Nintendo Boss Details Switch 2 Forecast, Best Buy To Host Late-Night Launch
The retail launch for Nintendo's highly anticipated Switch 2 is approaching fast—it's just shy of 3 weeks away. There probably won't be additional movement in the preorder scene, but Best Buy did confirm that it will host a midnight launch event. Additionally, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa provided some interesting insight into the company's sales forecast of 15 million units in the console's first year, and it has nothing to do with tariffs. Let's dive in.
Starting with Best Buy, we received an email confirming a "late-night opening" for those you who missed out on preordering a Switch 2. The next-gen console releases to retail on Thursday, June 5, 2025, and Best Buy will open its doors at precisely 12:01 a.m. EST. So as to avoid any confusion, that's essentially late Wednesday night, though technically Thursday once midnight rolls around.
That means 9:01 p.m. PST if you're in that time zone and, well, you can adjust the time accordingly for your area. The caveat is that Best Buy will only have so many consoles available at launch, so don't be surprised if there's a long line and not enough units available.
"In addition to fulfilling pre-orders, most stores will have limited inventory of systems, games and accessories for in-store purchase. Customers will also have the chance to receive a Nintendo collectible," Best Buy states.
If you are interested in participating, you should hit up Best Buy's Switch 2 page, scroll down, and then use its pull-down menus to find out if your local location is participating in the late-night launch event. You should also call your local Best Buy to double-check.
Circling back to the aforementioned sales forecast, Nintendo previously disclosed that it expects to sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles in its debut year. As we pointed out at the time, that comes to around $6.75 billion in sales if going by the baseline $449.99 MSRP. However, Nintendo's also offering a Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle for $499.99, so that's a conservative estimate.
As staggering as that sounds, some analysts were expecting a higher unit sales figure. Furukawa addressed that expectation in comments made during a conference call and Q&A session. One of the questions asked called it a "fairly conservative number" and if production capacity limitations and/or tariffs played a role.
"We are forecasting Nintendo Switch 2 hardware sales of 15 million units for this fiscal year.
We set this figure with the aim of reaching the same level of sales we achieved with Nintendo
Switch in the roughly 10-month period between its launch in March 2017 and December that
year," Furukawa said.
"Nintendo Switch 2 is priced relatively high compared to Nintendo Switch, so we recognize
that there are corresponding challenges to early adoption. That being said, Nintendo Switch 2
can play compatible Nintendo Switch software, so there is continuity between the platforms," Furukawa added.
He also said that Nintendo is hoping that software/hardware bundles will acceleration adoption during the Switch 2's first year on the market. The goal is to "get off to the same start we did with Nintendo Switch."
Adding more context, Furukawa outright dismissed the notion that production capacity and/or tariffs played a role in Nintendo's sales forecast.
"In order to achieve sales of 15 million units, we will need to
manufacture the hardware in quantities greater than that," Furukawa said.
You can read more of what he had to say in Nintendo's Q&A summary (PDF).
