in the air—fun!
Also, at the end of the article we said “If someone is reading this at Nintendo, make it backwards compatible for the love of god.” – Hooray.
Moral of the story, don’t listen to anyone, they don’t know anything, still read this though – my children need wine.
Everyone is eager for a new Mario Kart. We’ve been playing Mario Kart 8/Deluxe for the past decade, and fans are excited to see what Nintendo will do next with the franchise. The next home console release has a lot to live up to—and as long as Nintendo doesn’t mess it up, it’s sure to be another massive hit.
However, we don’t think it will launch alongside the next console, whenever that happens to be. Mario Kart is almost too successful to be a launch title, as it could overshadow whatever else Nintendo and third parties plan to release on day one. Instead, we believe a release closer to the holiday season—assuming the console isn’t released that late—would make more sense.
The timing for release of the Nintendo Switch successor comes not only at an odd time in the industry, but also right in the middle of another console generation – at least for the other manufacturers. Games take a long time develop, and just popping out a Switch successor version won’t be easy, it’s also a new console, there’s going to be a learning curve. While we’d love to see the hottest new releases pop up on the console, we think a few of the “couple of years old” releases in the major franchises will come to it. Then by the time the next instalments in these franchises pops up we’ll see that successor logo right there on the trailer card.
We’ve constantly been amazed during the lifetime of the Switch about what games eventually were announced for the console – big names we never saw on Nintendo platforms before or that were absent in years, sometimes decades past. Skyrim, modern Doom, Crysis, mainline Grand Theft Auto to name but a few. Nintendo set the tone from day one that the Switch would be different, and that big names, from big publishers would come. We think the Switch 2 reveal trailer will equally blow us away with a couple of big bang games, games that we could have only ever dreamed of seeing on a Nintendo console, for either technical or other reasons. I know that’s very vague, but this isn’t a leak or some insider rumour mongering – just a feeling. Nintendo need to show the Switch 2 can play with the big boys once again, it’ll do it from day one again.
Everything is so damned expensive, we hear it all the time and the successor to the Nintendo Switch will be equally expensive -at least for Nintendo. But, in saying that overall in the total market we think the Switch successor will be priced well considering the competition. Portable PC handhelds are everywhere now, thanks to the original Switch for setting that trend. But they come with a price tag.
We’re not going to say a price, but there’s no way the Switch successor is even close to the current Switch OLED pricing. It’s still a Nintendo console though, so it won’t be too obscene – we hope.
While Nintendo never said before when the Switch 2 would release, almost everyone was under the assumption that it would release in 2024, it releasing at some time in 2025 is later than we expected and it’ll probably pay off because Nintendo’s going to have a great line up of games, and a consistent one at that. That’s how the original Switch did it, just games releasing consistently. An easy one.
Nintendo isn’t going to slowly roll out nearly all the Donkey Kong games on Nintendo Switch Online, bring back Mario vs. Donkey Kong, re-release Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Switch, and spend several hundred million dollars developing an entire theme park around Donkey Kong without making a new game… right?
Well, maybe they might.
Nintendo has made significant strides with Nintendo Accounts, consolidating all their sites under the same domain extensions and promising that all our purchases will carry over seamlessly to the Switch 2. This also suggests that, in some form, the Switch eShop will transition to the new console. However, we’ve extensively documented the e-waste problems plaguing the current Switch eShop, and we’re predicting that Nintendo will address these issues on the new console. Surely, they wouldn’t just copy the eShop wholesale, complete with its longstanding problems and lack of meaningful updates since launch—right?
We anticipate that Nintendo will implement changes, whether through updated policies or a redesigned interface, to address the e-waste issue on the eShop. The rampant bundle abuse, AI-generated games, asset flips, and general low-quality content that flood the current platform likely won’t be as visible—or accessible—on the new console. We expect (and hope) that Nintendo will hide such content more effectively on the Switch 2, if not outright deny these types of products altogether.
We’re optimistic. The thought of booting up a brand-new Switch 2, visiting the eShop, and finding it clogged with the same low-quality content alongside the truly great games of the future would be disheartening. Here’s hoping Nintendo takes the opportunity to clean up the eShop, making it a space worthy of the next generation of gaming.
Let’s see how many we can get wrong this year!
More than 450 games added this final week.
What a year.
Gotta go fast.