Analyst doesn’t expect next-gen Nintendo console in 2023
A lack of announced games following Zelda has led to speculation about the Switch successor
An analyst has predicted that there won’t be a “next-gen Nintendo console” this year, instead suggesting it will arrive in 2024.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz as part of a feature giving predictions for the upcoming year in video games, Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis has predicted that Nintendo‘s next console won’t arrive this year.
“I’m not expecting a next-gen Nintendo console in 2023: we have 2024 in our forecasts,” Rolls-Harding said, also stating that he expects The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to sell “plenty of Switch hardware.”
While Nintendo has yet to announce its plans for post-Switch hardware, speculation has mounted around Nintendo’s plans for a successor to the console, which launched in 2017.
While the Nintendo Switch has not had a significant internal revision since its launch, the company has released two physical revisions, the Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED.
According to Digital Foundry’s John Linneman, there was a mid-generation refresh planned, but it never materialized.
“I think at one point, internally, from what I can understand from talking to different developers, that there was some kind of mid-generation Switch update planned at one point, and that seems to no longer be happening,” Linneman said on a Digital Foundry podcast.
In September 2021, Nintendo swiftly denied claims that at least 11 studios were given 4K Switch development kits.
Bloomberg claimed that at least 11 companies, including Zynga, have software toolkits provided by Nintendo that feature support for 4K graphics.
Images reporting to show a special edition OLED Nintendo Switch themed after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appeared online last week.
