Talking Point: Did All The Switch 2 Leaks 'Damage' Nintendo Or The Console's Reveal?

It's annoying and I wish the leaks didn't happen. But It's not going to change my excitement for a system I want to get.

It’s almost the same bloody console. Switch 1 ruined the reveal 😀

It doesn't 'bother' me persay, but it did make it much less exciting. New Mario Kart more than made up for it though, hopefully we won't have to wait until April to see what third party games are coming to the system as well.

Short answer - no.
Long answer - no, it did not.

I definitely think it hurt a little bit, particularly the potential for the joy con to be used as a mouse. At this point, if leakers can get that much out of a company like Nintendo, this is likely the norm now.

Ironically, we still dont know much at all. I think with all of those control schemes, Nintendo is going to have something up their sleeve that can still be surprising.

I still would have wanted it even if it hadn't been spoiled. I've been following Nintendo since day one and I'm not gonna lose interest now. The actually naming it switch 2 threw me off though. Guess they didn't wanna risk naming it something stupid that everyone would hate. Plus the switch was such a success they figured if it ain't broke etc etc.

Now can we just get a price, release date and a list of launch titles?

To be fair NL, you reported on every possible rumor there was nomatter how insignificant. You played a hand in this too.

I don't believe the leaks have hurt Switch 2's chances in the long-term, but that reveal video felt like it had been forced just so Nintendo could get ahead of the leaks. Now there's a two and half month wait for further information, which kinda proves the reveal video was released before Nintendo was ready.

I don't think they caused any damage. If anything, they helped temper expectations.

If anything the leaks ruined the least interesting part about the Switch 2 so it's no biggie for me. What's under that exterior, the features and the games are what's most important. So hopefully Nintendo get ahead of any serious leaks before April 2nd.

I think the only thing that REALLY hurt the reveal was the lack of confirmation for details like price, specs, and features, as well as waiting until April 2nd to reveal more. If the April Direct was happening in a week or two from now, I doubt anyone would care as much.

Doing a hardware-only reveal makes sense if the system is a new concept, but since the Switch 2 is an iteration from the original Switch, I don't get the point of showing the system without the new specs and only a few seconds of game footage.

Leaks didn't damage it at all. if anything, Nintendo being so secretive and waiting forever just to show a teaser without any release date or price info is what damaged them.

Leaks didn't damage the presentation. If you look at it from the outside, it's an upgraded Switch, could be named Switch Pro and it wouldn't have surprised anyone. People are already expecting Lite and OLED models. The only differences are a hypothetical mouse control and an additional button, both completely unexciting if we don't see them in action. I suspect that those would be underused like most of the Switch features.

The lack of specifications made the presentation worse. It could be just slightly more powerful than Switch. There were no games showcasing its technical capabilities, since Mario Kart could be a cross release as far as we know. I read some comments yesterday about graphics having reached its full potential. Just watch computer-animated films and compare them to Switch games and you will see that this is not true at all.

Nintendo Switch 2 is so safe that it makes me think that the price will be the same as Switch at launch, with relatively low power. Why? Because I think they are prioritising hardware sales and hoping to sell as many cartridges/downloads as possible, even if they are just remasters. This looks like the same business strategy. It's the first Nintendo console ever to be named "... 2", after all.

We don't know if it made Nintendo change its strategy or not, do we. But assuming it didn't, then no harm done particularly.

@Fangleman32 THIS.
I kept myself from reading any leaks, but this site in particular seemed to push an article on every single line of "rumor" that they could get their hands on.
It was honestly very irritating.

That said: Nothing was ruined for me, I'm excited for the Switch 2 and can't wait for more official news!

I don't think the rumours hurt it any. It was much less feel good than the original Switch trailer (ha ha ha ha YEAH!) but I think it has cemented the branding going forward. The console looks more serious. The internet will no doubt over think it, or get worried about something they think only they realise...which is best to ignore. Any one worth their salt (if they have any left from the past 4 years!) is waiting for games.

If it hurts anyone, it’s the fans who follow gaming news and especially the rumor mill. It doesn’t matter to the general public who don’t chase after such things and might even be out of the loop. This build-up to the reveal was crazy and Nintendo might’ve still done things differently, but it’ll be forgotten.

Leakers didn't damage the reveal, Nintendo did. By not showing launch titles to get hyped over. Coz lets face it, we all knew Switch 2's hardware wasn't going to be anything special. It was the games most people were excited for. Had they shown off some more Metroid Prime 4 footage or a 4K Twilight Princess or Wind Waker remake, I think the crowds would have went wild.

As it happens, the reveal was pretty 'meh' as a result. Hopefully the April showcase will unf*** the situation

Leakers only ruined it for the 5-10% of consumers that actively sought out information. 15-20% of hardcore gamers probably waited out the leaks for the reveal with a few things spoiled here and there but nothing to major. The final 70-80% of gamers and average consumers probably were not even affected by the leaks at all or did not care. At the end, Nintendo will continue to make good games, people will still buy the console/games, and everything will be fine.

If there were no leaks, the reveal would not have been very surprising given that it is still a Switch for the most part with minor alterations. The only things to wonder about are the c button and the mice. Therefore I wonder, does Nintendo expect me to use the mice on my pant leg or on the couch arm rest?

I'm not tiring of the hybrid concept at all, and I don't think any reasonable person should be--that's just typical Interdweeb try-hard rubbish imo, where they have to pretend they're too good/cool for something after a couple of years of popularity regardless of its merits--but I do wish the Switch "2" was far clearer an actual next generation system from Nintendo. It could still be a Switch ultimately, but I've yet to see anything that truly justifies the "2" moniker rather than just "Pro" for example. When the "2" is thrown around, I want to see something that's an obvious and proper generational jump from the previous system. Switch "2" is the least convincing example of "next-gen" home console hardware I've ever seen from Nintendo relative to its current/previous generation system. That's the only real issue I have with Switch "2", along with a few aesthetic and ergonomic design niggles and stuff that I truly hoped they'd have addressed fully by now. But whatever, Switch "2" it is.

For anyone who already has a Switch and actually loves it, I don't think the leaks will make the slightest bit of difference in their decision to purchase a Switch "2", which I still don't think all of them would have bought regardless. The real question for me there is how many of them will actually make the jump from Switch to Switch "2".

The leaks didnt prepare us for the ugliness of it. This is not a Nintendo Console in my mind, where is the splash of colour and fun?

Literally this is the most inoffensive leak I’ve ever seen and I don’t know why people are so furious at this when FAR worse incidents have been happening recently like the constant horrible attacks on insomniac games or the endless personal data leaks that plague the industry.

It definitely made the reveal less exciting. But what it did do was prepare us for the fact there isn't anything revolutionary or innovative this time around. We've had months to let that reality sink in. Whereas if we had been hyped about this super secretive new console, expecting something really wild and excitedly trying to guess how they could go a step beyond the Switch, we would've been pretty bummed with this reveal. "Is that it?!" So it's both good and bad.

Didn't really do much damage imo but the trailer feels very safe. Not bad by any means but compare that to the 1st Switch reveal trailer, it feels like Nintendo wanted to get that reveal trailer out of the way to avoid further damages

I'm still excited to see more of the Switch 2 and I'm looking forward to April

The leaks were far more annoying. I felt like I was being bombarded with this stuff 24/7.

@Bunkerneath gonna be real Nintendo consoles barring the GameCube and gbc/gba have always kinda had a dull color palette to them, the Nintendo entertainment system is literally just a tiny office fax machine when it comes to the colors and shape lol. Plus I’m positive there’ll be all sorts of silly fun colorful joy con designs released for the thing as it goes on.

@Bunkerneath You've literally described exactly what it has on it, a splash of colour beneath both the analogue sticks, and that continued on the connection points for both the Joy-Cons. That is your "splash or colour". Now, all I'd like to see if alternative colour options for those splashes. I'd personally rather have more Mario red and blue splash colours.

The only ones damaging the Switch 2 reveal were Nintendo themselves. It was total garbage dropped unannounced on a Thursday morning. Nintendo treated the Switch 2 worse than they did Everybody 1 2 Switch, and I’ve played that game and it is indeed garbage.

I’m not even sure we’ve seen the Switch 2 yet. Can anyone 100% say with certainty that there was a real physical object Switch 2 anywhere in that video and it wasn’t entirely CG? Nintendo couldn’t bother to have a real person hold a real Switch 2 in their real hands with a real smile on their face so we know it’s a real physical object?

And how do we know that even is Mario Kart 9 or Nintendo Kart or whatever it will be called? Anyone here remember when they showed off Wii U with a video of a bird flying over a koi pond? No Wii U game ever looked like that. Ok maybe XCX got close. And for the old timers, remember SpaceWorld where they showed off Link fighting Gannon in some really cool 3D modeling, and then the Zelda game was cell shaded Windwaker?

Nintendo did the absolute minimum. There were people printing out 3D models who did a better job showing it off than Nintendo did the real thing. Any negativity is all on them.

Did the leaks spoil the reveal? Err, how could they not...

All the leaks did was damage the console's surprise. Although I find leaks to be disrespectful for a company, they won't change my decision in buying it. Now to see what games will be launching with the new system.

shrugs

It wasn’t a very substantive reveal in any case. It looks cool, but I’d have been more excited if they showed off more games. Guess I’ll have to wait for April for that…

Mario Kart 9 looked really cool though. 24 racers?!

No it’s what I expected anyway.
And let’s be honest I think it was the worst console reveal I can remember.
Just to be told to tune in April 🤣

The games make a console and I bet we don’t get a new 3d Mario platform game on release as I predict on here about two weeks ago.

Thing with Nintendo they are so predicted able nowadays as they are so business common sense run, which I guess they have to be to make money. But it does make them a bit boring nowadays.

Anyone else get total "Revolution" (Wii) launch trailer vibes, just without any clips of people actually using the thing or gameplay footage other than the new Mario Kart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEKCetCeibs

And I think there was a bit of deliberateness in that, maybe trying to recapture some of that "Revolution" feeling and nostalgia. Except the Switch "2" isn't revolutionary like the Wii was, so it didn't really land in the same way.

I think the leaks only would have been "damaging" if they had spoiled a transformative element — e.g., the Wii U Gamepad or the 3D feature of the 3DS — or if they had teased some transformative feature that ultimately wasn't part of the console. In this case, for me at least, I think they actually prepared me to expect very little change.

No not really. Considering the locked in April date as the real reveal.

If they hadn't set the date and just said more info soon, maybe.

Staying away from leaks now that I know the date when I will get the info I'm looking forward to.

@Fangleman32 Thanks for posting this! It's been super tiring to scroll past all the Switch 2 rumour articles which just seemed to increase in numbers when there was little else to report on

For us hardcore gamers who follow gaming news daily if not multiple times daily? Sure a bit. However, as far as the mass market? No. Out of the 155 million people that currently own a Switch, maybe 10% of them even heard about a successor console, let alone saw or heard anything about the Switch 2 until the official Nintendo reveal and even then I'd wager that most haven't seen it.

I don't think leaks hurt it, but it was not a very interesting reveal. Look at the original Switch announcement. It was exciting—we got glimpses of this brand-new form factor and how people might use it, plus a preview of what games would be on the system.

Switch 2 reveal was mostly a tedious, cheap computer render of... a slightly bigger console, then some unfinished-looking shots of a new Mario Kart. It felt really rushed out. Why didn't they actually tease how the new mouse functionality might work? Or the extra USBC port? Or the mysterious C button? All they did was confirm all the leaks, and lazily and sloppily at that.

In short, Nintendo got caught with their pants down, and they 100% did it to themselves.

It was pretty much what I'd thought it'd be, so no. That said, it kinda sucks that we have to wait even longer for them actually to spill the details on this thing. As if we haven't waited long enough.

As others have mentioned, the reception that it's getting is because of the underwhelming reveal. Once we actually see the new games and get a better idea of the power difference, then it will get hyped again. Well, assuming it does a good job in that.

As for leakers, I think that they actually got people more hyped. It's just that Nintendo took too long to reveal it Also, I don't think that waiting until April to reveal more is a great idea and that it would probably have worked better in February/march. It's a long time for leakers to do their thing again, and they will.

I can't see the leaks making any dent in the sales or prospects of the machine. Really the only thing they did was spoil the surprise.

I do wonder if Nintendo even planned to reveal it this week or if this was the quickest they could put together something to get out ahead of the leakers? It was a pretty bare-bones announcement and didn't have that zeitgeist of the original Switch reveal with the roof parties.

Nintendo might have been better off not revealing the system now and just waiting until they were ready to show the games, but like I said, I very much doubt anyone who wanted a Switch 2 won't be buying one because of the leaks.

It took the fun out of it. I avoided the rumors and leaks as best I could, but info still glanced my face. The result was me going "mm hm, they said it would have that" over and over. Won't stop myself from getting it or Nintendo from matching forward.

No.. Not at all, but it would be nice if Nintendo released the tech specs and more info right now, instead of drip feeding us.

April is ages away and indicates a winter release..

@scoot Dang it Nintendo, wear a belt!

This trailer just validated the leaks. It had to, before more damage could be done.
On the concept itself, N has probably enough $ to cover for a lesser Switch generation, although investments keep on rising and risks are getting higher. With S2 everybody knows what to expect, just like PS5. Only Xbox tends to mess up their product names.

there will be even more leaks leading up to the switch 2 direct.

I don't care how Nintendo feels!

What I don't like was that it is just "bigger Switch"

I was expecting something a little more... Nintendo -ish

95% of nintendos consumer base never even saw the leaks

Leaks happen. I don't care about it. I'm still excited for it.

It's hard to damage a reveal as underwhelming as that. The PS5 Pro reveal was more hype than this!

Just don't spoil April with all your leak articles, NintendoLife, and we can stay friends!

I think the leaks were more impactful this time, last time we had rough drawings of the "NX" whereas here we saw the actual Switch 2 controller, complete with the inverted colour scheme.

If the reveal was more than a teaser it wouldn't have mattered as much, but the fact we "knew" the name, the size, the colour, the logo, the dock, meant the tease didn't tease, it confirmed

It definitely hurt me as a fan a little bit, since the reveal was lacking a bit of a luster for me (is that the saying ? ). The console itself is such a safe bet anyway, would be nice to at least have it heard from nintendo first hand.

Don't exactly lose excitement over it, but it definitely tempers it. Presentation and first impression is really important for marketing a product.

This had literally zero effect + was fun for us.

Leaks were spot on and Nintendo did d*** to contain them or properly announce the console at the correct time.

The correct time was last fall when there was a light release schedule of Switch games. Give a few more game appearances and leave the mystery until January/February then show this trailer we got then price, and release date with another announcement before April of a Switch 2 show of games with prices/release dates. Have it all released and shown before end April/early May.

Whomever said no to announcement last fall should probably get a demotion at Nintendo. Total mess up, and it ruined the cadence of the rest of it.

It certainly damaged NintendoLife's credibility and professionalism

@Chapapa I can see why Nintendo took a safe bet. Looking back at history, Nintendo's dominance in the market took a hit when N64 was released, Gamecube didn't sell as much as the other consoles, they struck with gold with the Wii, but flopped hard with the Wii U. They took a chance with the Switch and end up paying off in the long run.

Nintendo is wise enough to not try and compete anymore, and has found a market for the time being. People may be a bit down, but Nintendo isn't trying to go for a second "Wii U".

It’s a day one purchase from me. Can’t wait for that sexy piece of kit to be sat under my tv. So no definitely did not damage anything for me.
The over-saturation of leaks however did damage the credibility of many journos. Click bait everywhere

It spoiled the reveal for us, but for Nintendo? No, it won't hurt sales of the system.

As a long time Nintendo fan, and electronics enthusiast, I wasn’t bothered by the leaks. As the last few weeks went on I believed a lot of them to be legit and was just more hyped for it.

Honestly speaking, once Nintendo said it was BC last year I knew I was getting it on launch for sure, so leaks and specs didn’t matter much. I’d be willing to bet this was the thought of many.

Now the official reveal itself I’d argue did more “damage” in the fact that most of us have been (impatiently) waiting for it, and expected a very likely March/May launch. Now it’s probably June at best; but possibly July. I did some research and found historically Nintendo has released a majority of their systems (console and handheld) around the March-July window. I had honestly believe it to be the fall window, but my 42 year old brain obviously needs a tune up!

I use “damage” there loosely, as it’s truly not damaging, just disappointing. Was really hoping to get one in March dang it!

Edit - Still praying they let NSO subscribers pre-order directly so we don’t have to fight scalpers at retail….. Come on Nintendo! Steam and Sony did it! You can too!

is it possible that the leaks ruined the reveal, AND nintendo and switch 2 are not necessarily "doomed?"

you guys have a slight problem where the poll responses contain leading answers not related to the question.

I'll write in my own, and it's oddly a combination of the first and last responses:

Q: Do you think the Switch 2 leaks 'damaged' Nintendo or the console's chances?

A: No, but they totally gutted the reveal

Only for the online enthusiast communities. The proportion of potential Switch 2 customers who passively saw some the leaks was probably something like 1% and probably 0.1% for those actively following and digesting them online. Sites like this one and Reddit communities are the teeniest tiniest fraction of the general population. It will not affect sales in the slightest and by the end of the year even we online enthusiasts will have long since forgotten about this whole leaky saga.

It was disappointing but I can't see why it would stop someone who wants one from buying it

The YT trailer has 15M views and went to #1 in trending before yesterday was over. so I don't think Nintendo's in a ton of trouble.

Yes, the leaks spoiled the reveal pretty much entirely.

It didn’t help that Nintendo hardly showed anything new that hadn’t been leaked already.

@rjejr who hurt you? You people act as if Nintendo comitted a crime.
They showed off the system, showed us a sneak peak at a new Mario Kart game and gave us a date when we can expect MORE news.
I'm an "old timer" that remembers the WiiU tech demo and the GameCube tech demo and I am completely fine with the announcement yesterday.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun following the leak cycle. If this trailer had come out in isolation it might have been more of a letdown for me personally tbh. Instead of just being a reveal of mostly iterative console it became the climax of this crazy leak journey.

I pre-ordered the original switch when everyone was saying Nintendo was doomed and for the first year or two I was the only person I knew who owned one, now most people I know owns one.

@Mothertroid this right here, yup! Been a fun ride. I hope for some more snippets leading up to April 2nd TBH…. I’ll take specs and a semi confirmable launch list at any time

(When it's out) "Switch 2 looks dope! I'd love to buy one but I just can't get over that first reveal."

Said no one ever.

In the grand scheme of things the leaks won't really affect how well this system sells what will determine that is what games are available for us to play.

The rumours were annoying for sure but like the article mentioned the casual consumer probably wasn't even paying attention to it so I doubt this will damage anything.

Also side note Nintendo has always followed a linear curve with their handhelds. We got the GB-GBC-GBA then the DS family line and I look at the Switch in the same type of light.

The leaks probably didn't really do too much damage in the end; maybe a little bit in the end. But that does not mean the leakers had a right to go leak everything, and they should be held accountable if you ask me. If at all possible. Leaks are not fun, they genuinely take away from the official, eventual reveal, and I can only imagine the stress this causes the people behind these products.

And for what, some internet clout? And why are these people being treated as heroes? Imagine YOUR hard work being put up in front of everyone before you yourself are able to present it when YOU are ready. This is not for anyone else to do, YOU decide it. So when Nintendo has a product to show us, THEY will decide when they want to show us. Leakers can take a bloomin' hike.

I've seen people saying they don't care because Nintendo is a rich company- but even rich companies have actual people behind them. People who worked hard on these things. People who deserve to not have their work laid out in front of the world before they feel ready to do so.

I wonder how these people even get a hold of these leaks. They need to find the sources, send their suits after them, and give them a big fat fine that will scar them for life, like they did with people like Gary Bowser. I truly don't care if it leaves them in dept for the rest of their lives, they deserve it for toying with the big dogs like this and ruining these things for a lot of fans. They NEED to be taken down, in such a way that nobody will ever put it into their stupid mind to leak these things ahead of time ever again.

For all the leaks that occurred over the years for the system, the one thing none of them were able to do was give an actual look at what the system could do. We see numbers like 1.7 TFlops in portable mode, but those are just numbers, and what we try to compare that to is with what a "PC" can do with it, not a console. Consoles with custom chips are tailored to get as much performance for games as possible from their specs, not just in design, but granting devs that bare-metal access PCs simply cannot offer.

As it is, our first glimpse into the actual look of Switch 2 games comes from Nintendo with this teaser trailer, which let's be honest, it's an edited, YT-compressed mess, so we can't really see the finer details that the system is capable of. For all we know, what we saw was a cross-gen title that showed the Switch version so as to not give away the Switch 2's potential for that same game.

The leaks lessened the impact of the announcement, but don't get fooled into believing Switch won't sell well because of those leaks.

The leaks gutted it for sure, every feature down the the U shaped kick stand, "C button" and release trigger for the joycon were not a surprise

The reveal itself is what really hurt. I am again convinced that Nintendo will be just like Sony, Microsoft and Disney. The reveal simply had no magic and did not feel like Nintendo. Thanks again for tempering my expectations with the leaks, NintendoLife.

All hope rests on the games now, but for now the Switch Too is not a day 1 buy for me, unlike the Switch.

Quite a bit imo. After all the leaks, just a short vid basically confirming their veracity was a letdown. Hopefully, they'll show us something exciting next time.

It certainly deflated what little Nintendo was willing to showcase for its initial reveal, to some extent. Nintendo needed to slot in a couple more games to take the narrative back fully, but it didn't ruin the reveal entirely.

For me, the reveal wasn’t that big a deal, but offered a ton of relief. After all the leaks, I just wanted exactly what Nintendo revealed. All the talk of going back to 2 screens and it possibly being a WiiU situation when docked and all that, was making me anxious that Nintendo would fumble this by adding something needlessly complicated to a slam dunk of a follow up. Something that would turn off both consumers and developers. So to see that it’s still essentially the same concept but with more power AND is backwards compatible is all I was hoping for.

Yes Nintendo waited toooooo long.. they needed to show more.. this method of Nintendo slowly rolling out information trickling information and games is frustrating.. holding on to finished games for months or years waiting for months for a direct…
love hateful relationship with Nintendo

Softened the boring blow. The fun of Nintendo died with Iwata. It'll be a sufficient device to play first party titles, with some necessary refinement to a handful of sticking points of the original design. A post Steve Jobs Apple release.

Literally the only thing that will matter is quality of releases, and we're so saturated with games, they better be darn good. And if they play it really safe and dual release to the Switch 1? With a full backwards compatible library that eliminates the fun anticipation of new releases on a new console, with that sort of shared cultural experience of playing the same handful of games as everyone else? I'll see no pressing need to year 1 it, let alone day 1.

Not all of us have a heavy presence online, so for them the reveal was probably exciting.

Personally, well, I pretty much knew everything from the leaks already, but felt good to have it officially revealed at last. So, for me, yeah, the leaks kinda hurt the reveal a little.

@Banjo- This, 100 percent this. Couldn't agree with you more.

Internet's going to internet. There will always be leaks so it's to be expected. It has zero effect. The console will sell itself by being a great console.

I doubt the reveal would have had more impact for me if I didn't follow the leaks

It hurt the feelings of some nintendo bigshots who think they are the messiahs and that people would beg for a new product no matter what it is

Leaks didn't damage Nintendo or the Switch 2, Nintendo dragging their heels on announcing this when it's clearly been ready since at least January 2024 is what damaged them.

How do I know it must have been ready since then? Because 90% of the leaks we got throughout 2024 were pretty much correct, especially the ones for accessories, which means if the leaks for accessories were mostly correct in the entirety of 2024, accessories being the last thing needed to launch a console, it means Nintendo have more or less had the system sitting there for at least a year now and just not saying anything about it.

Then they have the audacity to get mad at leaks 😂.

“It’s bigger than the previous one”
“Here’s a short tech demo clip that everyone will think is Mario Kart 9 ”

Are they really surprised stock markets didn’t like this?

Only people who saw the leaks are people who are hardcore into the online gaming sphere, so the leaks will have had zero impact on their decision to purchuse or not. To the vast vast majority of Switch owners, this was a surprise still.

Nope. Look at the numbers the reveal trailer is doing across social media on Youtube alone(16M+ views, almost 1M likes in little over a day). Practically everything gets leaked these days. Flash forward to when it launches, people just want to play the new Mario Kart and whatever else comes.

Over 15 million views on YouTube in about half a day or less.

They are fine.

@PerfectFrost That's just incorrect. Unless you live your life completely offline, it's quite easy to be spoiled by something you weren't even searching for in the first place. Like, that's just the nature of where we are now in the online world. News, social media, forums, etc.. All of them are leaking things at rate no normal human being can completely avoid.

It's quite easy to be spoiled before you know it.

Looks like the rapture is about to happen, or the tribulation is about to start. There is no switch 2. Its all a hoax. The current switch will be used as the ultimate game streaming device. I have warned people.

Truth be told, without the leaks I would have been kinda confused on certain parts of the Switch 2. The joy-cons being sideways just looks like they're showing them off, not inherently showing they can work like a computer mouse. The 2nd USB-C slot I would have confused for them putting buttons on the bottom for a few seconds, thinking it was just the USB-C slot again. All the trailer managed to show was it's bigger, the dock and kickstand are different, and the joy-cons got slight upgrades. And a Mario Kart tech demo.
It didn't feel like the have fun Nintendo of the Wii or Switch. It reminded me of the Wii U for serious gamers vibes. "We have mature titles" so take us seriously.

I still think it is actually the Switch Pro and not the Switch 2

I personally don't think the leaks will have any long term affect on sales / success.

Worse case scenario IMHO is that it might have held back some gamers from replacing their worn out OG Switches this Xmas, but those gamers will just replace their OG Switches with the Switch 2 now.

There definitely seems to be a general feeling of "Is that it?" going around. Even without the leaks, we just haven't seen enough of what the console can actually do to get properly excited for it. I wasn't expecting a full first party sizzle reel with a "surprise" announcement like this, but it's a long wait for the April Direct. It kind of feels like they'd have rather put this trailer out in March, but the leaks forced their hand.

To be honest, its everything i wanted the switch 2 to be.
Only thing left are the games. But aside from that, day one!!

You say as if every news website (this one included) wasn't trying to squeeze every drop of information it could get from said leaks.

Could hardly call them leaks at that point, more like a faucet.

I do think these leaks forced Nintendo’s hand to at least officially confirm form factor using a less than ideal trailer.

I am sure Nintendo wanted to do it better - perhaps saving it all for April, but really had no choice but to put out rumor fires.

Took the wind out of the reveal’s sails a bit but honestly a bigger and better Switch is what I expected before the leaks anyway so I don’t think they ruined much really. It’s not like there was some huge gimmick they were trying to keep under wraps that got spoilt.

Either way, most of the exciting things like new software features and of course the games are still a huge unknown outside of a glimpse of Mario Kart. With how iterative it is I can’t imagine they actually wanted to show it first in this way since it’s the software that’s going to really show off what’s new about it…this reveal really does feel like a reaction to the leaks. I know they showed the first Switch 2/3 months before the full unveiling but this feels different.

I think it was calculated leak. Not organic leaks.
Marketing labs acting here.
And it was good for Nintendo.
Now, everybody knows about Switch 2.
It won´t be another wii-U story...

It absolutely stole some wind from their sails, but so has the long manufacturing process.

I think the reveal trailer was put together last second after so many leaks and likely shareholder pressure to put out something to get ahead of the leaks. They were likely also, amongst the many things they have going on, working on software trailers.

The vast majority of people haven't been paying attention to any leaks. They won't have any impact.

I don't think this was ever the intended time or way for the reveal. I think they were planning on waiting until April 2nd at which point they will have a huge, shocking, exciting, fun blow out of information and games!

I think this trailer was given now with little fanfare, simply so they could say "we revealed it". And not have leakers pushing the narrative. Unfortunately that means they're saving all their big punches and secrets for the REAL reveal in April.

The leaks ruined the surprise that it was going to be fundamentally unsurprising — at least in terms of form factor.

I still imagine Nintendo has a few tricks up its sleeve that will be able to surprise as well as delight. It’s easy to forget just how many gimmicks from Nintendo’s long lineage are crammed into the original Switch design given how cohesive the whole thing feels.

Home console? Check.
Portable? Check.
Wii U-style Gamepad with touchscreen? Check (kind of)
Wii-style waggle controls? Check.
Virtual Boy-style ‘strap it to your head and enjoy somewhat cumbersome VR experience’? Check.

Michelangelo didn’t reinvent pencil and paper but he did put the boundaries of what would be achieved with them.

There’s plenty of potential for combining all that tech (plus the updated IR sensors) in exciting new ways. And even if that falls through (a la Labo) they’ve still got the fact that ‘it’s a portable with Nintendo games that you can play on the TV’ to fall back on.

The tech itself was never going to blow people’s minds, so in that sense there was very little for the leaks to spoil. What matters — and remains to be seen — is how Nintendo utilises that tech to create an exciting and enticing product.

Those cards are still very much in Nintendo’s hand, and it’s going to be interesting to see (in April) how they play them.

I doubt most people even noticed there were leaks.

No poll option for a reasonable ‘we don’t know’..

Relax everyone. Nintendo is going to be just fine. The hardware leaks is similar to phones these days. Just adds more publicity and hype to them. It is really the games that is going to define this new gaming system platform. For the most part, the focus is all about quality of games. Nintendo is likely confident as any new games in development are tougher to leak. So they are still in the position to reveal surprises to the world.

Presentation was bad not cause of the leaks. Looked like some trainee did it to fill the air.

Not really. Holding back so long affected things more, because it just motivated leakers to keep on digging. It got to the point that we’d seen everything, but overshot it with the “C button”. Left the reveal a bit bland.

I don't think the leaks ruined the reveal, I just think the reveal itself wasn't very interesting. A quick look at the system and a tease of one game wasn't really much to get excited about. This upcoming Switch 2 Direct would have been a better way to do the reveal in my opinion. But hey, I'm no marketing expert so who knows?
One good thing though is that at least they showed it off pretty early into 2025.

The trailer did an absolute awful job of telling watchers it’s a new console.
Really rubbish reveal!
The fact the whole trailer just feels like a here’s a bigger version of the switch.
For families this advert just looks like another switch, another to add to the line up of switch, switch light, switch oled, switch Zelda, splatoon switch, switch monster hunter..
now here’s the one with a bigger screen and bigger joycons.

My uncle works for Sony. I have a super secret insider leak. I'm taking a huge risk by sharing this but: PS6 will exist someday.

I know. I just cost Sony millions.

Same thing.

@Lord I mean there's literally no confusion, it's called "Switch 2". It's like saying the PlayStation 4 is the same thing as the PlayStation 5.

Did it spoil the excitement of the reveal for me? Yeah, it kind of did. Will it “damage” my chances of buying the new system? Abso—f***ing—lutely not! I am 100% ready to buy. And there are still lots of questions which, admittedly, I’m a bit annoyed they didn’t answer in the reveal trailer, but will maintain some element of mystery and excitement. In closing, leakers are annoying, and water is wet.

It wasn't as good as when Iwata revealed the Wii, or 3DS, but it was better than the Wii U's reveal. I still remember getting a sinking feeling when hearing Reggie announce the name Wii U.

Nintendo ruined their own reveal by not showcasing any software. They revealed a console that looks almost identical to a decade all console, revealed 10 seconds of one game that was fairly predictable as a launch title, and told us zilch about what we all assume will be underpowered inners. I always thought it was okay Nintendo was behind a generation because they're always doing something different (wiimote, wii u gamepad, dual screens on the DS family). This doesn't look nearly different enough to warrant being last gen in terms of specs.

Nintendo houses my favourite franchises hands down. If the next Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem, DK, Splatoon or Golden Sun (let me have this) games released on a Nintendo Toaster, I would buy Nintendo Toaster.

For that same reason, and no other, I will buy Switch 2. Everything else is a bonus.

'Nintendo Toaster' copyright Zadaris 2025

I agree with the top and bottom options.

It completely ruined the reveal but also had zero effect on whether the console will be a success or not.

That will depend on specs, software and competition.

I very nearly bought a Steam Deck Oled back in November last year and am still tempted. Some must have exclusives for the Switch 2 would almost certainly persuade me to stay on team Nintendo though.

This wasn't a reveal. That is set for 2 April. This was a tease and a reveal date, probably released a month or so earlier than planned, and was designed to shut down the absurd rumour mill. Anyone disappointed or underwhelmed can only blame themselves for believing the fake leaks. Fact is, Nintendo themselves NEVER promised such a reveal for this day. In fact, their only promise was from the middle of last year when their president said they will "make an announcement about the Switch successor" by the end of March 2025. This teaser trailer was it! Next time, only trust official sources for information.

No surprise that I answered Zero Effect. I've constantly warned in these pages that people and, worse, the gaming media are exaggerating Nintendo's comments, if not being deliberately deceptive to get clicks. While NL has been one of the more sensible outlets and always suggested scepticism to the vast array of fake leaks and rumours way back to the Switch Pro fantasy, even they got duped this time. The fact that Switch games are still to come, including Metroid Prime 4, tells you directly the Switch 2 is some months away, meaning a full reveal would not be this early. We've also known for years a Switch 2 was likely next, so that it looks like a Switch should not be surprise, nor damage its chances. Probably the most important information most of us really want to know about the Switch 2 is the release date. That it's bigger, and nicer, and more powerful, we all expected that.

@Slain Probably the Direct on 2 April was meant to be the first look, not just the main reveal. The trailer we got now was just a tease and a reveal date merely to shut down the absurd rumour mill. Nintendo never promised anything more themselves, so believing in the fake leaks was the problem. I personally never accepted this one - that it would be a full reveal. Nintendo typically tease, reveal and release. This was step 1.

@Lord Ping! I could ping half the people in these comments. 🤗

@FredsBodyDouble This teaser trailer was never meant to be the full reveal. That's 2 April. This trailer was designed to shut down the absurd rumours. It's sad that so many people got duped by the fake leaks, so I suggest only to trust official sources in future.

Of course, a Switch 2 would look much like a Switch. What did you expect? Did you really think Nintendo would stray far from its ultra successful formula? 🤔

The leaks for me ruined the surprise of the reveal. But good grief I cannot see how they would hurt the success of the console. It's just a hardware tease. April here we come.

Yes. The leaks "totally gutted the reveal", but they did not "damage Nintendo or the console's chances". Those are two separate things.

@Jokerwolf I do agree, but when you go to the shop there’s not 10 versions of the PlayStation 4 on the shelf.
And this is where I think families will just see the S2 as another variation.

I don’t believe the leaks ruined anything but all the never ending articles talking about leaks and rumours did more harm. I think the reveal would also have came off as even better with more hype if a new gen meant something completely new for a body and name that it’s still a hybrid, rather than something that looks like a Pro to continue the Switch family.

@Lord there's going to be about as much confusion as there was when people moved on from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.

Let’s be real: Leaks didn’t help at all, but if leaks was all it took to kill something then lot of things would have died.

Despite all the leaks, nobody knows what the actual system does. Nintendo have managed to keep a firm lid on that. The only thing people know is the physical appearance and oh look, an early build of Mario Kart running on it, their biggest selling game. Hopefully the lid remains on all that until April.