Switch 2 to release in 2025, bigger Mario Kart en route

A short trailer showed a bigger, slicker take on the Switch concept.

Nintendo just made it official. The successor to the Switch is called Nintendo Switch 2, and it’s releasing this year.

The company shared the news via a two-minute video that shows off the new hardware. The trailer seems designed to avoid a major mistake the company made two console transitions ago, when Nintendo last launched a new console that was an iteration rather than a revolution.

The Switch 2 trailer shows a device that is similar to the original hybrid console/portable Switch, which launched in 2017 and has sold more than 146 million units.

Key Switch 2 differences shown in the trailer:

• Switch 2 is bigger, with a bigger screen

• …and bigger controllers

• There’s a mysterious, new square-shaped button near the bottom of the right controller

• The controllers might be able to be used like mice (this had been rumored and the controllers are briefly shown skating along a surface)

• The controllers snap into the side of the device to connect, rather than slide from the top

Can it work like a mouse? And what’s that new square button?

Otherwise, Switch 2 appears quite similar to the original Switch, with capabilities to play games on the go or on a TV via a dock.