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Nintendo has finally broken its silence on the successor to its Switch hit – but don’t get too excited.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting news about the console for months, but little official information has surfaced.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has already promised an announcement sometime before March 2025.

But he also said there would be no mention of the new machine at the company’s Nintendo Direct event next month.

IN post to Xthe head of the Japanese company, said: “It will be more than nine years since we announced the existence of the Nintendo Switch in March 2015.”

He said next month’s Direct will focus on “Nintendo Switch’s software lineup for the second half of 2024.”

“But note that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during this presentation,” he said, adding that that information will arrive “within this fiscal year.”

The company holds several of its trailer showcases each year, and recent releases have sparked plenty of speculation about whether the “Switch 2” — as fans have unofficially dubbed the new machine — will make an appearance.

There’s never been much doubt that Nintendo is on to something – the original Switch has sold more than 130 million units since it launched in 2017.

It hasn’t seen too many blockbusters since last year’s Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Wonder.

The company released Mario Vs. Donkey Kong and Princess Peach: It’s Showtime! this year, but aside from the Luigi’s Mansion 2 remakes and the RPG Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, no other domestic titles are planned.

Piers Harding-Rawls, head of games research at Ampere Analytics, told the BBC that some Nintendo fans have “wanted a more powerful Switch for at least the last three years”.

But, he said, the company has refused to rush a new machine and has kept customers interested with upgrades such as a revised OLED screen model launched in 2021.

“From 2021 to the end of 2023, Nintendo sold another 60 million Switch consoles to consumers worldwide and generated operating profits of more than $10bn (£7.98bn) based on today’s exchange rates,” he said.

While it reported a rise in profits, sales of software and hardware were down, but the company said the Switch has 123 million users a year despite being eight years old.

He also said he has plans to expand the use of Nintendo characters into other areas.

These include the next Mario movie, the Donkey Kong Country area of ​​its Super Nintendo World attraction at Universal Studios Japan and a new company museum near its headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.

As for the Switch follow-up, various rumors and alleged leaks have surfaced over the past year regarding the capabilities of the new machine, but nothing has been confirmed by Nintendo itself.

Pierce believes the follow-up won’t be a huge change in direction, unlike some of Nintendo’s previous console releases.

“Judging by the success of the Switch, we expect the new device to be a similar form factor and continue the legacy of the original product,” he said.

Pierce said he expects the new console to be released in the first half of 2025.

But now we can say with confidence that we will know something by the end of this (financial) year.

Additional reporting by Liv McMahon.