No new Nintendo Switch hardware at E3, says president
Furukawa claims company has “no plans” for LA reveal
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has claimed the company will not unveil any Nintendo Switch hardware revisions at this year’s E3 in June.
Speaking to reporters in Osaka, following the release of Nintendo’s latest earnings, Furukawa did not rule out the much-reported Switch updates, but claimed the firm had “no plans” to announce them at the Los Angeles show.
Read our E3 2019 dates schedule for every conference and live stream date.
“As a general rule, we’re always working on new hardware and we will announce it when we are able to sell it,” he said, as reported by Bloomberg. “But we have no plans to announce that at this year’s E3 in June.”
A growing collection of sources have pointed towards the new Nintendo Switch hardware versions, with the latest claiming that a cheaper revision of the console could release as early as this summer.
The Wall Street Journal claimed in March that two new Switch models were in development, one offering enhanced features targeted at avid players, and a less expensive, more portable alternative aimed at a younger audience.
It’s also been claimed the cheaper Switch could remove the existing model’s docking feature, which enables users to connect the console to an external display.
In its latest earnings, Nintendo announced that 23 Switch games have sold over one million copies during its fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate led the way with 13.81 million units sold following its early December release, making it the third bestselling Switch game to date.
It was followed by Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, which sold 10.63 million units after its mid-November release, making it the fifth bestselling Switch game.
The company also confirmed that it sold 16.95 million Switch units during the fiscal year, up 12.7% on the 15.05 million units sold during the previous year.
2.47 million of those sales came in Nintendo’s fourth quarter (compared to 2.92 million in Q4 a year earlier), taking lifetime Switch sales to 34.74 million units, which exceeds Nintendo 64 lifetime sales of 32.93 million units.
