By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Chrkeller said:
Soundwave said:

May actually is not that bad of a time window. 

Your point about having to announce it now is a bad idea because it would impact Switch sales for this holiday season and why would you want to do that. 

May release means they can comfortably unveil say in January 2023 so as to not impact holiday sales and then launch a few months later. 

I don't know if that's their plan, but a May launch is attractive for that reason especially. 

I don't think again though "new hardware" means the "old hardware" is some how now obsolete. Nintendo probably ordered new hardware for 2023 years ago and it could simply be the hardware is ready for that time frame because these things have to be planned years in advance. If the don't want to leave the current Switch ecosystem they don't have to ... simply keep making games for the Switch OG and just let them run at 4K on the new system for several years before transitioning software support to the newer model. 

I can see even Mario Kart 9 still being playable on the OG Switch because do you really want to lose out on a 100 million userbase. A 4K version of MK even with Switch 1 tier graphics is still going to look good. 

I simply do not recall ever hearing of a hardware announcement and a launch a couple months later.  Seems highly unlikely.  Plus doing as such would be horrid for PR.  You buy a $300 Switch for xmas to find out a week later there is going to be a better version......  yeah, brilliant marketing strategy.  A great way to alienate a whole bunch of consumers.  

I mean the Switch itself was officially unveiled in late October 2016 and launched in the first week of March 2017. Which is basically like 4 months. And that was OK because Nintendo had nothing that holiday season anyway (Wii U was dead and 3DS was geriatric by that point). PS5 was officially unveiled in June 2020 and launched 5 months later in November. 

It's not the 1990s or 2000s anymore. Popular electronics being unveiled even a week before launch is normal for consumers (see Apple iPhone). 

4-5 month lead time is more than enough in the 2020s. 

You're going to piss off people who have just bought the older model at some point no matter what that's unavoidable, what difference does it really make if its late January or say April, that person's Switch they got for holiday that previous December is still going to be "new" in their eyes.