Hannan Mundia 
Rumors of the Nintendo Switch 2 have been swirling for months and while the company has been quiet about it to this point, that recently changed with executives denying reports.
Through company president Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo denied some of the reports surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2. He didn’t deny the Switch 2’s existence but honed in on some of the most notable reports surrounding the console. Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbum sat in during a conference where Furukawa fielded questions, including on the new console.
What did Nintendo have to say about the Switch 2 rumors?
In an earnings call, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa referred to the reports of Nintendo briefing developers on a new-gen console as “inaccurate.”
“Rumors are circulating mainly on the internet as if they were public information, but they are inaccurate,” Furukawa said according to a translation.
Earlier this year, reports stated that Nintendo had privately shown tech demos for its upcoming console to select developers at Gamescom 2023. Additionally, thanks to the United States’ FTC legal battle with Microsoft surrounding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, an enormous amount of documents that were submitted to the courts were leaked including correspondences within Activision regarding the specs of Nintendo’s next console. Furukawa states that neither of these is true.
Furukawa’s denial comes after Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision agreed to a 10-year partnership. Details of this partnership were submitted to courts surrounding the Microsoft-Activision merger and were later accidentally leaked online by Microsoft. Part of those details were emails between Activision executives regarding the Switch 2’s specs.
Though Furukawa denies the reports regarding the Switch 2, this would have to mean that Activision committed to the partnership with no knowledge of the console it would be developing games for the foreseeable future. Either that or it would have required Microsoft to submit falsified documents to the court during a trial surrounding a $69 billion merger.
Also touched upon during the call were questions regarding a patent filed by Nintendo regarding a new device that features multiple screens. He said that while he applied knowing full well that the information would be public, that doesn’t mean the plans will be used for a new product. Companies often patent ideas and concepts for possible future use without actually following through on them.
Nintendo president doesn’t deny Switch 2 development
Nintendo did not confirm the existence of the Switch 2, but also didn’t deny it.
The Switch remains a highly popular console. It was recently revealed that Nintendo sold 6.84 million Switch consoles between April and September, bringing the total lifetime sales of the console above 132 million. In the same earnings call, Furukawa discussed lofty goals for Switch sales with a target of 15 million units sold by the end of its fiscal year ending March 2024.
It seems like Nintendo is banking on the upcoming holiday season to help them reach their target. Denials regarding Switch 2 reports as well as various new Nintendo Switch bundles both help serve that goal.
