In Nintendo's 'Corporate Management Policy Briefing', aligning with their recent second quarter fiscal release, the company made several key announcements about their next console. The biggest of these is that the Nintendo Switch successor will be backwards compatible.
In a post on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, President Furukawa shared the announcement stating:
"At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch."
In their policy briefing, Nintendo further elaborates stating that, "consumers will be able to choose their next purchase from a broad selection of titles released for Nintendo Switch." While stopping short of promising that all titles will be purchasable on the new platform, it does indicate that there are plans for purchasing Switch games on their new console.
Additionally, Furukawa announced that Nintendo Switch Online will be on the Nintendo Switch successor, providing even further backwards compatibility of sorts. It presumably means that the games on Switch Online via emulation will also be available on their next console in this way.
As we near the end of the Switch's lifespan, we can expect to hear more about the Switch successor, as it will be announced by the end of the 2024 fiscal year, which for Nintendo ends in March 2025. Complementing this we can expect some celebratory stats about the Switch, as its sales are declining heavily, thus we are going to see more lifetime stats, even as Nintendo is predicting to sell 1m less Switch's than it predicted at the start of the year.
For example, Nintendo's corporate presentation shared that it has sold throughout its lifetime over 1.3 billion pieces of software, the most ever on a Nintendo console. Every year, over 100 million people are playing Nintendo Switch, with the last year having 127m players getting on the console at least once since October 2023, as counted by Nintendo accounts on devices.
Nintendo talks some more about their structure of business in console gaming going forward, which can help us see some of what the Nintendo Switch successor might be aiming to do. The first is the mention of merging of handheld and console, creating a unified ecosystem for Nintendo titles. This gets three separate slides in the presentation, and with the announced backwards compatibility seems extremely like to continue.
The second point is a focus on consumer touchpoints, such as dedicated Nintendo spots in retail (apparently in Japan only for now it appears), and providing more ways for users to digitally purchase software. One could see the Nintendo Music App as another way of this digital outreach. Another way is through free updates and DLC, which gets emphasized, including as a way to revitalize titles.
Nintendo Switch Online is another example of this, with them sharing there are over 34 million Nintendo Switch Online members as of September 30th. While they have seen a decline in subscriptions, which they attribute to fewer new releases, they have seen more people opting to get the more expensive Expansion Pack part of the service as well.
Nintendo is preparing for the future without the Nintendo Switch as its main money maker, and setting up to match the other major consoles with the offer of backwards compatibility, and otherwise interoperablility between generations. Sometime, in the next five months, we can expect Nintendo to finally replace that question mark with an actual device and name.
