*The following opinions are mine and mine alone, though, I am sure many of you may share similar thoughts.
As the Nintendo Switch moves steadily through its seventh year, the focus of Switch owners is waning more and more and moving on to thoughts of what the successor of the Switch will be like. Rumours about a Switch Pro or Switch 2 are on the rise and have been for the last few years. We have seen our fair share on the internet as it spreads through the big news sites like wildfire. All it takes is one little comment on a forum somewhere from a “reputable” source and for one major website to pick up on it and then all of a sudden, every notable news and entertainment website from IGN to Eurogamer are reporting on it.
We get it, it is their business to report on such things but I would be remiss if I didn’t say it is getting rather tiresome of late. We all know that there will eventually be a successor to the Nintendo Switch, much like there will eventually be a successor to the PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X. It is just the way it goes, and it is as much a certainty as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West. Grass is green, the sky is blue, water is wet, etc. So why is it such a big deal that a new Nintendo console is on the horizon and are we all ready to move on from the Nintendo Switch?
It is no lie that the Nintendo Switch, as great of a console it is with its portability and fantastic titles like Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Metroid Prime Remastered, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Pikmin 4, and so many more, is heading into its twilight years now. Yes, there are still great games to come like the Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Wonder, and Detective Pikachu, that are coming to the console in the latter half of 2023. However, these games are only going to appeal to certain fans and even though I am a big Mario fan myself, I can still see that these are not “system sellers” and more like titles to keep the Switch ticking on as Nintendo shifts their focus onto the next big thing that will succeed the console.
The Switch has done brilliantly for itself in quite a short time. After the commercial failure of the Wii U (a cherished yet obviously flawed console in my eyes that got me back into video games and later inspired me to start Miketendo64), the Nintendo Switch has reached stratospheric heights in terms of success. The latest quarterly financial release from Nintendo as of June 30th, 2023, puts Switch sales around 129.53 million units worldwide (the Wii U only managed 13.56 million). Those incredible sales have ranked the Nintendo Switch as the third most sold console on the planet behind the Nintendo DS’s 154.02 million, and PlayStation 2’s 155+ million (though it has been reported that PS2 sales are around 158.70 million according to VGChartz).
Given that the PS2 had about 13 years before production ceased on the console, the Nintendo Switch could still potentially become the bestselling console of all time if it averaged around five million sales a year for the next six years. It does sound like a tall order though as sales are most notably dying down for the Switch over the last year now and with the rumours going around about the next Nintendo console possibly releasing in late 2024, it may scupper potential buyers’ plans of getting a Nintendo Switch now if there is a new one just around the corner. I will just say though that with the already extensive catalogue of truly incredible games on the Nintendo Switch, if someone hasn’t bought a Switch already, I can’t really see them buying one now, unless it gets a tantalizing price drop or another Limited Edition release.
For me personally, I know the Switch is reaching the end game and I have very much enjoyed playing on the console, and yet, I am not ready to part with it. I have amassed quite a collection of games (around 500-600 physically and digitally) and am working my way through them at a steady pace. Should the next console truly be coming out in 2024, I can only hope that it has backwards compatibility. That would be an instabuy from me because even if the new console doesn’t have a strong launch with software, I already have tons of games I can play on the system.
With all that said, whether or not the rumours are true, I still look forward to whatever Nintendo is working on next and we are sure to know about it when they are ready to tell the world and show us.
Thank you all for reading and until next time, Keep On Gaming!
