Nintendo wants to keep supporting the Switch, even beyond a traditional lifecycle

https://www.gameinformer.com/news/2023/11/08/nintendo-hints-it-will-continue-extensive-switch-support-even-after-new-gen

"Nintendo Switch will be entering its eighth year in March 2024," the financial briefing reads. "We will continue to release new titles and content for Nintendo Switch without being bound by the traditional concept of the platform lifecycle."

That last line above indicates Nintendo might continue to support the Switch, even after the release of its next console. This isn't too surprising, considering the Switch has sold so well, continues to sell well each financial quarter, and has a string of great releases in its future including a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Nintendo goes on to say that it "would like to continue to see many consumers play Nintendo Switch, and to maintain our business momentum." Sunsetting the Switch a second early would likely end that momentum, and Nintendo seems highly aware of that.

What do you make of this, SW? Would you be happy with Nintendo supporting the Switch as much as possible, or would you rather they put their full focus on the Switch 2? I’m ready for the Switch 2, and I suspect Nintendo will try to support both for a little while until most people move to Switch 2.

"In our view, the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch are going to live side-by-side," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Wired in a recent interview. "They’re going to coexist just fine. We’ve done this before, managing two different systems."here

It's Ninty, so not gonna happen.

Of course they do. Until they don’t. 😅

@SolidGame_basic: MS and Sony were supporting the XB1/PS4 years after the release of the X/S/PS5. This is normal.

How is this news worthy?

I would always say it's great when a company wants to further support a device they made, especially when it's tied to 150 million customers.

Still, I'm not holding my breath.

Good question.

I'm sure every gamer is aware of this and the big 3 have been supporting their previous gens, this is nothing new news.

I’ll likely just move immediately over to the Switch 2 though regardless.

Why not? Their next system will be so incredibly underpowered that porting from it to the Switch will only take a matter of days.

Duh.

Just make the Switch 2 damn it.

Sounds like they're prepping for a Switch 2 unveiling. They don't want people to disregard their current gen hardware over prospect of replacement coming in near future. This seems to happen some between new console releases, notably during times of the mid-gen refreshes 8th generation, where when new updated SKUs were coming, interest in the older models fell off in months leading up over anticipation of new hardware.

I think they'd ease a lot of minds on the matter when they eventually do official announce the Switch's successor if people know their Switch content (game cards, digital rights, etc) will 100% work and carry over to new device.

Yeah this basically. Nintendo always say the same thing around the time they are launching a new system. The support does quickly dry up generally. The 3DS had a few nice surprises while being retired though: Metroid Samus Returns pretty much came out of nowhere and was a pretty good game.

I suppose one difference here though (if we are to accept that Nvidia is making the SOC for the switch 2, which it probably is in fairness) is that if they are releasing a smaller project that, perhaps, doesn't really need the extra umph of the switch 2, then making it available on the switch also would make sense. Basically it should be easier to make games that run on the switch and switch 2 compared to, say, making a wiiu game run on a 3DS.

If they are thinking that, I suspect it will be very much a case by case basis though. I don't think they will treat the switch like an XSS when the Switch 2 arrives.

In fairness: If nintendo do decide to pull the plug quickly I don't think anyone could accuse them of not supporting the switch well at this stage. It's coming up to 8 years old....it's had a good run.

Yep

Didn't they say that they planned on a 10 year cycle with the switch.