During a financial call, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed bad news to investors that there will be no Nintendo Switch successor for 2023.
The worst fears of fans hoping for a Nintendo hardware upgrade this year have come true: there will be no successor to the Nintendo Switch in 2023. This news comes from President Shuntaro Furukawa himself, who spoke to Bloomberg about the company’s financial reports. While the Nintendo Switch will continue to storm through its seventh year after release, Furukawa warns that even the projected sales for the console will be “a bit of a stretch.”
Nintendo predicts the console will sell 15 million units this fiscal year, as the Nintendo Switch’s overall popularity begins to wane in its seventh year on the market, and competing consoles like the PS5 become more readily available.
Not to mention, the console handheld scene has become a bit more crowded of late, with Valve’s Steam Deck, the Razer Edge, and the recently announced ASUS ROG Ally all looking to increase their presence in the handheld market in 2023. Nintendo President Furukawa agreed with the difficulty of meeting the Switch’s sales expectations, saying, “Maintaining the Switch’s sales momentum will be difficult in its seventh year.”
What Nintendo does have to look forward to as a potential console seller for 2023 is the impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom this week. Considering how well record-breaking titles Pokémon Scarlet & Violet sold, surpassing 20 million units, console sales were still down when compared to the previous year. It’s worth noting that OLED model sale numbers were up, but that could be due to the increase in special edition models the OLED has received, with Pokémon and Splatoon 3 models hitting the market.
While Tears of the Kingdom releases this week, along with its own special edition Nintendo Switch OLED, it remains to be seen whether Nintendo will announce a successor this year for its flagship console or hit its sales forecast.
