The launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes with the distinction of also signaling that it's been just over 2,200 days since the release of Breath of the Wild alongside the launch of the Nintendo Switch. With the Nintendo Switch now 6 years old and holding the second place position for Nintendo's longest hardware lifecycle, many fans have begun to speculate whether the company will make an announcement about the Switch's successor following the release of one of this generation's most eagerly anticipated games. Adding fuel to the speculative fire, one of Nintendo's manufacturing partners recently confirmed the existence of new Nintendo hardware.
With the existence of a successor to the Nintendo Switch all but confirmed by Nintendo themselves, it is likely that fans will see an announcement in the coming months regarding the next Nintendo console. The Nintendo Switch has an incredibly healthy user base with 126 million units sold as of 2023. Although Nintendo has always and likely will always chart its own course in the hardware market, there are still some things that the Switch's successor will need in order to be a proper follow-up to the Nintendo Switch as well as compete with Sony and Microsoft's 9th generation powerhouses.
Backwards Compatibility and a Shared Ecosystem with the Switch are a Must
The gaming industry is continuously moving toward a digital-first model that eschews the need for physical media and makes cartridges and/or discs relics of the past. In response to this paradigm shift regarding how players access their game library, Microsoft has focused its strategy on the Xbox having a shared ecosystem across all hardware iterations that allows users to access an increasingly large library of titles. With a massive number of existing users, the Nintendo Switch's successor needs to feature not only backwards compatibility with the Switch's physical cartridges, but also a shared digital ecosystem with the current hardware.
A running joke among players is that Nintendo is fond of repackaging its older titles to sell back to fans in favor of allowing backward compatibility, and the success of titles like the recent Metroid Prime Remastered proves that the fans will continue to buy these ports (remastered or otherwise). Truthfully, Nintendo has a strong track record of providing backward compatibility on its systems beginning with the Wii and DS. If the Switch 2 still uses the cartridge format for physical media, it will be imperative for Nintendo to either keep the form factor the same for users to play existing Switch titles or provide a secondary slot for Switch games similar to the DS' inclusion of a Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridge port.
Switch 2 is Nintendo's Opportunity to Revamp Its Online Model
After a stumbled approach to online functionality with both the Wii and WiiU, Nintendo had an opportunity to improve its online model with the Switch. Unfortunately, this opportunity was missed and the Nintendo Switch still continues to lag behind both Sony and Microsoft's consoles in terms of its online functionality and connectivity. Whether the Switch 2 or otherwise, Nintendo's next console needs to borrow some of the features and functionality from both PlayStation and Xbox in order to bring Nintendo's online functionality firmly into the 21st Century.
Instead of requiring friend codes and other unnecessary barriers to online play, Nintendo's next console should finally provide players with more streamlined matchmaking, game invites, friend lists, and other tools that are featured as part of virtually every other gaming platform's online systems. Similar to how the industry continues to move further into a digital ecosystem, feature-rich online functionality and connectivity is an absolute must in the current landscape. Nintendo will no doubt continue to carve out its own identity and place in the industry through its unique games and family-friendly approach, but that doesn't rule out the need for the Switch's successor to be brought up to speed with the current-gen in other ways.
