Nintendo’s original Switch handheld is nearing its 10-year birthday, but instead of blowing up the balloons and setting out the party hats, Nintendo may be preparing to put the original Switch out to pasture. Europe will be the first to see the original Switch go, and soon Nintendo may turn all its focus to the Switch 2
In an update to its support page FAQ, Nintendo says of the European market:
“From mid-February 2027, almost ten years after Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017, Nintendo will no longer sell to retailers hardware in the Nintendo Switch family of systems – specifically Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED Model.”
The move is sure to concern some OG Switch diehards. Nintendo blames European Union regulations that require new products to include user-replaceable batteries. The Mario maker is crafting a Euro-specific version of its Switch 2 handheld that includes the new battery design. The company will also have to create new Joy-Con 2 controllers, Switch 2 Pro controllers, Nintendo GameCube controllers, and N64 controllers with the new battery design. Nintendo says these revised devices should roll out over time starting this summer and going into early 2027, when the new regulations become law.
Nintendo may not think the original Switch is worth revising for the European market. In its latest earnings report, Nintendo notes that it sold 3.8 million new Switch consoles in its fiscal year 2026. That’s a near-65% drop in sales compared to the same time last year. Nintendo says Europe made up approximately 830,000 of its fiscal year 2026 original Switch sales—not a small piece of the pie. Taking the original Switch off the European market will make its original handheld even more irrelevant.
Dr. Serkan Toto, the CEO of Japanese game industry consulting company Kantan Games, tells Gizmodo over email that this news didn’t come as a big surprise. He posits that Nintendo will take the original Switch out of other regions starting late in 2027 or early in 2028
“[Nintendo] wants to drive more people to upgrade to Switch 2, avoid the EU regulations around replaceable batteries as well as streamline its supply chain and product catalogue,” Toto says
Nintendo already hiked the price on its original Switch consoles last year: an OG Switch now costs $330 while the Switch OLED sits at $400. Each of these consoles is still less expensive than the soon-to-be $500 Switch 2
Of course, Nintendo wants European gamers to keep buying new titles. While Nintendo now charges more for physical Switch 2 games, original Switch titles don’t cost more if you buy a physical game card compared to the digital version. Recent titles like Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Rhythm Heaven Groove are functionally equivalent on either the 10-year-old or 1-year-old Nintendo handheld, barring the upgraded 1080p resolution using the Switch 2’s handheld mode boost. Eventually, the company will need to stop offering games for its older hardware if it wants more people to pick up the sequel Switch.
Older Switch hardware, with a meager 32GB or 64GB of SSD storage, doesn’t fit into today’s increasingly digital gaming ecosystem. After the end of the original Switch, Nintendo, like Sony, could push digital games harder than ever. Though Toto says that digital games likely didn’t kill the original Switch, he does conclude: “There is no doubt in my mind that Nintendo will continue to drive digital more aggressively over the next few years to improve their margins.”
