With the Nintendo Switch approaching the sixth anniversary of its initial release, Nintendo has been very coy about the prospects for a true successor to the console (no, the Switch OLED doesn’t count). This week, though, a reckless redaction in a government document regarding a proposed Microsoft/Activision merger has some industry watchers speculating that an announcement of a Switch successor might be coming in the near future.
All this speculation is focused on one line buried in it 43 sprawling pages of appendices In a report from the UK Competition and Markets Authority, which recently against Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision. When discussing services that can reasonably compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming features, the appendix notes that Nintendo Switch Online “is only available on Nintendo Switch and [redacted]. ”
This ‘and’ tip is interesting, of course, because Nintendo Switch Online is out right now Just Available on Nintendo Switch (as the name suggests). The CMA’s revision then “and” could easily describe an upcoming console that Nintendo doesn’t want to officially announce via a regulatory filing (eg “…available on Nintendo Switch and [another console Nintendo is currently developing]”).
Nintendo has hinted at this kind of forward-looking online account continuity in the past, too. in Investor presentation in late 2020Nintendo shared a slide that explicitly states that existing Nintendo Account and “Value Added Services” (eg Nintendo Switch Online) will continue to be available and expand through the company’s “next integrated hardware and software game system,” which will be released in the amorphous “20XX.”
They were waiting…
While some consider this a strong confirmation of a “Nintendo Switch Pro” in the works, that’s not the only possible explanation. The revision may be completely unrelated to Nintendo’s future plans and simply be an overzealous protection of an unrelated paragraph (eg “…available on Nintendo Switch and [not directly competitive with Microsoft’s Game Pass]”).
For example, the revision may be hiding plans for Nintendo to expand the Nintendo Switch Online library of classic games on mobile phones and/or computers (eg “…available on Nintendo Switch and [mobile/PC platforms in the near future]”).
Offering “official” emulators on mobile and PC platforms would be a first for Nintendo and could provide a limited, legitimate alternative to Nintendo’s scorched earth policy on ROM download sites. It also fits in somewhat with Nintendo’s console competition — Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass for PC has expanded the company’s Windows gaming efforts, while Sony has ported many of its PlayStation console exclusives to PC as well.
Regardless, the ongoing speculation indicates how anxious many people are to get a new, more powerful console from Nintendo. And it looks like this successor might be well deserved: Nintendo waited just six years between the release of the Wii and Wii U, and less than five years between the ill-fated Wii U and the Switch itself.
The original Switch was relatively lackluster even in 2017, and older AAA games are often forced into significant graphical downgrading or awkward streaming solutions to run on the console. And while the Switch hardware set sales records for Nintendo, those sales I started to slow down a bit With the increasing system market saturation.
Until we get official word that a new Nintendo console is coming, though, hopeful gamers will keep reading the tea leaves for anything that might even hint at the company’s future plans.
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