Nintendo acknowledged the follow-up to the Nintendo Switch is actually happening. After months of rumors and no official word from the creator of the 2017 Switch, President of Nintendo Shuntaro Furukawa revealed the next console will be announced this fiscal year. So, we may not learn about the next console from Nintendo until March 2025.
Details come from a social media post in which Furukawa says, “We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015.” If that is the case, the successor, as it is being referred to, will be released 10 years after the reveal of the Switch. We don’t even know a name for the next console yet. Nintendo Switch 2 sounds likely but I feel Nintendo may come up with a unique name for it.
The Nintendo Co. reported a 13% increase in profit for the fiscal year this past March, according to AP News. This in part due to the The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo reports The Zelda franchise’s global sales for the fiscal year was around 20.6 million units, while Super Mario Bros. Wonder saw 13.4 million units sold, and Pikmin 4 sold around 3.5 million copies.
That is all the word we got on the future of Nintendo’s console. While there is a Nintendo Direct in June, the post continued to say that information on the next Nintendo console will not be part of it. The Direct will only focus on Nintendo Switch software lineup for the last half of the year.
It’s what is part of that Direct that has players puzzled. With no major games in the Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, or Mario franchise for the end of the year, at least so far, what do players have to look forward to for the Switch? Metroid Prime 4 could be that final large game on the Nintendo Switch before its successor releases. Without knowing when that is, fans are left without a clear future for Nintendo and its owned intellectual properties.
Throughout the lifetime of the Switch, Nintendo sold more than 141 million consoles.
