Gaming giant Nintendo revealed its newest console Thursday in a highly anticipated announcement gamers had been waiting for since rumors of its release first spread years ago.

The Nintendo Switch 2, the successor to the Nintendo Switch system, will be released in 2025, the company said.

In a new promotional video, Nintendo showcases a larger version of the Switch that looks similar to its predecessor. The video also shows the system’s controllers, or Joy-Cons, now attach to the side of the main unit rather than slide in.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will play Switch 2 exclusive games, as well as both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games. Some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, the company said.

The announcement did not provide many details on the console or a specific release date. The company claims more information about the system will be available during the company’s April Nintendo Direct event. The Kyoto-based game developer said it will also host “Nintendo Switch 2 Experience” events in several countries, where players can get a hands-on experience with the new system.

Those events are planned for cities such as Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris beginning in April. Ticket registration for those events begins Friday, Nintendo said.

Instagram has rolled out a number of updates in recent days that appear to be aimed at attracting TikTok users while the short-video app’s future remains in limbo. And on Sunday, Instagram parent company Meta went one step further and announced the launch of a new video creation app on Sunday called Edits, which bears an uncanny resemblance to CapCut, the app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance that many creators use to make TikTok videos.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said on Friday that Instagram’s profile photo grids will now display images as rectangles, rather than the app’s signature squares — a layout that’s notably similar to how profile pages look on TikTok.

On Saturday, Mosseri said Instagram will increase the maximum length for Reels videos from 90 seconds to three minutes — following the lead of TikTok, which began pushing users to post longer videos in 2023.

“We’ve historically only allowed reels up to 90 seconds given our focus on short-form video, but we’ve heard the feedback that this is just too short for those who want to share longer stories,” Mosseri said Saturday in an Instagram post.

The government is to make digital versions of a range of official documents available via a dedicated app and a digital wallet, as part of what ministers say is an attempt to bring interactions with the public “in tune with modern life”.
Veteran cards and driving licences will be the first to be incorporated into a gov.uk wallet, which is being launched this year.
The government is also testing a chatbot which could be added to the app which would “help people find answers to complex and niche questions”.
Earlier, it was announced civil servants will soon be given access to a set of tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and named “Humphrey” after the scheming official from the classic sitcom Yes, Minister.
Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of trade body UKAI, welcomed the initiative but said the name risked “undermining” the government’s mission to embrace the tech.
“Humphrey for me is a name which is very associated with the Machiavellian character from Yes, Minister,” said Mr Flagg.
“That immediately makes people who aren’t in that central Whitehall office think that this is something which is not going to be empowering and not going to be helping them.”
Most of the tools in the Humphrey suite are generative AI models – in this case, technology which takes large amounts of information and summarises it in a more digestible format – to be used by the civil service.