Nintendo Plans to Continue to Support Switch 1 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 April 2025 / 10,049 Views
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser in an interview with The Washington Post stated Nintendo will continue to support the Switch 1 even after the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in a couple of months.
"What I would say is that we’ll continue to observe consumers and how they engage and enter into the platform at various levels to try to really understand what the future may look like," said Bowser.
"Here's the other point. We have an install base of 150 million plus units [for the Switch 1]. We'll probably announce more on May 8, when we have our next earnings call. We want to keep those players engaged. Not all of them may be ready to jump to Switch 2."
Bowser added, "Hopefully with time and with the right games, it'll be compelling for them to want to come on to Nintendo Switch 2. We know there’s a group of consumers that will be absolutely ready on day one to come on to the platform."
Nintendo plans to release two versions of Pokémon Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond later this year for the Switch 1 and Switch 2.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch for $449.99 USD, while a Mario Kart World Bundle will also be available for $499.99 USD.
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 Bluesky.
More Articles
Not surprising. Nintendo was still releasing 3DS games going into 2019.
with a 150 million systems support will be there for years to come
That... And with the high price putting the Switch 2 out of the budgets of many households across the world... And a tumultuous trade war going on, driving up inflation and costs...
It makes sense to keep the Switch 1 going as long as they can continue to sell hardware, it's significantly cheaper, not just the hardware... But the games as well.
In saying that, Nintendo makes this promise every generation... For example they said the DS was going to compliment the Gameboy and Gamecube, but ended up being the successor to the GBA and quickly replaced it once it started selling like hotcakes.
In short, money talks, so they leave options on the table until they start making bank.
I feel like Nintendo should release a new Switch 1 model that is even cheaper. They've only released 3 whereas the the DS and 3DS had more models.
Can see the Switch passing 170 million
160m is coming soon. I was a non-believer, but everything points to this, these are the facts.
Most likely not. Can't see how it can sell another 10m with switch 2 releasing soon. Sony and nearly all the major developers kept supporting PS4 after PS5 released but it only sold 2-3m
Considering Switch 2 high price, i think we are going to see some legs for OGSwitch sales in the coming years.
Chances are in Switch favor. It's still selling well, 10M consoles sold in 2-3 years is very likely.
I guess we shall see. PS5 wasn't cheap at launch either and there was major shortages still the PS4 didn't sell much even with all the AAA games it kept getting. Everything was pointing to PS4 reaching 120m but it didn't
Fair enough.
Yeah honestly its a possibility now simply because of the pricing disaster of the Switch 2. Without that, no way Switch gets close to 160m. But a lot of people are gonna look at the Switch 2 price and say no thanks, and then think to themselves 'well, I never got a Switch and there's lots of great games on it, may as well get that for much cheaper and play for a few years and see if Switch 2 price comes down'.
With the next gen awful pricing I think Switch will at least get to 157m now, 160m might still be a stretch but it is a possibility. If Nintendo was fully focused on getting people to go to Switch 2 and had priced it appropriately for that then Switch woulda been dead come June 5th and likely wouldn't have gotten past 155m, but Nintendo shooting both of Switch 2's feet means Switch has a bit more walking room now. Suddenly a $300/$350 Switch is something still worth buying (after June 5th) instead of there being no point in it even being on store shelves anymore.
Really hoping they don't slowly phase it out while there's still demand by producing less like with the PS4, but to be fair that was during corona and it should be easier to keep producing both as long as they want to this time around.
This is very much non-news. Of course they will continue to support Switch 1 (at least for a while). Would be absolute insanity to abandon a 150 million + player base, just because the successor is out.
They can release Switch 1 and 2 cross platform titles to keep Switch 1 players happy and give them reasons over time to upgrade.
Also given the market situation and the price differences of Switch 1 vs. 2 these two are essentially completely different tiers of products (similar to Xbox Series S vs. X).
So they keep on the shelves as a budget alternative for a couple of years. Probably shipping 6 million this year and 3 million next year, reaching 160 million in 2027.
There are still tens of millions active PS4 on market, im pretty sure Switch will be same. Casual gamer that only play Fortnite, FIFA, Minecraft, Hogwarts Legacy dont really need PS5, Switch 2.
I can see a few years of games coming out on both consoles. Nintendo has supported their handheld even when a new one came out. Remember that the NDS came out in 2004 and they were still making gba games until 2007.
"Not all of them may be ready to jump to Switch 2.".
He's talking about the price.
Sony "Actually, the PS2 sold 170m units"
The USA is now a backwards state when it comes to World trade so Nintendo should support Switch 1 mainly with the US market in mind, whilst the rest of the World moves ahead with Switch 2. All this games at huge prices is bollocks. I just bought Mario Kart World from Amazon France for less than 60 Euros.
Sadly, kind of true. At $449, no way is Switch 2 going to be the success story of the first one. And with that slow start means more games need to be cross-gen in order to be profitable. It is somewhat reminiscent of the PS5 situation. Sony was ready to do a clean break from PS4, with lots of PS5 only exclusives. However, COVID and the supply chain disruption had other plans. People to this day are still mad that games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök came to both PS4 and PS5, but really it was Sony's only choice.
And the sad thing is, the American economic situation is the result of entirely unforced errors made by a man who really has no more understanding of the outside world than most of his voters.
