Switch 2 mania
Image: Nintendo Life

If you've been browsing social media for the past few days (heck, let's not kid ourselves, past few years) you'll have seen plenty of prognosticating about the arrival of the Switch successor.

The latest whispers suggested that Wednesday 8th January was the first sensible day after the holidays for Nintendo to finally pull back the curtain on 'Switch 2'. With everyone across all territories back in the office, it made sense to put all the rumours to bed with an official reveal in early January.

But here we are, knee-deep in news about the console, yet none of it's coming from Nintendo.

Nope, it's peripheral manufacturers who are delivering the goods, or at least the only details going. Accessory maker Genki flagged last week that it planned to show and discuss Switch 2 and its lineup of peripherals at CES 2025, and they've made good on their promise. In fact, Genki's trailer gives us probably the most polished look at the unannounced hardware we've had.

The firm's rendering of the system is naturally enclosed in its upcoming "NS2" case — let's not forget the whole reason so many accessory makers are eager to get out ahead of an official announcement — but the general layout conforms to the leaked details we've been seeing since the first supposed hardware shots appeared online back in September.

And it's not just Genki. Peripheral companies all over the place are getting in on the act. Dbrand was the first out of the gate, of course, and today Funlab has jumped on the bandwagon:

Elsewhere, Felipe Lima of Universo Nintendo claims to have an accurate mock-up of the final Switch 2 logo, as provided by a source. It looks essentially the same as the logo we've been seeing for weeks (a big '2' whacked beside the Joy-Con symbols) and there's a more-than-decent chance it's legit, too.

With this total frenzy of details and speculation, the big question is WHY AREN'T YOU JUST ANNOUNCING THE THING, NINTENDO!?!?!? Are you going to sit back while every case manufacturer on the block pulls the same stunt? Surely as the platform holder you want to get out there and get a handle on the messaging before every chip has been torn down, every transistor counted, every secret revealed? Getting all your ducks in a row is fine, but the reveal was planned months ago, surely? You've got the trailer sitting on a hard drive ready to go, right?

It's perplexing, infuriating, exhausting... but maybe 'frenzy' is the key word there. The internet is getting a little unhinged (well, a little more than usual, if that's possible), but you can't buy this sort of marketing. #NintendoSwitch2 is trending very nicely thank-you-very-much, and Nintendo's team has done precisely nothing to get it there.

Switch OLED 2
Image: Nintendo Life

It's also worth remembering that, from a certain perspective (and assuming the authentic-looking leaks are true), this is perhaps the least exciting Nintendo system reveal in the company's history. Don't get us wrong - we're hugely excited to see the final product and drool over insanely hi-res official renders, and we cannot wait to finally get our hands on this thing and play new games on new Nintendo hardware. It doesn't get much better than that!

But, from a plain old hardware perspective, it's looking like exactly the thing we were speculating was in the works five years ago when we were dreaming of 'Switch Pro'. Bigger screen, more power, 4K upscaling in the dock - you name it, it was rumoured long, long ago.

That's what you get with an iterative update with a sensible name and a sound business plan to make as many units as possible before launch. New Nintendo hardware is never dull, but this one doesn't even have the namesake gimmick of autostereoscopic 3D screens. This has been the most known of quantities for ages.

Yet here we are, all on absolute tenterhooks awaiting the official acknowledgement and announcement. Nintendo must have planned for this — you don't manufacture millions of machines and manage to keep them totally under wraps — which means this is all part of its plan. Nintendo will not be rushed.

Better than the deed, better than the memory
Never a bad time for a Simpsons .gif — Image: 20th Century Fox

And really, what is the rush when what you're revealing is essentially 'another one of those'? Switch 2 has the potential to be up there with the best of gaming's number twos: Sonic 2. PS2. Galaxy 2. We love a good '2' (ahem), but being a known quantity is the nature of the beast with direct sequels.

Nintendo's biggest problem is avoiding the reveal being a total anticlimax, so it's natural that everyone — including us — wants them to just get on with it. But having been in this state for so long, and with the console apparently exactly what we thought it would be half a decade ago, perhaps an anticlimactic reveal is inevitable and this is the best approach they've got. Like any good DJ, Nintendo is waiting to drop the needle when the crowd just can't take it anymore.

Just be careful out there. Switch's getting wild.