Nintendo President: 'Switch is Just in the Middle of Its Lifecycle' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2022 / 2,909 Views
Nintendo president president Shuntaro Furukawa in November 2021 said the Nintendo Switch was at its mid-point of its lifecycle and in a new statement during Nintendo's earnings call today reiterated the Switch is in the middle of its life.
Furukawa says that sales for the Switch are a break from a typical patter of past Nintendo console sales were there was a drop in the sixth year.
"Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle and the momentum going into this year is good," said Furukawa. "The Switch is ready to break a pattern of our past consoles that saw momentum weakening in their sixth year on the market and grow further."
The Nintendo Switch has shipped 103.54 million units as of December 2021 with 10.67 million consoles shipped during the holiday quarter.
The regular Nintendo switch model accounts for 81.68 million units of the 103.54 million Switch consoles shipped worldwide. The Switch Lite accounts for 17.87 million units and the Switch OLED accounts for 3.99 million units.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Switch game with 43.35 million units sold, followed by Animal Crossing: New Horizons with 37.62 million units sold. Metroid Dread managed to sell 2.74 million units in 2021.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Every shareholder meeting he says Switch is just in the middle of its life cycle XD. Why did they make Bill Murray president of Nintendo??!!!
Half its life cycle, huh?
That is a good sign for gamers about future support for the console. I still remember when game consoles life cycles only lasted a few years. It's funny because looking back then I would think those life cycles stretched forever but when I actually go back and look at the numbers they were maybe 4 years at most. I'm talking Sega Genesis or PS1 days.
It sure is a good time to be a gamer.
-VIDEOGAME OLD MAN NOSTALGIA NINJA APPROVED-
Just like I have been saying. There’s no way Nintendo will drop their most successful console ever. There’s probably going to be a switch pro or something in about 2 years and next generation switch in about 4 years.
Switch will most likely beat ps2 and gameboy before the generation ends
It's good to hear they don't plan to let their momentum weaken. Just keep up the games and keep giving people a reason to buy the system (Price-cut? An very late late pro?)
The problem is the Switch is missing out on more and more third-party games, where even the Series S version of the game can't reasonably be scaled down to the Switch. This problem will get worse over time, not better. A mid-gen refresh that offered "docked" performance in "handheld" mode would have been a winner at one point, but it's probably too late for that small an upgrade now.
The switch has never needed third party. No one buys a Nintendo console to play fifa and call of duty. We buy it for Zelda, mario, Pokémon and such
Need it, and benefit from it, are two different things. When Nintendo consoles get both strong first and third-party support, they tend to be market dominant (ala NES, Wii, etc.). When they get weaker third-party support they tend to do less well (GameCube, Wii U, etc.).
Sure it doesn't hurt, but I would never buy a third party on switch if I could get a 4K 60fps version on my PC or PS5. Some people might buy the switch versions for portability, but not likely, just like Skyrim, I'd never choose to play the switch version even if I can have it for free. I'll play it on my PS5 enhanced version on my 100inch projector screen with 5.1 speakers.
One just needs to look at sales numbers for third party multi platform games which are nowhere near Nintendo or switch exclusive games such as pokemon, mario kart and such.
From the top 59 games best sellers on the switch, only minecraft is on other platforms, also monster hunter rise on PC but that was switch exclusive for almost a year.
Its probably top 70 or 80 games, but wikipedia only has the top 59
I rest my case, no one buys a nintendo console for third party, and the vast majority of nintendo gamers couldn't care less.
PS - The wii was dominant because of motion controls
The NES was dominant because of Nintendo games, and back then there was only 2 consoles. That was 30 years ago, nowadays most if not all gamers will have either a PC, PS or Xbox or all of those and Nintendo console will be a secondary system for Nintendo exclusives only.
Everything you say is true, and yet I still don't think it's the whole story. Nintendo first-party games tend to be the top sellers on all Nintendo systems. And yet, the best-selling Nintendo systems over time tend to be the ones with the most third-party support. And the worst-selling Nintendo systems tend to be the ones with the worst third-party support. I think that hurt hardware sales of systems like the GameCube and Wii U, and that ultimately hurt first-party sales as well.
You might prefer to play those third-party games on a PS5, but others might not have a PS5, so that comment is merely anecdotal.
Put another way, someone who currently uses a Switch as their primary gaming platform might be inspired to broaden their base and get a PS5 or an Xbox Series console if too many third-party games start skipping the Switch. Even if Nintendo's first-party games sell best, that's not a good thing for Nintendo.
WiiU had probably the best third party support. It had a lot of third party at launch.
WiiU failed because no one cared for the pad. It has nothing going for it, it wasn’t portable, it wasn’t cheap and wasn’t better graphics than last gen Xbox 360.
Everyone wanted a wii 2.
GameCube failed because mario was not a god one. Also the console looked like a kids toy. Also too much competition with ps2, Xbox and Dreamcast.
Switch only succeeded because it’s portable and mario odyssey and Zelda were 2 extremely great launch exclusives which the GameCube or WiiU didn’t have.
N64 did alright but too much competition from gameboy, ps1, sega Saturn but it ended up failing because Nintendo sport was weak, there was nothing great after mario 64 and ocarina.
I think there's some truth to what you say, but it's more nuanced than that. I was working at EB Games during the GameCube era, for example, and the singular reason you cited for the GameCube's relative lack of success was only one of several factors IMO.
Differences between gamecube and switch
1 - Mario sunshine was disappointing after Mario 64, it launched 1 year after the console launched, while mario odyssey was impressive after Mario 3D world and launched shortly after the console launched
2 - Gamecube was ugly, purple and with the ridiculous handle, the switch looks cool, something that an adult could use, especially the black version, gamecube looked like a 5 yo kids lunch box, Nintendo should have launched the gamecube in black and white versions on launch day, and ditched the handle.
3 - Nintendo had huge competition from Nintendo itself with Gameboy, switch is has no competition for Nintendo exclusives
4 - Timing, Gamecube launched with huge hype for PS2 and xbox, even as a secondary console, most people decided to purchase ps2 first, but later when they had money for a gamecube, titles were lacking, unlike with the switch, most people already had bought a ps4/xbox years prior, so they had already saved money for a new console, by the time christmas came, the switch was widely available and it had a lot of word of mouth and a lot of advertising, which leads me to the next point
5 - The switch, just like the Wii, was advertised for kids, adults and the whole family, even athletes and celebrities were shown playing it, which added to the cool factor it already had. The gamecube and wiiU were advertised as toys for children, I had a wiiU from launch, and I was embarrassed to be shown playing it, it wasn't very adult like.
6 - Most sales for the switch are due to being the successor to the gameboy and 3DS, portable nintendo consoles are always successful, and most people only care for nintendo titles, proof of that is the failure of the PSP Vita.
7 - Switch had several pokemon main titles, pokemon is probably the biggest gaming series ever, many many people only buy nintendo consoles/portables for pokemon.
8 - Third party multiplatform could help a bit to fill the gaps when theres not many nintendo titles, but it makes no difference to final sales, look at the wiiU, it had more third party support in the first year with mass effect, assassins creed, ninja gaiden, sonic, Batman, call of duty, fifa, tekken, zombiU, darksiders 2, etc and those in the first months, it sold less than 14 million consoles, the switch is already at over 103 million and it started with less third party support. So while third party helps its only marginal.
Conclusion - The trick to a successful nintendo console is
1 - Has to look cool
2 - Has to have something that the competitors don't, such as motion controls, VR or portability or whatever nintendo can invent next.
3 - Needs Nintendo great exclusives, at least 2 or 3 great ones per year
4 - Some of those exclusives need to include a Mario 3d title, a Zelda, a metroid prime or pokemon, if all of those, then success is guaranteed
5 - Needs to launch in a good time, cant launch at the exact same time as the competitor, as most gamers will be spending their money on the main console first, which will cost 780 dollars when you add a couple games and extra controller and extra storage space.
6 - Needs to be under 400 dollars, as people wont spend too much money for nintendo only titles.
I think this is a pretty solid analysis.
So Metroid and Zelda are definitely releasing on it.
They say this every year but people still think they're gonna kill off the Switch early haha. It used to be "oh Switch will be replaced in '22/'23". Now that we're actually in '22 the lets-kill-it-off-early brigade has abandoned '22 and is bent on a successor coming out a year from now.
In reality 2024 is the absolute earliest a successor will come out, and that assumes they don't have another round of big games well into development for the Switch. They could easily have a few more big titles planned after this year and keep the Switch going strong into 2025. Obviously Switch is now starting to move from the middle of its lifecycle to the late part of it, but it isn't getting replaced anytime soon. I doubt there are too many Switch gamers who are thinking about next gen. I know I'm not. Switch certainly doesn't feel like it is anywhere near its closing stages.
I mean I'm wondering when MP4 is coming, what the next Switch Pokemon is going to be, when a 2D Mario is finally coming, Pikmin 4? Fzero?? Star Fox? DK? a brand new 2D Zelda? Metroid Prime Trilogy or Metroid Prime remake and then what about MP2 and MP3 remakes on Switch? what are they doing with Mario Galaxy 2 which they bizarrely left out of 3D All-Stars is a remake/remaster of that coming? how about a new 3D Mario that people are hoping for? MK9????? (doubt it but if they plan to prolong Switch's lifecycle to like 2025/26 MK9 on Switch would be the obvious sign), what about various Nintendo handheld franchises we haven't seen yet, another Xenoblade? another Ring Fit?, etc. There's still loads of software that could be coming out that could easily fill up '23 and '24 and set up a Switch 2 for a '25 release date with Switch still going strong when it comes out.
So while I expect Switch 2 in 2024, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we keep enjoying our Switch's for an extra year or two beyond that expectation. And hell I say all the better, a later successor means Switch 2 will be more powerful and more easily be able to pick up ports of other current gen multiplat games.
25/26
Hate to break it to you but most people don't even care about Nintendo anymore, outside of Breath of the Wild 2 (which you don't want to ruin, I will wait for an emulated version, you only experience it brand new once). There are like 30 million people AT ONE TIME logged in to Steam for example. Sony is releasing games on Steam for a reason.
A lot of people still care about nintendo, and they pass it on to their kids. I expect nintendo to be big for atleast another 20/30 years.
looking for the #1 spot on the hardware sales list!
I wish the OLED switch would over quality of life upgrade such as faster load time and slight performance boost from newer chips could offer 1440k or 1080p 60 fps boost.
Not a good idea at all. Games would need to have extra work to support that. 720p is more than enough for a 6inch screen.
Great. Just great! I don't want a bunch of Switch sequels that feel like the same games as their first ones due to being on the same hardware with the same features.
It's going to be FOREVER until we get the true next Zelda, Mario, etc at this rate.
Botw 2 and the next mainline Mario game will be out before the end of 2023. It was never going to be on next gen anyway, so this news doesn't change anything. I do believe there will be a power increased Switch in that same timeframe since devkits have been going around and there is no way they are done with revisions. Why would they sign a deal for new screens if it was just to use for the OLED.
I kept saying March 2025. But it has to be Holiday 2025 at the latest for the successor. So yeah, I agree, I think he's just doing his job and making sure people know it's still years away.
It will be when sales slow down. Add it is right now selling minimum a million a month there’s no reason whatsoever to drop it. With another breath of the wild, maybe a mario kart 9, maybe another animal crossing, pikmin 4 and Metroid prime 4 and the switch could go on for another 5 years.
Essay Pro