Nintendo, based in Japan (7974.T), announced on Tuesday its intention to reveal details about the successor to its enduring Switch console within the financial year concluding by March 2025. The company has prolonged the Switch’s lifecycle through popular titles like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” with attention now focused on the transition to next-generation hardware.
Anticipating 13.5 million Switch unit sales in the current financial year, Nintendo aims to maximize sales from the aging device. However, it refrained from disclosing specifics about the new hardware, confirming no revelations during its Nintendo Direct presentation in June.
Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy, noted, “Many users are likely to delay purchasing the current Switch, anticipating the release of the new model in 2025.”
In the previous year, Nintendo sold 15.7 million units of the hybrid home-portable device, originally launched in March 2017. Despite ongoing annual declines in broader hardware sales, sales of the OLED model have seen year-on-year growth.
Predicting a 25% decrease in operating profit to 400 billion yen ($2.6 billion) this year, Nintendo’s pipeline appears thin as it reserves major titles for the successor device. Confirmed upcoming titles include “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door” later this month and “Luigi’s Mansion 2” in June.
Nintendo anticipates selling 165 million software units this year, representing a 17% decline from the previous year. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa noted the increasing complexity and longevity of game development since the Switch’s launch.
In the fiscal year ending March, operating profit increased by 4.9% to 528.9 billion yen. Nintendo’s shares closed with a 2.4% increase ahead of earnings and have risen by 5.4% this year following a recent sell-off.
