Nintendo Switch 1 to be Discontinued in Europe Early Next Year

The original Switch and related family of consoles will be discontinued from early next year.

A Nintendo Support article has surfaced today that announces that the original Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and the OLED Model of the Nintendo Switch will be withdrawn from the market from mid-February 2027.

"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," the company says in the FAQ section of its article, "Sales of Nintendo Switch hardware on Nintendo Store will also end in mid-February 2027."

The company says there are no plans to change access to the eShop, Nintendo Switch Online, or other Nintendo Switch services. In a statement to IGN, the company says they "plan to continue selling Nintendo Switch outside of regions where Nintendo of Europe conducts business."

New EU battery regulations are entering effect from mid-Februrary 2027, which mandate user-replaceable batteries, in addition to recycling targets and other laws broader to the battery industry, and is the sole reason for the discontinuation of the original Switch models.

The company will also be bringing other products in its range in-line with the EU mandate, including the Switch 2, which will come with a user-replaceable battery which is 1% smaller than the current 5220mAh battery, releasing in Autumn.

From a controller side, Joy-Con and Joy-Con 2 pairs will also be updated, with no change to battery capacity, although the Joy-Con 2s will be slightly heavier. The Switch 2 Pro controller will have a 16% smaller battery capacity. These controllers are slated for "this Winter".

As for the NIntendo Switch Online-compatible N64 and GameCube controllers, they will both also receive new SKUs and gain a little weight, with the GameCube controller gaining 5% of capacity. These are slated for "early 2027".

There's no indication as to whether these SKUs will ever come to outside Europe. The company says the products will roll out throughout "territories where Nintendo of Europe conducts business". One would imagine it's more expensive to have two different manufacturing processes for these products, and over the long-term we would hope these changes to roll out globally.