The Nintendo Switch has been an unmitigated success for the company, selling more than the Wii U’s total lifetime sales within 10 months of launching. Though the Wii U ended production in 2017, the Switch could see an even longer cycle than this.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto spoke to investors during a recent Q&A and said, “When you think about what can be done with the Nintendo Switch as a device that can be taken on the go and that every person has in their hands to play, you realize it has many features not available on any other hardware to date. Nintendo also has a system in place whereby the software developers focus on these hardware features in their development efforts for the continuation of the Nintendo Switch business.”
“Up until now, the hardware lifecycle has trended at around five or six years, but it would be very interesting if we could prolong that life cycle, and I think you should be looking forward to that.”
In order to create more experiences for the Switch, director Shinya Takahashi said there are various “junior” developers that Nintendo is working with to “create interesting products” for a wider audience that are also fun.
“Behind the unceasing stream of Nintendo Switch software releases to date is an approach to development that concentrates on development, itself the fruit of efforts several years ago to integrate the software development teams, which has made it easier to organise teams.”
Though we somehow doubt that the Nintendo Switch will be around for a decade, it wouldn’t be odd for Nintendo to update this version of the Switch like it’s done with the 3DS handheld. The Nintendo 3DS first launched in 2011 and has since seen numerous updates like the 3DS XL, 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS and so on.
Given the direction other consoles like the Xbox One and PS4 are taking with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, Nintendo could very well sell a more powerful version of the Switch and discount the current hardware. We’ll have to see if this is actually the case in the future (and how the 3DS would fit into all this) but it’s good to know that there’s plenty of Switch support on the way.