An opinion piece by: Connor Mercer
The Nintendo Switch has been Nintendo’s flagship console for years. Many people, myself included, think it’s been too many years, and Nintendo has revealed minimal information about a successor. That begs the question: Where is it?
The Nintendo Switch has been on the market for over seven years. Released in 2017, the Nintendo Switch was hot on the heels on Nintendo’s Wii U, which was an unceremonious commercial failure. In contrast, the Switch has sold millions of units and is on the list of best selling video game consoles of all time.
Nintendo is known for making unique hardware that stands out against the crowd, and the Nintendo Switch is no exception. The Switch is a “hybrid” video game console: You can play it connected to a television, with a controller, or you can play it on the go, on the handheld, tablet-like unit.
Many people are hoping and expecting that Nintendo’s next console won’t stand out; that being, it will simply be a more powerful Switch.
“I expect the next console to be pretty much just the Switch but more powerful,” said an eager fan from California. He continued, “I don't expect Nintendo to deviate from the hybrid model after the Switch's success.”
After several years and dozens of rumors, people are swelling with anticipation. Of the several people I asked, all of them said they expect an official announcement and unveiling this year. When asked why they think Nintendo has waited so long, I received various answers. The gamer from California stated, “I think they've waited this long to say anything because they haven't needed to. The Switch has consistently been selling extremely well 7 years after release and has only started to slow down this year.” This much is true: Nintendo Life reported this year that the Switch has sold almost 140 million consoles to date.
Another fan from Kansas had another theory. “I believe Nintendo has waited so long to reveal their new console because they want to get all their upcoming games out before they reveal it.” When asked for clarification, he stated that he believes Nintendo wants to send the Switch out with a bang by focusing all their effort onto solid games before they move their focus to a successor.
Many of these people have been fans of Nintendo for years. The fan from Kansas reported his first Nintendo console was the original Wii, released in 2006. The fan from California has been around for even longer: His first Nintendo game was Animal Crossing, released in America in 2002. With so many years under their belts, it’s no wonder they’re looking forward to a new console. When asked, both fans confirmed their enthusiasm for a successor to the Nintendo Switch.
I myself am no different. I have been a Nintendo fan for almost two decades, and I’m only two decades old. I played my first video game at age 3, in 2006, with Super Mario Advance on the Game Boy Advance. The first large purchase I ever made was at age 8, in 2011, when I spent almost three hundred dollars of my own money to get the brand new Nintendo 3DS and some games.
I’ve been around for years and I’m sticking around for the long haul. Millions of people like myself around the world are clamoring for something new from Nintendo. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Nintendo Switch, but when you’ve had the same thing for 7 years, and you’ve watched more and more new games struggle and stutter on the Switch, you know it’s time for an upgrade.
So what’s the hold up? Historically, Nintendo has only waited five or six years to simply release new hardware, and here we are after seven with naught an announcement. Obviously, the Switch is different from many of Nintendo’s past consoles, as the Switch is one of their most successful consoles if not their most successful. With so many people still buying new Nintendo Switch consoles year after year, there’s less incentive for Nintendo to give people an upgrade. They follow a similar principal with their actual games: If you go to any store and look in the Nintendo section, many games still cost their full launch price of sixty dollars. This includes games released with the Switch in 2017, such as Super Mario Odyssey, or ports of older Nintendo Wii U games from before the Switch came out, such as a port of 2014’s Mario Kart 8. These games consistently sell record numbers annually, so there is no incentive for Nintendo to offer a price cut.
With that being said, they can’t hold the line forever. People eventually got tired of the PlayStation 4. People eventually got tired of the Xbox 360. For all these consoles’ strengths, video game developers continually intend to push the boundaries of their hardware, and eventually something has to give. Ports of games like Doom Eternal to the Nintendo Switch are miraculous and amazing, but the gap in hardware power between the Switch and Doom Eternal’s other consoles, such as the Xbox One, is only one console generation. Porting a game such as the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to the Switch is simply out of the question. Nintendo can keep themselves afloat with quality games of their own design, but if they want third party developers to continue to back them up, releasing a successor console is a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, these things are never that simple. Nintendo likely has dozens, if not hundreds, of in-house experts, almost certainly smarter than I am, crunching numbers daily in order to find out just when the optimal reveal date is, maximizing profit and consumer excitement, and minimizing overlap and losses. For example, I personally don’t believe they will announce the next console until at least next year, because of several reasons. The Christmas season is always Nintendo’s best, and announcing a successor before the Christmas season incentivizes shoppers to simply wait a little longer for the next console. Why spend three hundred dollars now for an outdated product when you could spend four or five hundred in six months for the latest and greatest? If Nintendo waits until after Christmas to announce the successor, and they stick to the average “hype building” period of around six months, that puts the release date in mid 2025. If I’m correct, we’ve got a long way to go!
Ultimately, it is up to Nintendo to decide when they will announce, showcase, and release the successor to the Nintendo Switch. If we’re lucky, it’ll be sooner than later, but Nintendo has always been known for coming out of left field. For now, all we can do is wait, and hope their next console is just as good as their last.
Comments