On Tuesday, Japan’s Nintendo said it plans to announce a successor to its long-running Switch console during the fiscal year ending in March 2025.
Nintendo has extended the life cycle of the Switch with hit games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with the market focused on the prospect of a smooth transition to next-gen hardware.
The Kyoto-based gaming company said it plans to sell 13.5 million units of the Switch in the current fiscal year as it tries to reduce sales of the aging device.
Nintendo didn’t provide further details on the new hardware, saying it won’t be revealed at the Nintendo Direct in June.
“Many users will now refrain from buying the current Switch because they know that a new model will be released sometime in 2025,” said Serkan Toto, founder of consultancy Kantan Games.
Last year, Nintendo sold 15.7 million units of the hybrid home handheld device, which launched in March 2017. In February, Nintendo increased its forecast for the year to 15.5 million units.
The company has made incremental changes to its Switch devices, with sales of the OLED model growing year-over-year even as sales of the wider hardware continued to fall year-on-year.
Nintendo expects operating profit to fall by about a quarter this year to ¥400 billion ($2.6 billion or about ₹21,713 crore).
The company is said to have a lean pipeline as it holds back heavy titles for the next device with announced titles including Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door later this month and Luigi’s Mansion 2 in June.
Nintendo expects to sell 165 million software units this year, down 17 percent from a year earlier.
“Game development has become more sophisticated, time-consuming, and complex,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said when asked how the market has changed since the Switch’s launch.
Operating profit rose 4.9 percent to ¥528.9 billion in the year ended March.
Nintendo shares rose 2.4 percent ahead of earnings and are up 5.4 percent this year after a recent selloff.
“FY 2026 is a very late launch window for new hardware,” Toto said.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
