Potential Nintendo Switch 2 release window clues found via Dune Awakening game development
A new video from Doctre81 has created a discussion about the Nintendo Switch 2 and possibly even offered some kind of idea of when the next-generation Nintendo console could make an appearance. The YouTuber had previously shared a job listing for Dune Awakening (then simply an unnamed project "using the Dune IP") for a rendering engineer that offered “bonus points” for those with experience porting games for the Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, or PC. The job post was reportedly made in 2019, before the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. As argued by the video’s host, you would expect the mention of those particular platforms would indicate the game was headed their way.
Now a newer job listing has emerged with Funcom, the developer of Dune Awakening, for a VFX Artist. Part of the post lists the involved platforms as “PC, PS5, XBS1, TBA” (with “XBS1” standing for the first generation of Xbox Series consoles). It would be a reasonable presumption to say that “TBA” was a Nintendo console, and therefore it could be the much-rumored Switch 2 or next-gen Switch, otherwise Funcom would just state “Nintendo Switch”. Dune Awakening does not have a set-in-stone release date yet, but it has been rumored that it could be ready for early access play by late 2023 or early 2024. Putting one and one together to get two-and-a-half means a Nintendo Switch 2 console could be released as early as late 2023.
However, here come the caveats. Whereas it is unlikely that “TBA” signifies something like a PlayStation 5 Pro device, it has been opined on Reddit that this could even be a console from Tencent, which would make some sense. Tencent owns Funcom, the team behind Dune Awakening, and it is a serious player in the game-publishing world. The huge Chinese corporation also owns Riot Games (League of Legends) and has major investment stakes in outfits such as Supercell, Epic, Ubisoft, and FromSoftware. A Tencent console is not a far stretch of the imagination, and “TBA” could also simply be a generic holding term for any other console that might come along in the meantime. But with whispers of a Nintendo Switch 2 release in 2023 getting louder, this could be one of the least sketchy hints yet that the Big N has something waiting in the wings.
Buy the Nintendo Switch OLED model The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom edition on Amazon