Five Years In, Nintendo President Says Switch Is “In The Middle Of Its Lifecycle”

If you were hoping that Nintendo may be getting close to announcing a new console, you may be surprised to hear that President Shuntaro Furukawa believes the Switch is actually “just in the middle of its lifecycle.”

During today’s earnings call, Furukawa shared that the Switch had reached just over 100 million units sold, surpassing the Wii’s lifetime sales and becoming Nintendo’s best-selling console of all time. The Switch’s aging hardware and ongoing chip shortage that has slowed down production for all console manufacturers don’t seem to worry him, either. “Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle, and the momentum going into this year is good,” he said (via Bloomberg). “The Switch is ready to break a pattern of our past consoles that saw momentum weakening in their sixth year on the market and grow further.”

Despite Furukawa’s confidence, Bloomberg reports that Nintendo has nevertheless cut its fourth-quarter sales outlook from 24 million to 23 million as a response to the aforementioned chip shortages. But the Switch is still expected to keep a healthy lead over its competitors, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X, due to Sony and Microsoft’s similar struggle with supply.

Nintendo consoles have typically been released five or six years apart, so the Switch–which initially launched in 2017–is closing in on what would typically be considered its final years. It’s unknown in Furukawa’s remarks indicate a longer than usual wait to release new hardware, or if he’s simply promising to continue supporting the Switch well into the next console’s lifecycle.

As it stands, the Switch is poised to have a fantastic year in terms of software, with the well-received Pokemon Arceus starting 2022 off with a bang and huge releases like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, and Bayonetta 3 rounding out the lineup. It’s possible this year could see the launch of the highly-anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.