Image: Daedalic EntertainmentEmbracer Group has seemingly been scrambling to right the ship after a turbulent few years, and its latest announcement reveals yet another significant move for the company. As reported by Game Developer, Embracer posted an investor statement to confirm that it is renaming its core gaming division from the working-title 'Middle Earth & Friends' to 'Fellowship Entertainment'. In addition, it's also looking to spin off the Coffee Stain Group into a "standalone group of community-driven game developers and publishers". The company notes that Fellowship Entertainment will have a total of approximately "6,000 employees across more than 30 countries". Here's a look at what it will be working on along with the teams it will encompass: "The group will be steward of the commercial rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as intellectual properties Kingdom Come Deliverance, Metro, Dead Island, Killing Floor, Darksiders, Remnant and Tomb Raider, amongst more than 300 other gaming IPs. "Fellowship Entertainment will consist of companies such as 4A Games, Aspyr Media, CrazyLabs, Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Dark Horse, Deca Games, Eidos-Montréal, Flying Wild Hog, Gunfire Games, Limited Run Games, Middle-earth Enterprises, Milestone, PLAION, Tarsier Studios, THQ Nordic, Tripwire Interactive, Vertigo Games, and Warhorse Studios amongst more than 40 other companies." Meanwhile, Coffee Stain Group will consist of "more than 250 passionate game developers and publishers". We thought it might be fun to come up with our own alternatives to Fellowship Entertainment, so if you have any ideas yourself, be sure to let us know with a comment: Second Breakfast Games Tom Bombadeveloper One Does Not Simply Games You Shall Not Game Pass (sorry, Phil) Po-Tay-Toes Entertainment Sackville-Baggames It Comes in Pints Entertainment Sullied name Group discontinues all operations in Russia What do you make of this news from Embracer Group? Is this the turning point for the publisher? Let us know your thoughts. [source embracer.com, via gamedeveloper.com] Share:0 1 Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Xenoblade Dev Monolith Soft Is On The Hunt For New 2D And 3D Designers Recruitment sessions start next month Switch 2's Price May Pose "Challenges" For First-Year Sales, Says Furukawa Hence the lower-than-expected sales forecast Palworld Dev Announces "Disappointing" Game Changes Resulting From Nintendo's Lawsuit "We have had to make certain compromises" Nintendo Says Switch 2 Price Changes May Still Occur Depending On Tariffs Console price remains unchanged for now EA And Respawn Hit By Hundreds Of Layoffs As New Project Cancelled Between 300 to 400 people have lost their job

The lifespan of a games console has extended a lot since I was a child. In the 1990s, this kind of technology would be out of date after just a couple of years. There would be some tantalising new machine out before you knew it, everybody competing to be on the cutting edge: the Game Boy and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1989 were followed by the Game Gear in 1990 and the Super NES in 1991. Five years was a long life for a gaming machine.Now, it’s more like 10. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released in a couple of weeks, more than eight years since I first picked an original Switch up off its dock and marvelled at the instant transition to portable play. Games consoles often feel like they mark off particular eras in my life: the Nintendo 64 was the defining console of my childhood, the PlayStation 2 of my adolescence, and the Xbox 360 of the first years of my career, the first console launch I ever covered as a (ridiculously young) journalist. The Nintendo Switch came along just a few months after my first child was born, and for me it has become the games machine of that era of harried early parenthood.When I reflect on my experiences with the Switch, I remember snatching moments in Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule while the baby napped beside me; hiding on the veranda of a French villa to play the odd Splatoon match on our first family holiday; and trying to make a mint on my Animal Crossing turnip trades while walking my second baby around the house in his sling, trying to get him to sleep (he never did). When they got old enough, the first games I played with my children were on the Switch. We all played Pokémon Sword and Shield together, and most recently my youngest made his way through the surprisingly entertaining Princess Peach Showtime with only minimal assistance from me.Hello to the moo … The Nintendo Switch created a unique gaming space all of its own. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPAOver the last eight years, my living room TV became dominated by things like Bluey and Moana and most recently (god help me), Alvin and the Chipmunks, and I no longer have the hours of uninterrupted gaming time in the evenings. The Switch gave me some of that that time back, though, letting me dip into games whenever I had a moment – which gave me vital stress relief, a route back to myself during some of the most challenging years of my life. Eight years is a long time, enough for anyone’s life to change beyond recognition. In that time I’ve lost people, moved cities, gained new friends, too. And, of course, we all went through the pandemic. Animal Crossing: New Horizons became perhaps the defining game of that time, and I am not the only person for whom the Switch was a blessed oasis, a way to connect when we were starved of in-person interaction.Things have changed for me since 2017, as they probably have for you. Consoles feel like companions, especially perhaps the portable ones like the Switch and the Game Boy, which we literally carry with us wherever we go. My kids are older now, enjoying all the Switch games that I enjoyed when they were very small – and it does seem as if the Switch 2 will neatly mark another new stage, for me and for them.I recently gathered together all the Switch consoles, games, controllers and accessories in my house and my office for an audit, from the battered day-one unit that serves as the family console to the untouched OLED Zelda special edition my partner got me and the variably functioning spare JoyCons accumulated over time. It’s not quite time for them to join the other old consoles under my bed, each in a clear plastic box with all of its cables, ready to be dusted off when the time comes; the Switch 2 will take its place in my rucksack and in my office, but I won’t be upgrading the family console for some time yet. I don’t really wantA little sentimentality is forgivable at the end of an era. In a couple of weeks all the talk will be about the new console, how it’s selling, whether it’s worth the money, what the best Mario Kart World strategies are, and how it compares to its record-breaking predecessor. For now, I’m not thinking much about what the Nintendo Switch meant for the gaming industry; instead I’m thinking about what it meant to me.What to playBe who you wanna be … there are many lives to choose from in the latest RPG, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. Illustration: Level5/Have you ever heard of Fantasy Life? It was a bit of a cult hit on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, a cosy-feeling role-playing game that let you switch between 12 different professions, so you would be blacksmithing one minute, fighting monsters another and cooking things up the next. The sequel – Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – is out today after years of delays.You can now be an artist or a farmer as well as a magician, carpenter, fisherman, alchemist or whatever else you fancy, and also it adds time travel into the mix. It’s an intriguing amalgamation of the Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon style of Japanese life simulator, and the Dragon Quest/Ni no Kuni flavour of unthreatening role-playing game, and I’m looking forward to exploring it. An especial shout-out to the members of one of my group chats who have been eagerly awaiting this for more than a decade.Available on: Switch/2, PS4/5, Xbox, PC Estimated playtime: skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to readBroom broom … the home delivery system in Crescent County. Illustration: Electric Saint A couple of interesting games hitting Kickstarter this week: Crescent County, a colourful witch-delivery game with broom-racing and plenty of small-town drama; and a ghost story set in Paisley just outside Glasgow, named after its Chinese takeaway Crystal Garden. If you have a few minutes, have a go at this satirical simulation text game You Are Generative AI, which casts you as an increasingly self-aware AI large language model answering random questions that people cannot be bothered to research or think through themselves. I got three different endings and one of them made me genuinely quite sad. Developers at Bungie, makers of Destiny and the forthcoming shooter Marathon, have been dealing with an alleged plagiarism scandal after unattributed designs from an artist called Antireal were found in promotional screenshots and art from Marathon. Bungie is blaming the mistake on a former employee. VG247 has a rundown. After half a decade, PlayStation 5 sales are neck and neck with PlayStation 4’s results at this point in its life cycle, at 78m – despite the fact that its price has actually increased, due to the wild times in which we live. Video Game Chronicle gets into the numbers. What to clickQuestion BlockWhat’s in a name? … playing a video game using Nintendo’s Wii U controller. Photograph: Jae C Hong/API’ve had several good suggestions for the name of reader Travis’s book-club style video game club: Select/Start (thanks Alex), Long Play (from Eva), and Doki Doki Videogame Club (niche reference there, Chris). Especial props to Kenny, however, who went hog wild and came up with several, including these three beauts: Go Forth and Multiplay, Concurrent Players and Let’s Console Each Other.Lucas also had a great suggestion for last week’s questioner: “Your bookclubber should look at itch.io for crazy little free games to play and discuss with their friends! The indie folks sharing their games there would probably love the attention/feedback of a games book club.” (You Are Generative AI, which I mentioned earlier, is on Itch, along with just hundreds of other shortform games worthy of discussion.)And we’ve just about got room for another (timely) question, this time from reader Ali:“I’ve always admired Nintendo for coming up with different names for each console, as opposed to Sony going for the sequential naming convention and Microsoft jumping from 360 to One to Series (?). My opinion has somewhat changed now that the successor to the Nintendo Switch is called Switch 2. Do you have any thoughts on console names?”It’s true that Nintendo usually goes for completely new names for each console, except arguably the series of Game Boys, the NES and Super NES, Wii and Wii U, and now Switch and Switch 2. And yes, this is the first time they’ve gone for a number. I’d say this is down to how badly the company did with the Wii U, whose confusing name surely contributed to how badly it flopped. But I think it reflects the more conservative and cautious mood of the games industry as a whole in 2025, as it comes to the end of decades’ worth of unsustainably rapid growth. Or maybe it’s because Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa used to be an accountant.If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com

Samsung is Helping Manufacture Nintendo Switch 2 Chips on 8nm Node – Rumour Nintendo is seemingly ramping up production of the Switch 2 by partnering with Samsung to fabricate more chips for the console. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 21st, May. 2025 It should come as no surprise that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is one of the most hotly-anticipated events in gaming to happen this year. Nintendo has likely foreseen the incredible demand for the console, as a report now indicates that the company will be working with Samsung to manufacture more Switch 2 units. According to Bloomberg, Samsung will reportedly make chips for the Switch 2 using its 8-nanometer node. While neither company has confirmed this as of yet, according to the report, anonymous sources have indicated that with Samsung’s help in making more chips for the Switch 2, Nintendo will be able to stock 20 million units of the console by March 2026. The report also points out that, with this deal with Nintendo, Samsung will be able to better invest in its chip making divisions in order to compete with TSMC – the company that has been largely behind the fabrication of most major chips in the world – on a larger scale. Going by the report, chip manufacturing may not be where the partnership between Samsung and Nintendo ends. While the Korean company has also made memory modules for Nintendo, another source has said that Samsung is trying to convince Nintendo to go with OLED displays when it decides to release a refresh of the Switch 2 down the line. During a recent earnings report, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the forecast for Switch 2 unit sales was set at 15 million. During a Q&A session with investors, Furukawa also spoke about how the company might decide to raise the console’s price later on depending on how the situation with the US tariffs on imported goods plays out. The priority for now, however, will be to popularise the console. “At this time, the top priority is to quickly popularize the Switch 2 hardware,” said Furukawa. “If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make and implement them after considering various factors.” Furukawa also noted that the relatively conservative sales forecast for the Switch 2 happened because the company is aware that its higher price tag over its predecessor might end up being an obstacle to wider adoption during the console’s first year in the market. “Since the Switch 2 is priced higher than the original Switch, we recognize that there will be considerable hurdles in achieving the console’s widespread adoption in the early stages,” he said. When it comes to production runs causing stock shortages, however, Furukawa said that it was essentially a non-issue. “We’ve set projected sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 in the ongoing fiscal year at 15 million units,” he said. “This figure is based on a target comparable to sales of the original Nintendo Switch during the 10-month period from its launch in March 2017 to the end of December the same year.” The Nintendo Switch 2 will be coming out on June 5. Industry analysis firm DFC Intelligence has gone as far as to say that it might be the most important console launch ever. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More Borderlands 4 Publisher:2K Developer:Gearbox Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! Samsung is Helping Manufacture Nintendo Switch 2 Chips on 8nm Node – Rumour Nintendo is seemingly ramping up production of the Switch 2 by partnering with Samsung to fabricate more chips... Metaphor: ReFantazio and The Division 2 are Coming to Game Pass in May Monster Train 2, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, to a T, Symphonia, and Spray Paint Simulator will also roll out in the... Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is Coming to PS5 This Summer Ninja Theory's action-adventure will support PS5 Pro and includes "exciting new features" that are also coming... RoadCraft is Out Now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S RoadCraft, newest off-road driving game by Saber Interactive, is out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Simil... Read More The Witcher 4 – Geralt Voice Actor Says Fans Complaining About Ciri Should “Read the Damn Books” Voice actor Doug Cockle spoke about how the journey of Geralt was meant to end with The Witcher 3's Blood and ... Kojima Productions CTO Believes Efficiency of PS5 Allows For More Artistic Freedom Over PS4 According to Akio Sakamoto, along with the reduction of loading times, the new consoles have allowed artists t... View More

Sosho-Kan at Kyoto University of the Arts / Takenaka CorporationSave this picture!© Taizo FurukawaUniversity•Kyoto, Japan Architects: Takenaka Corporation Area Area of this architecture project Area:  3778 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Taizo Furukawa Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Kunishiro Tiles, YKK AP Lead Architects: Masataka Nakamura, Mai Yanagida, Masashi Suzuki More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. The new academic building of Kyoto University of the Arts, which sits across their main campus by Shirakawa Road - one of Kyoto's major north-to-south arteries - is accessible to many locally owned businesses and residential areas. The Sosho-kan building is designed to bring their newly established department to life. The four-year art education program serves as a place for students to study and embed their memories and sense of place with other students and faculty members.Save this picture!Save this picture!As architects, the concept of bringing life into this new faculty building was inspired by the lively interactions among students creating art through fragments of open spaces in the existing main campus, such as the external staircases leading to the classrooms, sun-shaded spaces near the vestibules, and small alcoves that naturally serve as meeting points. The idea of continuity in designing spaces and bringing connections to the outdoors, to feel a sense of community, and expand the view to bring the memories of campus life into this four-story building, we wanted to create a place where students' college memories can be deeply embedded.Save this picture!This four-story brick-tiled reinforced concrete building consists of three simple horizontal layers: commons, corridor, and rooms, running parallel to the main Shirakawa road. From this axis, they intersect perpendicularly with brick-tiled walls with symbolic arches that break the monotonal central corridor and bring in-and-out openings to offer glimpses of daily activities. The continuous series of designed arches in these brick tiles forms a symbolic visualization. The crossings serve an alley running into the streets, bringing intimacy to classrooms and restrooms, a micro-scale experience of a university campus.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The eastern layers of common spaces are designed to foster spontaneous encounters and offer students a sense of connection and belonging. At the heart of the building is a large four-story atrium with a glass-block skylight, with connected interior and exterior brick-tiled walls, which serves as the main circulation hub for students and fills the space with soft, indirect natural light streaming in from the skylight. In summer, cooled air from the underground floors is drawn into the ventilation system to reduce the external thermal load, while in transitional seasons, the air handling units on each floor can be switched off to ventilation to bring in natural air. This design not only creates visual openness to the atrium but also strengthens the connection to the outside.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The volumes in the northeastern part of the building are stepped back due to northern regulation lines, creating small terraces that serve as a transitional zone between inside and outside. These terraces further enhance the connection to nature and provide informal gathering spaces. The site is also connected to a small street running perpendicular to Shirakawa Road, which serves as a welcoming threshold to the bicycle spaces underground. This small campus building connects the campus and nature, capturing moments of interaction and a sense of community throughout their four years of student life. Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Kyoto, JapanLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeTakenaka CorporationOffice••• MaterialBrickMaterials and TagsPublished on May 20, 2025Cite: "Sosho-Kan at Kyoto University of the Arts / Takenaka Corporation" 20 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030320/sosho-kan-at-kyoto-university-of-the-arts-takenaka-corporation&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Nintendo hired Samsung to build the main chips for the Switch 2, including an 8-nanometer processor custom designed by NVIDIA, Bloomberg reported. That would mark a move by Nintendo away from TSMC, which manufactured the chipset for the original 2017 Switch. Nintendo had no comment, saying it doesn't disclose its suppliers. Samsung and NVIDIA also declined to discuss the matter. Samsung has previously supplied Nintendo with flash memory and displays, but building the Switch 2's processor would be a rare win for the company's contract chip division. Samsung can reportedly build enough chips to allow Nintendo to ship 20 million or more Switch 2s by March of 2026.  NVIDIA's new chipset was reportedly optimized for Samsung's, rather than TSMC's manufacturing process. Using Samsung also means that Nintendo won't be competing with Apple and others for TSMC's resources. During Nintendo's latest earnings call, President Shuntaro Furukawa's said that the company didn't expect any component shortages with its new console — an issue that plagued the original Switch.  Nintendo said in the same earnings report that it was caught by surprise with 2.2 million applications for Switch 2 pre-orders in Japan alone. Despite that, the company projected sales of 15 million Switch 2 units in its first year on sale to March 2026, fewer than analyst predictions of 16.8 million — likely due to the impact of Trump's tariffs. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-is-reportedly-using-samsung-to-build-the-main-switch-2-chips-120006403.html?src=rss

Despite backlash to video game pricing and features like Game Chat, the hype for the Nintendo Switch 2 is strong. Such is the demand that Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had to apologize for shortages in the My Nintendo Store for those who applied via a lottery in Japan. While the company forecasts 15 million units sold for the current fiscal year (ending on March 31st, 2026), Nintendo of America boss Doug Bowser told IGN this was driven by matching the Switch’s initial ten months on the market. As for the future, he believes the company will have enough production and supply to meet demand. “[Nintendo President] Mr. [Shuntaro] Furukawa last week announced that we’ll have 15 million units in our forecast for Nintendo Switch 2 and 4.5 million units for Nintendo Switch during the fiscal year. “That forecast was really driven by wanting to match, if you will, what we accomplished with Nintendo Switch in the first 10 months of its release. As we look at our plans here in the U.S., we do believe we’ll have production and supply that will allow us to meet consumer demand. “We know there’s been strong positive reaction to Nintendo Switch 2 early on, and we’ve seen that through our preorders, but we do have a plan to have a continuous flow of product that’ll be available through the holidays.” The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5th worldwide for $449.99 alongside titles like Mario Kart World, which retails for $79.99. You can purchase both in a bundle for $499.99, though this is only available in limited quantities until this Fall. Check out our official comparison of the Switch 2’s specs with the original here. Temper your expectations for Variable Refresh Rate support in Docked Mode, though, since Nintendo finally clarified that it’s not supported.

The Nintendo Switch 2, slated for launch on June 5, might not have hardware reviews on launch day. According to The Game Business, editors for several publications were told by Nintendo that, because of a big day-one firmware update for the console, the company will not be sending out review units of the Switch 2 until just a little bit before launch day. This has prompted quite a few editors to talk about their frustrations about the situation, with one pointing out that getting a Switch 2 so close to launch will also cause extra pressure on the publication because it will also be covering Summer Game Fest. “It’s really frustrating,” said the editor. “We will need to cover Switch 2 while also working across Summer Game Fest. How are we supposed to do that?” Another editor brought up the fact that the few lucky people out there who can get their hands on a Switch 2 early thanks to some retailers breaking street dates will end up with an advantage in this regard. This problem will also be further amplified by the fact that there will likely be stock shortages for the Switch 2 on launch, preventing many from legitimately getting their hands on the console. “Anyone who can get hold of a console early from a dodgy retailer will have a head start in terms of coverage,” they said. “I know the console will be sold out at launch, but what about all the other games?” Gaming development and publishing companies are also not happy about industry critics not getting the console early, since it will prevent them from benefiting from releasing “something special” in time for the console’s launch. Described as being something for Switch 2 players that might “want something else in addition to Mario Kart [World]”, the head of a PR department mentioned that “the lack of a independent critical validation is going to make it very hard for us. Maybe we would have been better off waiting a few weeks.” During Nintendo’s earnings report earlier this month, president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that the company is predicting that it will sell 15 million Switch 2s over the year. Along with this, Furukawa also said that the company forecasts 45 million sales of software units. He also spoke about the relatively modest sales forecasts for the console, saying that the company’s focus is to “quickly popularise” the Switch 2 first. At this time, the top priority is to quickly popularize the Switch 2 hardware,” said Furukawa. “If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make and implement them after considering various factors.” In a Q&A part of the earnings report, Furukawa also revealed that the modest sales forecasts come down to the fact that the Switch 2 and its games will be more expensive when compared to the console’s predecessor. “Since the Switch 2 is priced higher than the original Switch, we recognize that there will be considerable hurdles in achieving the console’s widespread adoption in the early stages,” he said.

Nintendo could become "primary partner for third-party game publishers" over next five years, new analysis claims Analyst DFC also suggests Switich 2 could sell sold over 100m units by the end of 2029 Image credit: Nintendo News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 15, 2025 Nintendo could become the "primary partner" for third-party publishers in the next five years. That's according to new research from DFC Intelligence, via Eurogamer, which projects Nintendo will exceed its own 15m units sold forecast later this year by at least a million, and possibly reach 20 million. "Reflecting its historically conservative approach to new product forecasting, Nintendo is estimating sales of 15m Switch 2 units through the end of its fiscal year in March 2026," DFC wrote. "When the original Switch launched in March 2017, Nintendo initially projected 10m units for the fiscal year but ultimately sold 15m units in that period. Based on that track record, the fact that Nintendo is forecasting a 15m unit number gives us confidence that they will be able to ramp up supply and navigate tariff challenges." By the end of 2029, however, DFC forecasts the Switch 2 will have sold over 100m units, making it "the leading console system by a wide margin." "The next few years could see Nintendo for the first time becoming the primary partner for third-party game publishers," the analysis added. Earlier this week, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made it clear that the US tariffs has not been factored into the Switch 2's higher price point. In an earnings call Q&A, Furukawa said the ¥49,980/$499.99/£395.99 price was determined by manufacturing costs, consumer impressions, market conditions, and exchange rates.

While it is no secret that the impending June 5 launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 will be a pretty big deal for the industry, video game industry analysis firm DFC Intelligence believes that the new console might just be the most important console launch that the industry has seen so far. According to WCCFTech, the analysis firm believes that Nintendo will end up selling 16 million units of the Switch 2 by the end of 2025. According to the firm’s report, its confidence in the Switch 2’s hardware sales comes in light of Grand Theft Auto 6 getting pushed back from its Fall 2025 launch window to May 26, 2026. This, coupled with the fact that Nintendo itself also tends to be fairly conservative in its own forecasts of hardware and software sales, has led DFC Intelligence to think that the console will end up doing quite well this year. For context, Nintendo’s sales forecasts for the Switch 2’s first year is to sell 15 million units. As for dubbing the Switch 2’s launch as the most important console launch in the industry, the firm puts this down to the fact that GTA 6 won’t be out this year to help push sales of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hardware. Because of this, DFC also believes that console sales for Sony and Microsoft will see more decline as the year goes on. The Japanese market is expected to perform well according to DFC, with console game sales forecasts coming in at a 25 percent rise. The firm credits the fact that there is a region-specific Japan-only SKU of the Switch 2 available in the country at a considerably lower price than the region-free version which has all the languages available. Looking at the industry for the coming year and beyond, DFC does believe that GTA 6’s eventual release will boost console sales by quite a bit, calling it a new phase of growth for the gaming industry. By the time the year 2029 rolls around, the analysis firm believes that more than 100 million units of the Switch 2 will have been sold, making Nintendo’s platform the main one for third-party partners as well. During a recent shareholder Q&A, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had noted that, while the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 is currently locked in at $449.99, the company might have to raise the price in the future depending on how the situation with the US tariffs on import plays out. He also notes that the company’s forecast of selling 15 million units of the Switch 2 doesn’t stem from production issues. “This sales projection was not determined based on limitations in our production capacity,” said Furukawa. “The situation with US tariffs and concerns about economic downturn have also not affected our forecast. In order to achieve the target of 15 million, we will need to manufacture even more units than that.” Nintendo has also confirmed that, while the Switch 2 will be a big deal for the company, it will continue to support the original Switch with more games as well.