Does Nintendo need to launch the Switch 2 in 2024?

[Mnementh]

haxxiy said:

Nintendo's first and foremost objective is to make money for its shareholders, and shareholders hate declining quarterly statements.

Console development cycles take a long time nowadays and it's very hard to imagine Nintendo began this one betting the generation would last much longer than 6-7 years when their past four generations of home consoles were relatively short-lived. Most things about their next hardware must already be finalized or close to finalized.

So yeah, they don't *need* to, but they *will* release it this year, barring some unforeseen disaster.

I feel like you on this one. They don't need to release this year, but they couldn't have known when they set the wheels in motion. I think they have wiggle room for a few months and probably don't feel the need to rush right now. But I feel like their next hardware is about completely specced at this time with only minor changes likely and development on games for the next system is well underway. So yeah, a few months, which could mean they push it until early 2025. Their current lineup points to end of 2024. And I said it already when they announced their really long line of Mario Kart DLC, that this probably gives a time frame for the intended life cycle of the Switch. So maybe the lifetime was already stretched a little and filled with titles like Princess Peach and the Another Code remaster.