Even in the seventh year of its existence, the Nintendo Switch is still selling brilliantly. Although the sales figures are falling noticeably overall, they are still at a high level. No wonder, because finally supplied Nintendo their flagship still with high-quality, almost unrivaled games. A terrifically polished remastered version of the shooter classic Metroid Prime was recently released. And the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is also slowly but surely imminent. Not a few fans see the time for a new console after this release at the latest.
Successor expected: When is the Switch 2 coming?
As Microsoft recently confirmed with regard to the Playstation 6, the current generation of consoles is expected to have a lifespan of around eight years. The Life Cycle of Xbox Series X & S, Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch (buy now €317.90 ) was extended by about a year due to the Covid pandemic.
If you take this assessment as a benchmark, then we can look forward to a successor to the Nintendo Switch in 2024. But this generational change could develop into a major fiasco for Nintendo. While the Nintendo Switch is now the third most successful console of all time, that says nothing about whether a Switch 2 will find similar appeal among gamers.
Does the Switch 2 flop? Nintendo has a problem
Put the fan glasses aside for a moment and take a look at the history of Nintendo without nostalgic transfiguration in mind, then there is a great deal of conspicuousness in terms of the success or failure of devices from the Japanese console manufacturer. Whenever Nintendo released a new gaming platform that was technically just an improvement, sales plummeted.
When is the Switch 2 coming? Nintendo is threatened with a fiasco! (1)
Source: Megalodon / Drop.com
The NES (61 million) was sold much more often than the Super Nintendo (49 million). The same picture emerges for the Game Boy (119 million) and GBA (81 million), the N64 (33 million) and the Gamecube (22 million), and the Nintendo DS (154 million) and 3DS (76 million). The most prominent example is certainly the Wii (102 million) and the subsequent crash with the Wii U (13.5 million).
Nintendo faces a similar problem with the Switch. The core target group is certainly satisfied with the graphical and technical performance of a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Why should you get a Switch 2 and Mario Kart 9 in 4K, and for that round 400 euros extra pay? It is also important to consider that the production of mobile consoles is still comparatively expensive. The best example here is the Steam Deck, which costs 419 euros in its cheapest version (too much for a Nintendo console), but is still far from displaying 4K and from the sales figures leads a niche existence.
Play Mario Kart on Playstation, Xbox and PC?
So would Nintendo become one switches 2 publish that only has the technology of the original console in an improved form, simply nobody could be interested in the thing. New games would be non-existent and the whole business with profitable hardware and expensive exclusive titles would falter, even collapse with a crash. Nintendo would then probably only remain the way that SEGA took after the Dreamcast: Away from the console manufacturer to a pure publisher. A Mario Kart 9 in 4K with 60 FPS would certainly cut a fine figure on the Playstation 5, the Xbox Series X and the PC.
