Nintendo Switch 2

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About

Nintendo Switch 2 refers to an upcoming handheld video game console developed by Nintendo. A successor to its 2017 console Nintendo Switch, the Switch 2 was officially announced in mid-January 2025 with an expected release date in April 2025. The announcement, which was preceded by numerous rumors and supposed leaks between 2022 and 2024, became a viral topic of discussion, memes and reactions online.

History

Rumors

The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017, and throughout its history, Nintendo consistently released a new home console every five to six years.^[1] Thus, rumors that Nintendo was about to release a new home console began in earnest starting in 2022.

One of the earliest events that fueled "Switch 2" speculation was the March 2022 announcement that Tears of the Kingdom would be delayed. This caused some fans to speculate that Tears of the Kingdom would be a launch title on the follow-up to the Switch. However, this did not come to pass, as Tears of the Kingdom was released on the Switch in May 2023.

Rumors of a Switch successor increased in intensity in 2023. In May of 2023, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors that Nintendo did not plan to announce a follow-up to the Switch until the end of the fiscal year, which would be March 31st, 2024.^[2] Despite this, rumors about an imminent followup to the Switch remained persistent as steady leaks and rumors suggested the console was on the horizon. In September of 2023, Eurogamer reported that Nintendo showed the Switch 2 to developers behind closed doors at Gamescom.^[3]

On October 17th, 2023, ResetEra^[4] users noticed that Nintendo had hidden the reveal trailer for the Nintendo Switch. This led to speculation that Nintendo was prepping for a Switch 2 trailer, though some suggested the hidden video may have been due to music licensing issues.

Notably, media publications began talking about the imminent end of the Switch era as a bit of an open secret. Several reviews of Super Mario Bros. Wonder characterized the game as a "send-off" to the Switch.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Official Announcement

On January 16th, 2025, Nintendo officially announced^[8] the Nintendo Switch 2, the successor of the first Nintendo Switch video game console. On that day, a first-look trailer visually presenting the key features of the upcoming console was uploaded to YouTube^[9] (shown below).

The announcement trailer revealed several features of the new console, including a larger screen size, magnet connections for updated Joy-Con controllers and support for the original Nintendo Switch games.^[10] Additionally, the announcement revealed an upcoming game in the Mario Kart racing video game series.

Online Presence

The announcement of the Switch 2 in mid-January 2025 was followed by numerous viral reactions and jokes from users on X / Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and other social media platforms.

For example, on January 16th, 2025, X^[11] user @UltimaShadowX made a post jokingly claiming that the reveal was a fake fan-made mockup, which received over 240 reposts and 3,800 likes in one day (shown below).

Also on January 16th, Redditor Gametron13 posted a Patchy the Pirate That's It? meme to the /r/memes^[12] subreddit referencing the announcement trailer, receiving over 800 upvotes and 240 comments in two hours.

Water Buffalo Nintendo Switch 2 Comments

Water Buffalo Nintendo Switch 2 Comments refers to the brigading of the comment sections of Nintendo of America's YouTube videos with jokes about water buffalos. The comments are part of a prank or trolling campaign by the Nintendo Switch 2 subreddit, /r/NintendoSwitch2, which was inspired by a post from Redditor u/PeepsRebellion in which they compared the supposed size of a Nintendo Switch 2 console to a water buffalo. This inspired a running joke on the subreddit associating water buffalos with the Switch 2. The water buffalo post was made in mid-December 2024 and the comment brigading began in January 2025.