Nintendo has released its first official statement confirming the heavily rumoured successor to the Switch, coinciding with the publishing of its latest financial report.

According to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, an announcement regarding "the successor to Nintendo Switch" will be made during this fiscal year, sometime before March 31st, 2025.

Whether said announcement will be akin to the Switch’s initial hint under the codename "NX" in 2015, or closer to the full Switch reveal in October 2016, is currently unknown.

What is known for certain is that this next console will not be revealed during June’s Nintendo Direct presentation, which will instead remain focused on the Switch.

"This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015," Furukawa posted via Nintendo’s Twitter account.

"We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation."

Hybrid hype

Rumours regarding the next Nintendo console have been abundant for years, with every conceivable speculation from a humble upgrade with magnetic controllers to a 4K "Switch 2" powerhouse putting PS5 graphics to shame.

In reality, Nintendo has given no hints as to what the next console may be, and referring to it as simply the "successor" to the Switch is vague enough to leave even its hybrid nature up for debate. However, continuing with hybrid consoles seems likely considering the sheer success of the Switch - dominating the current hardware generation with sales far exceeding those of PlayStation and Xbox.

Indeed, after the Wii U flopped, the Switch flew, selling 141.32 million units to date. 15.7 million of those sales took place in the previous financial year and another 13.5 million are forecast for this one, which, if achieved, would land the Switch's hardware sales on par with the PS2 - the best-selling games console in history.

Whether the Switch’s successor can do it all over again, we can only wait and see, watching with bated breath.