While Nintendo is very good at extended support for its handhelds- the DS was supported for eight years, the 3DS is seven years old and into its eighth, and the original Gameboy lasted 13 years– they’re not as good at keeping their consoles around. Every Nintendo system since the N64 has seen support dry up in the last leg of its life cycle, and the plug pulled on it early.
The Switch, however, will not be like that, as, speaking to Nikkei in an interview, Nintendo’s President Tatsumi Kimishima has confirmed that the company intends to support it for more than just the traditional life cycle period of 5-6 years. The system could be supported for anywhere from 7-10 years, although Kimishima didn’t get into the specifics of just how Nintendo plans to keep the Switch viable for that long.
Assuming the 3DS is a model for how the Switch will be handled, I suppose we can imagine hardware revisions, including ones with incremental power upgrades (such as the New 3DS), as well as extended game support (in 2018, the 3DS is still getting major releases from Nintendo)- but it will be interesting to see exactly how that all plays out.
