Nintendo Surprise New Console Surfaces Online, Watch Out Switch 2

It’s very early days for the Nintendo Switch 2 given that we’re a mere seven months into its life cycle.

Already though, it appears that Nintendo may be planning to launch a successor. To state the obvious, I’m clearly not referencing a next-generation console; we’re not about to see the Nintendo Switch 3 announced.

By all accounts though, it does look as if we may soon be getting either an OLED or Lite product.

It was BlueSky user dootsky.re who first reported this news, as shared to Twitter/X by CentroLeaks.

“I think I’ve discovered something interesting, but I have no idea what it implies,” the user wrote. “On Nintendo’s Account Portal, there’s an unused model code under the name ‘OSM’. (The Switch 2’s model code is BEE.)”

They continued, “The portal has images for each Switch model, and requesting OSM returns an image of a Switch 2.”

Could an OLED Nintendo Switch 2 Be On The Way?

The accompanying image indeed shows a front-on Switch 2 that doesn’t look any different to the base model.

Of course, this could be a placeholder image, with Nintendo not having added a file for the new model, or it could mean that we’re simply looking at an OLED version of the Switch 2.

I have to remind you that this is all speculation, so it’s worth taking the information with a pinch of salt until confirmation lands.

A Nintendo Direct is rumoured for February. Perhaps these two rumours are linked.

We can certainly look into the plausibility of a Lite or OLED launch though.

The original Nintendo Switch was released on 3 March 2017, with the Switch Lite arriving several years later on 20 September 2019. An OLED model then launched on 8 October 2021.

As you can see, that puts a whopping four year gap between the Switch and OLED version.

Personally, I don’t think we’ll see anything like that this time. OLED screens are much more commonplace these days; in fact, many of us expected Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 with an OLED screen.

From a business point of view, you can understand why they didn’t. Launching a revised and improved version of the console months later is a great way to make more money.

But given the fact that this hardware expectation was overlooked due to how readily available OLED options are these days, it leads one to believe an OLED model will land sooner rather than later.

Of course, as soon as we get an official update, we’ll be sure to bring that to you.