Is The Switch 2 Coming This Fall? Someone Thinks So

By now it’s not really a secret that the successor to the Nintendo Switch is imminent: all the signs are there. Third parties have confirmed they know about it. The lineup of upcoming Switch games from Nintendo is getting sparse, almost as if they’re saving the big hitters for something else. And then you have the company that just outright said today “we launch in September 2024, alongside the Switch 2.”

That company is….Gameshark, a brand we haven’t seen active in twenty years. They used to make hacking devices for video game consoles that let you overwrite certain bits in the code to patch in cheats and other tricks not intended by the developers. Several factors contributed to the product’s demise….one, the rise of online games, where you get banned if you cheat; two, the fact that today’s games are too big and sophisticated for a simple hacking device to work; and three, the fact that the cheat code has been largely replaced by the mod when people want to mess with games. There’s also a possible #4: today’s games are just too easy to need a Gameshark at all, with the exception of the Soulslike genre.

Gameshark has relaunched itself as “AI Shark” to ride a trend. Their new product isn’t a hacking device at all…in fact we’re skeptical it even works. They say it “harnesses the power of AI, supercomputers and our exceptional code-writing team” to help “individuals in improving their gameplay over time.” They also emphasize that it’s for casual gamers. So…some kind of robot coach? Is there a market for this?

We have no interest in the “new” Gameshark at all, but the important thing is that they spilled a launch window for the Switch 2 by “accident.” When confronted over it, they backpedaled and claimed “ha ha, that was just a guess.” But would you aim the launch of your big project, the one you spent years making, on a guess?

We can’t say for certain the Switch 2 will appear in September, but we’d be surprised if 2024 ends without it coming out.