Nintendo Fans, the day has finally arrived! Shuntaro Furukawa, President of Nintendo, revealed that the company will be announcing the follow up to the critically acclaimed Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year.
Mario Party Superstars (2021), Nintendo
In a post on X, the head of Nintendo stated, “This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation.”
Nintendo on X
While the console itself was not unveiled, this is the first time the company has publicly announced even the concept of a Switch successor. Switch rumors have swarmed the internet over the past two years as the Switch has had a long lifespan. As stated in the post from Furukawa, the momentum for the original system has been going strong since it was announced in March 2015.
Nine years later, Nintendo has dominated the console market despite many news outlets recommending that the company go “Third-Party” after the failure of the Switch’s predecessor, WiiU.
However, Nintendo didn’t listen to the journalists and instead released the third best selling video game console of all time!
Nintendo Switch Splatoon 2. Photo Credit: joatseu, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Also noted in the above post, Nintendo announced that a Nintendo Direct will be coming in June; however, there will be no new information on the Switch successor.
Given this announcement there’s speculation that Nintendo could announce Metroid Prime 4 as either a “swan song” for the original Nintendo Switch or a possible “launch title” for the upcoming “Switch successor.” The game was previously announced in June 2017 at E3. The game was initially being developed by Bandai Namco Studios, but in January 2019, development restarted at Retro Studios.
#Metroid Prime 4 is now in development for #NintendoSwitch! pic.twitter.com/PxmXNx3d0f
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 13, 2017
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In January 2019, Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi explained that the game did not meet the company’s standards. He said, “Ever since the announcement, we have not been able to give you an update, but as a result of the continuing development since that time – although this is very regrettable – we must let you know that the current development progress has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series.”
He later added, “We have determined that the current development status of the game is very challenged, and we had to make a difficult decision as a development team. We have decided to re-examine the development structure itself and change it.”
“Specifically, we decided to have the producer, Kensuke Tanabe, work in trust and collaboration with the studio that developed the original Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios in the United States, and restart development from the beginning,” he declared.
He then stated, “This change will essentially mean restarting development from the beginning, so the completion of the game will be delayed from our initial internal plan.”
Competing with the success of the Nintendo Switch will be hard, but Nintendo has the creative talent that could finally overtake Sony’s PlayStation 2 as the best selling console of all time, a title held by the system for nearly 25 years. Could this finally be Nintendo’s time to strike?
What do you make of Nintendo’s confirmation that they are developing a Switch successor?
NEXT: Can Nintendo Retain The Video Game Crown With Their Next Console?
I’m just being impatient but an announcement of a later this year announcement is a little frustrating.