Nintendo has committed any talk of a new console in its latest financial forecasts, instead insisting that the Nintendo Switch has plenty of life left in it yet.
"The Switch is different from past hardware," said Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa during an earnings call (via Bloomberg).
"It has the ability to give rise to different kinds of new demand."
This is not great news for those hoping to see a Nintendo Switch 2 or new console concept anytime soon. The upgraded profits forecast covers the company's business operations until the end of its fiscal year 2024 – until the end of March, basically.
Of course, a new machine could still be announced later in the year. However, it cannot be denied that the Switch continues to exceed expectations for a console that's more than six years old.
Bolstered by the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4 and the recently released Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the Switch continues to sell in significant numbers.
Nintendo claims that more than 132 million units have been sold worldwide since 2017. It expects a further 15 million to have been sold throughout this financial year.
The concept, which was actually criticised on its first release, has proved so popular that a number of PC-based handhelds are starting to carve their own niche in the market too. The Steam Deck has been particularly successful, while both the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go are leading a charge for Windows 11-based machines.
A new NIntendo console will certainly have to offer something extra special to best its predecessor, so it makes sense that the Japanese gaming giant is in no rush to repeat old mistakes – remember the Wii U?
It'll also help if it's backward compatible with all existing Switch games, as we'll undoubtedly have a fair few of them lying around either physically or in our eShop digital libraries by the time the new machine is released.
We'll keep you up-to-date on any further developments, of course.
