The Nintendo Switch, like the wife in Pixar’s Up, has had a good, long (really long) life, but it’s time to move on – leaving room for a younger, fresher Nintendo Switch to breathe some life back into us, the consumer. That hasn’t happened yet, but Nintendo inches closer to an official announcement by the day.
It has now mentioned the “Successor to the Nintendo Switch” on two separate occasions. The first was a tweet by Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa confirming an announcement was on the way, sometime before March 2025. Yesterday, Furukawa finally remembering his X.com password, returned to let the world know, officially, that the new console would be backwards compatible, despite not yet being announced.
Switch 2, when?
The news was officially discussed during Nintendo’s Second Quarter Financial Results briefing, which also noted that the current Nintendo Switch Online service and user’s personal account details would also carry over to the new console. While this is excellent news, we’re a little hesitant to celebrate. Both Furukawa’s tweet and the briefing specifically mention that “Switch software will also be playable on the successor”.
Software. The news released today all but confirms that the company’s next console will follow in the same vein as the Switch. But the specific mention of software being backwards compatible gives us pause. Will our pile of cartridges suddenly be useless? Or has something gone amiss in the translation?
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Obviously, we’re hopeful that is the case. But until Nintendo gets its act together and unveils the console properly, we won’t know. Considering the console’s continually dropping sales – also discussed in the briefing – that could happen any day now, though fresh rumours reckon Nintendo plans to hold off until early 2025.
As of this week, Nintendo tucked a further 4.72 million console sales under its belt in the last three months. Compared to previous quarters, this is a massive drop but is still way above the figures other eight-year-old consoles are pulling this late into their lifespans. That brings the Switch’s total sales to 146 million – just nine million units shy of the top spot currently held by the PlayStation 2.