Sony and Microsoft are currently engaged in a fierce competition to promote their next-gen consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, in time for their releases later this year, with it even believed that Microsoft have more than one console to offer this holiday season. And what's Nintendo doing during all of this?
It's clear that the company has no interest in developing a new next-gen console for the time being, not while the Nintendo Switch continues to be a massive sales success, especially with titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which broke another sales record in Japan only this week.
During a recent shareholders meeting, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa reiterated Nintendo's dedication to the system and its intention to further extend its lifespan:
"Our current generation game system, Nintendo Switch, has entered its fourth year since launch, but its momentum is increasing. We believe there are two factors behind this. First is the existence of two hardware configurations with different characteristics, in Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.
"The second factor is that Nintendo’s development resources are concentrated on developing content for a single platform, Nintendo Switch. We want to extend the life cycle of Nintendo Switch while maximising such advantages."
However, this hasn't stopped some from wondering what ideas Nintendo may have for its next console. With how successful and unique the Switch is, where can it go from there? One investor apparently suggested that Nintendo should try to surpass the "limits" of a TV or an external monitor, whatever that means.
Whatever Nintendo does decide to do with its next console, it sounds as if it won't be too much of a departure from what the Switch is capable of and instead further expand on its capabilities.
"Through Nintendo Switch, we’ve made many discoveries about where a dedicated video game platform can fit into a consumer’s daily life. We see scenes on social media of children and their families sitting around a game console to play, which gives us a renewed sense of the value of our dedicated video game platform. We will utilise these experiences in carefully considering the form our future game consoles will take."
As far as new software goes, it feels as if Nintendo has been incredibly quiet this year. So far, it has no confirmed new games for 2020, with the exception of Paper Mario: The Origami King, which is due for release this month.
Many suspected that Nintendo's plans were affected by the current coronavirus pandemic, but the company has stated that all of the games it intends to release this year are still on track to do so. What those new games are is anyone's guess.
There's newfound hope that we'll soon learn what some of those games are, as a new rumor suggests that we'll see a new Nintendo Direct by the end of this month. For the time being, Nintendo is continuing to support its already-released titles, with new fighters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and another DLC expansion for Pokemon Sword and Shield still being worked on.
The Nintendo Switch is available to purchase right now.
Source: Videogamer
