The nextNintendoconsole won’t be coming out this year, according to a newly surfaced report citing sources close to the Japanese gaming giant. A number of industry watchers and insiders recently suggested that aSwitch 2 announcement could be coming soon.
Though theSwitch is one of the best-selling consoles of all time, Nintendo’s hit hybrid system is over six years old, with many fans already clamoring for a successor. Rumors of a mid-generation upgrade—tentatively labeled the Switch Pro—have been circulating the industry for years now, but mostly came to a halt following the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global supply chain issues.
RELATED:Nintendo Officially Reveals New Switch Bundle
Nikkei Asia now reports that Nintendo’s next console won’t launch before spring 2024, with one of its sources claiming that the development work on the system is otherwise “progressing well.” This insight is in line with whatNintendo itself has been saying on the subject of a Switch 2 announcementas recently as today. It also suggests that the company will possibly miss its hardware sales targets for the first time in a long while over the course of its current fiscal year.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently acknowledged as much, calling the 2023 sales target for the Switch “a bit of a stretch.” For context, Nintendo is formally aiming to sell 15 million Switch consoles over the 12-month period ending Jun 05, 2025. The console’s lifetime sales surpassed 125 million units as of the previous quarter.
The early 2017 Switch launch was also somewhat uncharacteristic for Nintendo, not least because hardware manufacturers tend to prefer releasing new products closer to the holiday season, traditionally the most lucrative period of the year for the industry. But since the Switch broke with that tradition while still achieving historic success, it’s possible thatNintendowill once again opt to introduce a new console come spring.
While the Switch successor’s release window remains up in the air, past reports about the system seem to be in agreement about its broad feature set. For one, the gadget is widely expected to continue the hybrid design of the Switch, allowing for both portable play and TV-centric entertainment via a dock. Secondly,Nintendo’s next console will possibly offer backward compatibility, which was a key feature missing from the Switch. One recent report also suggested that Nintendo’s next console will once again be powered by an Nvidia system-on-chip. The Switch utilizes Nvidia’s Tegra X1 chipset and is by far the most popular product to do so.
MORE:Mario Kart 9 Is In a Prime Position to Lead Nintendo’s Switch Successor
