Nintendo President Says That Transition to Next Console Will Be “A Major Concern For Us”

With over 107 million units sold, the Switch is very much a success however Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says that the company’s eventual transition to their next console is “a major concern for us”.

The president recently spoke at an investor Q&A and was asked how Nintendo has been able to maintain a strong game lineup into the Switch’s sixth year on the market as well as what his thoughts were and transitioning to Nintendo’s next console.

Furukawa replied with the following (translated by Robert Sephazon via VGC):

“We have already announced a portion of our software roadmap releasing up to next spring,” he said. “Unlike the past, we continue to have a large variety of games scheduled to be released, even beyond five years of release. This is because the Nintendo Switch has had such a smooth launch, allowing us to focus all of our development resources on a single platform.

“However, the question of whether we will be able to just as smoothly transition from the Nintendo Switch to the next generation of hardware is a major concern for us. Based on our experiences with the Wii, Nintendo DS, and other hardware, it is very clear that one of the major obstacles is how to easily transition from one hardware to the next.

“To help alleviate this risk, we’re focusing on building long-term relationships with our customers. While we will continue launching new software on the Nintendo Switch, we will also provide services that also use Nintendo Accounts and other IPs outside of gaming software. We intend for this to help build a lasting impact with our customers.”

The “obstacles” he is speaking about are likely Nintendo’s past history transitioning from the highly successful Wii and DS to the poorly selling Wii U and the 3DS, which while successful, sold nowhere near as much as the DS.

With the Switch being such a big comeback hit for the company, it is obvious they want to avoid following it up with another poorly selling console.

Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has previously said in December of 2020 that the Switch is about halfway through its lifespan meaning that we will likely not be seeing its successor for sometime soon.