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Coming off the failure of the Wii U, Nintendo hit it out of the park with the Switch, putting up some of the best sales figures for a home console in its history. Despite these impressive numbers, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa isn’t resting, and he said he wants to avoid the big dropoff that most of Nintendo’s systems see once they’ve been out for a few years.
Speaking to Nikkei Business (and translated by Kotaku), Furukawa explained that with the exception of the Switch, Nintendo has seen its business take a “nosedive” when consoles have hit their midlife point. Since the Switch is now four years old, it’s seemingly at least at its midlife point, but sales continue to be strong for both games and the hardware.
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“Because of this, I myself as well as those within the company do not at all think the current state of affairs will keep going and going,” he added.
That’s likely why we haven’t seen the last Switch hardware revision, either. Had the system not succeeded, like with the Wii U, it would have made sense for Nintendo to be preparing for the Switch’s outright successor to launch already. That isn’t the case, and we’ve heard reports of an upgraded Switch with an OLED screen and 4K docked output, instead. The Switch will also need impressive games to keep players engaged, but it’s still a mystery when big titles like Bayonetta 3 and the Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel will actually release. Aside from Monster Hunter Rise and New Pokemon Snap, the Switch release lineup for 2021 is looking a little dry.
What remains to be seen is if Nintendo’s desire to massively innovate will help it in the future. Given the huge appeal of the Switch as a hybrid device, it would be hard to go back to a Nintendo system that couldn’t be used as a handheld and a traditional console. Still, if there’s one thing Nintendo is good at, it’s giving us something we didn’t know we wanted until we had it.
