-Credit:Nintendo
With the cat out of the bag and the Nintendo Switch 2 officially unveiled, it’s on show for the world to see. Although a plethora of leaks gave us a good idea of what to expect, that’s not the case for everyone as the wider world reacts, with some ‘genuinely surprised’ at the reveal.
If you’ve spent any time online in the last week, you’ll know it’s been impossible to escape the rumour mill surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2. There were arguments over whether the date of when the reveal would be, as well as what the console would look like following leaks from accessory manufacturers.
Nintendo decided to put that all to bed this afternoon by releasing the trailer itself with no pre-amble or grand announcement – just a first-look trailer dropped straight onto YouTube. For those who’ve followed the narrative, it confirmed most of what we knew already (backwards compatibility, a mysterious new button and an additional charging port) but for the vast majority of gamers, it came as a complete surprise.
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“Everyone’s saying that they saw the leaks. I never even HEARD about the Switch 2 so this was genuinely a surprise,” writes one user in the YouTube comments of the Switch 2 announcement trailer. Another user points out that, despite the leaks, people are still extremely excited at the prospect of a new Nintendo console: “Nintendo released this without a promotion and yet it is #1 trending right now. Guess this shows how people still wanna see how the new switch looks even if there was leaks about it beforehand.”
Since the trailer was released just after 1pm GMT, the trailer has amassed over 4 million views in four hours. Gamers have expressed how much they enjoy Nintendo’s approach to marketing, with one user writing: “Nintendo just casually dropping the Nintendo Switch 2 trailer with no promo on a random Thursday, classic Nintendo.”
It’s true that the game company has a particular way about how it markets its products, with there usually being very little rhyme or reason to its reveals. However, there is some concensus that the Switch 2 announcement feels as though Nintendo’s hand was forced this time around.
The Nintendo Switch 2 reveal trailer also teased a first look at what appears to be a new Mario Kart game. -Credit:Nintendo
“Nintendo: we know you know. Now just take the teaser and leave us alone,” writes one commenter with over 45,000 upvotes. Another jokes, “Love how this is “ok, fine” BUT the real announcement is in April.”
This commenter is right, of course. While this is a simple ‘first-look’ trailer for the Switch 2, there’s still plenty we don’t know about it, including what sort of processing power it has and which games it will launch with on day one – not to mention when it will actually release.
Nintendo has promised that the new console will be out before the end of the year, and that it will give us more information about the device in a dedicated Direct presentation on April 2, 2025. Until then, we’ll have to keep this two-minute trailer on repeat and peep every pixel until we can uncover all the secrets the new console has to offer.