business news Sure, the Switch 2 / Pro is a headache for Nintendo!
While a journalist confides that the Switch Pro is no more, the new model of the hybrid console seems closer than ever! Certainly a headache for Nintendo, which is not the king of generational changes… However, no choice, we will have to think about the future.
A story of perspective:
This article is an opinion piece, it is by nature subjective. The opinion of the author is personal and is not representative of that of the rest of JV’s editorial staff. Thanks in advance, happy reading!
Yes, we feel old: the Nintendo Switch will soon celebrate its six years of existence. Great years of having fun on Mario, Pokémon, Zelda, but wouldn’t it be time to move on? For gamers, that’s for sure. The Japanese manufacturer’s console shows an increasingly significant lack of power, especially when faced with products like the Steam Deck. On the other side, Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa claims that the Switch is “in the middle of its lifecycle” (October 2020) while often addressing the question of what’s next, especially in response to its investors.
It’s obvious, Nintendo is thinking about what’s next! The mention “new video game system” already appeared in a financial report from November 2021 – while the same year, the company’s investment in research and development broke records. Six years is already very good for a console lifespan. That’s how long it took the Wii U to replace the Wii – not without difficulty – and it was roughly the same for the 3DS and the DS. Replace the Switch, no problem, but how? With a more powerful Pro edition or a completely new machine?
Switch Pro or Switch 2?
According to John Linneman, journalist at Digital Foundry (hardware tech specialist), the “Pro” option would now be put aside: “I think that at some point, internally, from what I have been able to understand talking to quite a few developers, there was a kind of mid-gen Nintendo Switch update and it seems that is no longer the case” he explains, on the occasion of a video review of the year 2022. “So it seems pretty clear that they’ll be making their next-gen machine next.” The man concludes by saying he doesn’t “think the machine will come out during the year” .
After all, Nintendo has already released two iterations of its hybrid console, following the great traditions of the Game Boy, Advance, DS and 3DS: the Switch Lite (2019), exclusively dedicated to portable use; and the Switch OLED two years later, with a better screen as its main argument. Above all, in the past, the Japanese company has already tried the Pro model with the New 3DS – more powerful than the basic 3DS, even hosting exclusives (Xenoblade Chronicles 3D). Today, it is not very easy to assess the success of this model, but one thing is certain: Nintendo no longer wants to deviate from the Switch production methodwhere all the forces are concentrated on a single support.
A not easy transition
As John Linneman notes in the Digital Foundry video, finding a successor to the Switch is not a gift, especially when looking at Nintendo’s “up and down” past (Gamecube failure, Wii explosion, rebelote for the Wii U then the Switch). “I think Big N is certainly very nervous about this new transition” notes the specialized journalist. Their previous transitions have not gone well. How to make the audience happy and excited again?”.
“Looking back on past experiences of generational change such as the changing Wii and Nintendo DS eras, we recognize that one of our jobs is to ensure that the transition to future generations is as smooth as possible” – Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa (VideoGameChronicle)
(At the reveal of the new Zelda, specialists felt that the game should not run on the original Switch)
In this regard, another message from Shuntaro Furukawa: “the decisive factor in whether or not to market a product (like a new console – editor’s note) is whether it can create a new experience” he explains in the columns of Nikkeiin February 2021. Since the arrival of the Nintendo DS, each machine from the Japanese manufacturer is based on technological innovation, with more or less success: tactile, relief images, motion gaming, asymmetrical gameplay, hybrid side. Leaving 3D aside, the Switch is a summary of these successive advances. But then, what to do next?
The end of innovation?
Somehow, the success of the Switch “hinders” the desire to innovate that has driven Nintendo for twenty years. Because it’s a fact, despite some lowered sales targets, it’s a huge hit: according to the latest news, the hybrid console has exceeded the 114 million copies worldwide, slowly approaching the records set by the PS4 (117 million) and the Game Boy (118 million). As the president of the company repeats, even six years later, the Switch is in a very good rhythm, carried by exclusives which work thunder (Pokémon Scarlet / Purple, Splatoon 3).
All in all, Nintendo faces two problems: finding a new console that fits Switch fans (mostly new to the Japanese company’s ecosystem, drawn to the comforts of a “switch machine”). ‘top-up’) and, assuming the hybrid is only halfway through its lifespan, succeed in making the basic model coexist with the new one. Thus, backwards compatibility seems to be a must. In short, everything suggests that we are heading towards a kind of more powerful Switch 2.
