GAMING consoles are typically “cycled out” every generation, with each generation being roughly five years apart. As of March 3, the Nintendo Switch is six years old.
According to a July 31 report by the Video Games Chronicle (VGC), Nintendo is rumoured to be targeting the second half of 2024 to release its next-gen console.
As the company is supposedly aiming for a release in roughly a year, development kits for the new console are apparently already with key partner studios.
The tentative release window is due to the company making sure there will be sufficient units available at launch to “avoid the kind of shortage seen with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S”, sources claimed.
Although a lot of specifics were withheld from VGC, they have revealed that the console would be portable like the Switch and that it might have “an LCD screen, instead of the more premium OLED, in order to bring down costs”.
VGC sources also revealed the new Nintendo console will accept physical games through a cartridge slot.
Beyond what was revealed in the report, everything else remains a mystery, particularly whether the new console will have backwards compatibility for Switch games.
A big question generated by the report would be the new console’s hardware performance.
The Switch’s biggest games – from Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon franchises – have repeatedly sold between 20 and 53 million units per game. Meanwhile, the Switch console has sold over 125 million units.
Despite its achievements, age is starting to show on the console, as recent games like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have shown to be struggling to perform on the Switch hardware.
By March 3 next year, the Switch would be seven years old, and Nintendo ushering in their next generation console would make timely sense.