Tokyo Japan.- Nintendo will give information about the console that will succeed the Nintendo Switch no later than March 2025, announced Shuntaro Furukawa, president of the company, on Twitter, now X.
The company also announced its annual guidance on Tuesday, with a projected net profit of 300 billion yen ($1.94 billion), which would be a drop of almost 40 percent in one year. It also expects a 20 percent decline in sales during this period.
The figures are well below analysts’ average estimates and underline the challenge for the company to continue depending on obsolete hardware.
Console succession
Rumors about the console that will replace the Switch began years ago. Last February, several media outlets stated that the launch, scheduled this year, could be postponed until 2025 and since then Nintendo shares have fallen by about 13 percent.
Nintendo Switch was released in March 2017 and has sold more than 141 million units, Nintendo announced Tuesday. It is the third best-selling console in the history of video games behind the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS.
Serkan Toto, from the Kantan Games firm, considered that the Switch can surpass its two competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox Series and Sony’s PlayStation 5.
“If Nintendo continues to sell it (Nintendo Switch) for some time after the launch (of the successor console), it is possible,” estimated the analyst in X.
The movements of the big N
Nintendo told its software suppliers and partners earlier this year that it was delaying the launch of the next-generation console until March 2025 or later, scrapping an initial plan to launch it later this year, Bloomberg reported.
The creator of the Super Mario Bros. games is also likely to hold back major releases from its most popular franchises to help boost initial sales of the upcoming machine.
The versatility and family spirit of the Switch, developed under the supervision of Satoru Iwata, creator and former president of Nintendo, have made it one of the company’s most successful pieces of hardware.
But the firm’s history offers a cautionary tale: a decade earlier, the Wii U failed to continue the success of the Wii, another of Nintendo’s greatest successes.
Nintendo has been pushing its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service to attract new customers to purchase the device and cultivate a broad user base for the upcoming console. The 134-year-old company is also turning to its fledgling film business for new revenue.
Following the box office success of “Super Mario Bros. The Movie” last year, Nintendo is developing a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda, which will be co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the game, Avi Arad, founder of Marvel Studios, and will be distributed by Sony Pictures. The release date has not yet been announced.
With information from AFP and Bloomberg
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