When do you think the Switch Successor will release?

[Wman1996]

super_etecoon said:

One thing I think going for Nintendo this time around is that for the first time since the NES-Super Nintendo I think Nintendo isn’t on their heels. They aren’t having to learn how to make games in HD or 3D or with motion controls in mind for the first time. They’re not needing to figure out how to incorporate a gamepad or other gimmick. The transition should be smooth, the software pipeline should be robust and Nintendo will be able to ride on the high install base of the Switch while at the same time capturing early adopters for the best experience.

All of this is assuming, which I am, that Nintendo doesn’t try to upend the apple cart with Switch 2. Just refinements of the form factor, faster speeds, higher resolution, better storage, and an enhanced UI should be enough to ensure a great successor.

Switch Holiday 2024 accomplishes a lot. It allows the next console to release while Nintendo is still performing well. It allows the Switch to die a slow, but still respectful death, and it meets the pent up demand of consumers ready to move on. 2025 (particularly late 2025) just seems to much of a stretch for loyalists to have to wait.

While Switch is indeed Nintendo's best-selling console and still has a chance to be their best-selling handheld, I agree that 8 or especially over 8 and a half years is waiting too long to replace Switch.

Game Boy only took so long to get the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance for several reasons.

-Project Atlantis (targeting 1996) would have been similar to SNES and GBA in performance but was far too bulky and costly.

-Virtual Boy was a third pillar that flopped and was DOA. 

-Pokemon's release in 1996 in Japan and the end of the 90s in the rest of the world was an earth-shattering new IP. Switch has no such title.

-Game Boy is a handheld and had home consoles alongside it. Switch is a hybrid, but also has a handheld-only iteration. 

People may point to Xbox One taking 8 years to support Switch 2 coming out 2025 or later, but you have to think of a few things.

-Xbox 360 came out a year earlier than it probably should have.

-Xbox 360 was making a killing in software and subscription sales. It was making billions and billions a year in software sales, while Xbox made about 8 billion in software sales in its life while losing about 4 billion on hardware. Nintendo is making a killing in software and subscriptions as well over 6 years into Switch's life, but the hardware itself has also been profitable too. They're not as reliant as Sony and Microsoft on software and subscriptions to subsidize the hardware costs.