If you’re one of the many who’ve been wondering when Nintendo was going to announce its’ next system, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. According to Nintendo of Japan’s President, Shuntaro Furukawa, the Nintendo Switch still has plenty of life left in it.
In a recent article from Bloomberg, Shuntato Furukawa isn’t convinced that either a new system or an updated Switch, such as the Switch Pro, is needed. “Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle, and the momentum going into this year is good.” “The Switch is ready to break a pattern of our past consoles that saw momentum weakening in their sixth year on the market and grow further.” — stated Shuntato Furukawa.
Nintendo’s hybrid console has been flying off shelves ever since it was released in 2017. More recently, it passed the Nintendo Wii as the company’s best and fastest-selling console. It has even surpassed Sony’s PlayStation 4’s record and has become the fastest console to reach 100 million sales. So, it’s no wonder why Nintendo is hesitant to announce anything new quite yet.
It’s not like the company isn’t new to this tactic. Just look at the Nintendo DS, which had a lifespan of 10 years, or the Super Nintendo and the original NES’s 14-year lifespan.
Still, despite this, there is a problem. As popular as the Nintendo Switch is, the console is still the most underpowered console for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. While Nintendo claims that neither Sony nor Microsoft is its competition when it comes to porting 3rd party games, and sometimes 1st part games. The Switch is typically on the lower end of the visual and performance totems. We’ve seen complaints from developers repeatedly over the underpowered console, which has forced many developers to cut corners to get its games onto the Switch. Others have either delayed or canceled its games completely. Recently, Techland Games had announced it was delaying the Switch’s version of Dying Light 2. I doubt this can continue for another five years.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Nintendo hasn’t already started playing its next console, whatever that is. Surely, they’re aware they’ll need to be ready for when the time is ready, and I doubt the company is just spinning its wheels. If I was a betting man, I’d wager Nintendo already has plans for its next hardware refresh — they just aren’t ready to talk about it yet.
While Nintendo believes the Switch can last another five or so years, it makes me wonder if that’s going to remain steadfast. We’ll have to wait and see if Nintendo eventually changes its mind. Though, something tells me that will be sooner than later.
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