When will the Switch successor launch ?

[Wman1996]

Jumpin said:

• The odd Breath of the Wild 2 delay to “Spring 2023” is a smoking gun. Zelda, particularly Breath of the Wild, is Nintendo’s flagship franchise. It is the ideal game to launch Switch 2 with. The game has been in development a very long time and is unlikely to have had the same developmental hurdles of Breath of the Wild 1 based on what we know. Even with Corona, it shouldn’t have this extensive a decade cycle. What is the reason? Simply polishing it up isn’t a great reason to miss the holiday season since polish can be applied after launch with updates (like with the first game). A Switch 2 release time would be a reason.

I agree that the delay could be a smoking gun, but not for the reason you think it is. I think it has nothing to do with making BOTW 2 a cross-gen game (like TP and BOTW). I think it's because 2022 is such a packed year for the Switch. There are so many Nintendo titles, a Nintendo holiday title (Pokemon Gen 9), and tons of third-party games. 

I think there's at least a modest chance Nintendo is taking the gamble of delaying BOTW 2 just so that 2022 is slightly less packed and so they have a massive title in the first quarter or at least first half of 2023. 

I found out recently (thanks to a user on here) that Nintendo could've had Super Mario Odyssey ready to go at Switch's launch in March 2017. But they sat on it all the way until late October 2017. I'm glad I didn't know that then, or I would've been salty waiting so long. 

So it's happened at least once where Nintendo had a massive title ready to go and sat on it for about half a year or more. It's very rare, but it's possible. 

I would've said Spring 2023 when the Switch launched (or thought that way even into 2019). But with the supply chain crisis and the home run success of the Switch, I say March 2024. November 2023 is a possibility, but not as likely.