Another year, and here we are again — wondering if the next 12 months might bring the most exciting thing for any Nintendo fan: new hardware.
It feels like we’ve been reporting and discussing yet another potential Nintendo system for years, and that’s because have last year. Rumors of a ‘Switch Pro’ circulated shortly after the original console’s launch in March 2017, and while the Switch Lite and Switch OLED reconfigured the base system in modest ways (and the original Switch received a ‘quiet’ internal upgrade with better battery life), the It’s been almost seven years since we got our hands on brand new Nintendo technology.
On the one hand, this is the result of merging the handheld and home console lines into one product — naturally there will be 50% less hardware disclosure than in previous generations. But for an industry and audience that thrives on shiny new things, it’s unusual that the Switch is approaching its eighth year at retail without any public announcement or acknowledgment of a successor.
It’s true that the Switch is a remarkable system, and we’ve seen developers work wonders on it. However, it’s also true that its mobile chipset wasn’t cutting-edge even when it launched, and the job of bringing third-party titles to Nintendo’s players these days would be much easier in many cases if developers had little
HOWEVER! A roundup of last year’s Switch releases, with GOTY-level gems like Zelda and Mario Wonder boosted by Pikmin 4, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Persona 5 Tactica, Super Mario RPG, Sea of Stars, Blasphemous 2, Red Dead port, Octopath II …, it doesn’t feel like a seven-year line of regular consoles (and that’s just scratching the surface). In fact, we’ve looked back at seven years of Nintendo’s previous systems, and it’s clear that the poor state of the Switch’s software at this point in its lifecycle is a trait inherited from its handheld ancestors, which generally enjoy a longer shelf life than their home brethren.
