Summary
The release of theNintendo Switch 2has officially been delayed in China. Nintendo’s next mainline gaming console was finally unveiled back in January, with a later Nintendo Direct livestream revealing its price and release date. TheNintendo Switch 2will launch worldwide on June 5, with pre-orders already underway in several countries. In addition to the standard console, Nintendo is offering a limited Switch 2 bundle containingMario Kart World.
However, the road to the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch hasn’t been without its fair share of speed bumps. The surprisingly high asking price of both the console itself and certain launch titles had already sparked a backlash among gamers, andNintendo soon delayed pre-orders in the United Statesto assess the impact of the Trump Administration’s tariffs on major manufacturing countries like Japan and Vietnam. This would eventually spread to the US’s neighboring country Canada, where Nintendo also delayed Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders earlier this week.
Despite these pre-orders being delayed, the full launch plans for the Nintendo Switch 2 haven’t been affected in any country until now. A recent report fromNikkei(viaWccfTech) revealed that Nintendo has officially delayed the launch of the Switch 2 in China indefinitely. According to the report, this postponement is due to Nintendo wanting to gauge the overall demand for the Switch 2 in China before committing the necessary resources.
Nintendo Switch 2 Delayed In China
Analysts who have spoken to Nikkei have stated that the hurdles to success in the Chinese market are quite high, with the major challenge for Nintendo being the need to improve consumer experiences while complying with the Chinese government’s policies. This includes theNintendo Switch 2 hardwareand software going through approval processes by Chinese authorities, and this could lead to even more restrictions and complications in the future.
This situation mirrors the launch ofthe original Nintendo Switch in China, as it too was delayed until 2019, a good two years after the console was released in the rest of the world. Since then, the Switch has been distributed through a partnership with Tencent, though the Chinese conglomerate has declined to answer if this will be the case with theNintendo Switch 2. Pre-orders for the new console had reportedly been accepted in China before this announcement, but they will now likely be canceled. On a related note, Nintendo recently announced that it is shutting down online services like the Nintendo eShop in China by 2026.
