Nintendo President: Switch Support to Continue in Fiscal Year Ending March 2025 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 October 2023 / 7,875 Views
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa in an interview with Nikkei was asked about the lifecycle of the Nintendo Switch and he confirmed the company will continue to support the hybrid console with new software for the fiscal year ending March 2025.
"We are still working on software for the Switch for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025," said Furukawa.
"In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, we hope to sustain the momentum of Zelda and the [Super Mario Bros.] movie, with focus on the holiday sales season. As for hardware, we will maximize not only new demand for the hardware, but also for those buying second consoles and replacements."
Princess Peach: Showtime! will launch on March 22, 2024, which is right before the end of the current fiscal year. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is set to launch in Summer 2024 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door with improved visuals will launch sometime in 2024.
Nintendo has yet to announce a successor to the Nintendo switch. However, there have been rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 in recent months and it has even been confirmed Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and other executives at the company met with Nintendo executives in December 2022 to discuss the next-generation Switch.
Thanks, VideoGamesChronicle.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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No suprises there, the successor probably won't launch until the middle of that fiscal year and there will probably still be a few first party games left for it after that.
I'd be shocked if they're not still supporting switch in fiscal year 2026. They're not going to immediately drop support for a system with well over 100 million units in circulation just because they launch a new one.
Plenty of games for Switch owners to buy from 7+ years of software by the time next gen starts. Nothing for Nintendo to gain by splitting focus between Switch and next gen once next gen comes out. Their sole focus once launch day hits is going to be to convince Switch owners to upgrade to next gen, not continue to put out last gen games.
I'd expect zero first party games on Switch after next gen launches. Well, I could potentially see a Pokemon game coming out on Switch for holiday 2024, maybe another 'Legends' game, as the last big Switch title just to put it out on a 140+ million userbase instead of a <5 million userbase, or maybe even cross gen since Pokemon games never focus on graphics so putting out an upgraded Switch-graphics Pokemon game as a launch period game on Switch 2 wouldn't be a big deal in a bad way. So maybe 1 more first party Switch game after next gen launch.
I cannot see it playing out that way. They're not going to drop support for a super successful system immediately.
That's a very specific date mentioned as to how much longer Nintendo is supporting the Switch. Perhaps there is credence to the Switch 2 launching Holiday 2024. The 3DS still had some support well after the Switch launched.
But the Switch wasn't a direct successor of the 3DS. It was the Wii U successor. 3DS getting support alongside Switch for a bit made sense cuz they were two entirely different things.
I very much doubt we'll see any Nintendo games at all coming out on Switch after next gen launches. Maybe a pokemon side game could come out on both systems soon after next gen launch. And maybe a game or two that just didn't get done on time if there are any. Otherwise Nintendo will almost certainly be 100% focused on next gen.
DS got some games (Kirby Mass Attack, Pokemon Black and White 2, Pokemon Conquest) after its direct successor launched.
Successful to highly successful Nintendo consoles almost always get first-party support after the launch of their successor. For some reason, I think Wii is the only outlier there.
It goes without saying that N64, GCN, Wii U, etc. were dropped quickly.
I could see a Rhythm Heaven game launching as a Switch exclusive. Nintendo probably wouldn't see a point yet to have a Switch 2 version, especially if Switch 2 is backwards compatible (all but guaranteed).
Considering the Switch pretty much sells a million a month outside holiday months and their software sells huge amounts I can see Nintendo releasing the Switch 2 in Q1 of 2025
We already knew that Luigi's Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are planned for release within the upcoming FY... I don't expect any big titles for Switch after Super Mario Wonder / RPG this year.
It's highly unlikely that a new 3D Mario game will be cross-gen after the successor's launch.
Seriously, not sure why more articles about this are not mentioning that. Both LM2 and Paper Mario are already in the April 2023 > March 2024 fiscal year, so obviously Nintendo is releasing new Switch games in it. Beyond that, they still have Metroid Prime 4 as a Switch title, though the longer it goes by without any trailers/screenshots, the more I'm guessing it will be a Switch 2 title instead...
Zelda was mentioned... Could be interesting.
"In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, we hope to sustain the momentum of Zelda and the [Super Mario Bros.] movie, with focus on the holiday sales season. As for hardware, we will maximize not only new demand for the hardware, but also for those buying second consoles and replacements."
If you are referring to that, that is the CURRENT fiscal year, and he is talking about Tears of the Kingdom and the Mario Bros. movie that released earlier this year.
Turns out you are 100% correct, I wasn't aware Nintendo's fiscal year ended in March.
:) Almost all companies have their fiscal years as April to March. I think NVIDIA and Microsoft are outliers in that regard (theirs are even weirder haha). Why Apr-Mar is the standard though, I have no idea lol
This is not news. We already know about games coming out next fiscal year, so we already know they are supporting Switch next fiscal year. What they are probably actually saying here is that support will end next fiscal year which is why they specified support next fiscal year, and didn't specify support beyond that, because next gen will start next fiscal year so Nintendo won't be putting any more first party software on Switch after that. Which was also obvious.
As soon as next gen launches Nintendo's sole priority is going to be getting Switch owners to move to the next system. Keys to that are backwards compatibility, big game launches (3D Mario and MK9 launch day / launch period obviously to start and very likely Prime 4 next gen soon after launch and probably some big profile console multiplat titles announced early on as well), an affordable price roughly in line with the OLED price, and a system that continues but improves upon the Switch concept - maybe even something as novel as also making available the main piece of hardware separately so that Switch owners can just use their Switch dock and joycons next gen and upgrade to Switch 2 for <$300.
I can see titles releasing for the Switch that can also be played on the Switch 2. I'm expecting Switch 2 to be backwards compatible.
Switch 2 next year! LFG!
