Level-5’s Switch 2 Release Date Leak Explained

Highlights

• The Switch 2, Nintendo’s rumored successor to the Switch, may be released in 2024, possibly sooner than expected based on a possible leak accidentally made by developer Level-5.
• Nintendo has been secretive about its new hardware, denying previous rumors about a closed-door presentation at Gamescom 2023 showcasing the Switch’s successor.
• The leak from Level-5’s presentation, specifically regarding the game Fantasy Life i, has led fans to speculate that it could be a launch title for the Switch 2, potentially explaining the delayed announcement of its release date.

As the Switch winds down its life as Nintendo‘s flagship console, rumors and speculation about what the company’s successor to the Switch will look like have started circulating online. Although nothing about the Switch 2 has been officially revealed by Nintendo, a recent leak from developer Level-5 has some fans believing the release date for this next console may have been narrowed down. The Switch 2 will likely be released in 2024, but the specific release window might be sooner than some may be expecting if this theory about Level-5 leaking the release date is true.

With the Switch entering its seventh year on the market in 2024, it’s not surprising that Nintendo would be preparing to launch the console’s successor in the near future. Previous rumors suggested that developers were shown the Switch’s successor during a closed-door presentation at Gamescom 2023, but this report has been denied by Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa. It’s clear that the company wants to remain tight-lipped about its new hardware, so many fans have been caught off guard by the potential release date leak coming from Level-5.

How Level-5 May Have Accidentally Revealed the Switch 2’s Release Date

Level-5 recently held its Vision 2023 2 presentation dedicated to showing off the games the developer has in store for players in the coming year. Among the titles shown during this presentation were Megaton Musashi: Wired and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, which are both set to be released in Spring 2024, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, which won’t see release until 2025. Additionally, Decapolice‘s original release window of 2023 was announced to be pushed back to 2024 as the scope of the game has reportedly grown beyond initial expectations.

The presentation ended with a teaser for a Yokai Watch announcement coming in 2024, with Level-5 announcing that another Vision presentation is scheduled for April. However, the most interesting aspect of this presentation didn’t come from any of these titles, but from the segment discussing Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. During this segment, Level-5 announced that the game has a specific release date set, but they could not announce it at that time due to “strategic reasons” and were only able to provide a release window of Summer 2024.

Many viewers found this wording suspicious as it’s odd for a game to have a specific internal release date planned, but for the developer to refuse to elaborate for strategic reasons. As such, some fans have begun to speculate that this “strategic reason” is that Fantasy Life i is planned as a launch title for the Switch 2, and given that Nintendo has not officially revealed the console, they are not permitted to announce a specific release date for the game. If this speculation is accurate, the launch date for the next Nintendo console will likely fall within the Summer 2024 window.

While many might expect the Switch 2 to be released around Fall 2024 to align with Nintendo’s past console releases, there is precedent for a summer release. The Famicom and Nintendo 64 both had summer releases in Japan, so it’s not out of the ordinary to assume Summer 2024 could be a potential release window for the Switch 2.

Although the details surrounding this supposed leak are still just fan speculation, there is some evidence to support the theory that Fantasy Life i will be a Switch 2 launch title. A graphic included in the presentation noted that the game is planned for the Switch with other platforms still undecided, potentially meaning that the game will launch on more consoles than just the Switch, including the Switch’s more powerful successor. Moreover, none of the other titles that were given release windows during this presentation had their release dates withheld for strategic reasons, indicating that there is some kind of special circumstance specifically surrounding Fantasy Life i and its release date.