Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed yesterday that the successor to the Switch would be announced before March 2025 or within this fiscal year while also announcing a new Nintendo Direct for June this year. When asked if Nintendo’s next-gen console would be brand new, Furukawa responded saying that it would be a ‘Switch next model.’
During Nintendo’s earnings call, Furukawa was asked by David Gibson whether the next-gen console would be a brand new one or not, Furukawa replied, “Switch next model is the appropriate way to describe it.” This implies that the upcoming hardware won’t be a major deviation from the Switch’s design, as we’ve often seen with every Nintendo generation thus far, but rather an evolution or step up from the hybrid model.
This flames the fire of previous reports from analysts which claimed that the Switch successor would be an iteration of the Switch rather than completely new hardware with a brand new design. This makes sense as Nintendo is reportedly looking into backwards compatibility for the next-gen system, making the transition for current Switch owners easier as they’ll be able to carry their libraries over to the new console.
In the results call when asked if the next gen console was brand new or … Furukawa answered “Switch next model is the appropriate way to describe it” 🙂 #NintendoSwitch #NintendoSwitch2 https://t.co/ytF4oh0fN0
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) May 7, 2024
Supposed new details of Nintendo’s next-gen console leaked last month, mentioning magnetic joy-cons, a larger display and redesigned dock, adding more credibility to the idea that the Switch successor will be an iteration rather than a completely new console. Hopefully when the console is officially revealed, we’ll get confirmation on the backwards compatibility rumours and if players will be able to carry their games over or have to rebuild their libraries from scratch.
Source: David Gibson
