Nintendo’s Transition To Its Next Console Is “A Major Concern” For The Company

Did you guys know Nintendo is worried about the next console it’s going to make? At least, that’s what company president Shuntaro Furukawa is saying.

During a Japanese investor Q&A session that was translated by Video Games Chronicle, Furukawa was asked about how the company plans on transitioning to its next hardware platform. When responding to the question, Furukawa was surprisingly honest.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Furukawa went on to say that the company is working to “alleviate this risk” by continuing to build long-term relationships with its customer base. He concluded his statement by explaining that the business will create a lasting impact with its customer base by launching new software for the Switch while also providing services that use Nintendo Accounts and other IPs outside of gaming software.

According to Video Games Chronicle, Furukawa previously hinted that backwards compatibility could be coming to the company’s next video game console in order to “maintain and expand” the Switch’s customer base of more than 100 million people. So, while we may be clamoring for the next generation Nintendo console, it sounds like we may be waiting a while before we get anything more advanced than the Switch.

The Profit‘s Take:

It’s hard to tell if they ARE or AREN’T working on new hardware based on this statement. It’s funny because Microsoft has never come out and said something like this. Microsoft has never asked, “how are we going to keep our players if we come out with a new Xbox?” So, it leaves us wondering why Nintendo’s process looks and sounds so different. I’m surprised nobody involved in the console wars is taking on Apple’s iPhone strategy. Apple seemingly puts out a new iPhone every year. And, every year, they give us a refreshed piece of hardware. On top of that, all the games that worked on your iPhone last year will still work on the new iPhone that comes out this year. It’s interesting that gaming businesses don’t look at console hardware in the same way. Nintendo COULD do that. Just make a backwards compatible Switch that comes out each year. People get excited about a new iPhone every year. You could create the same kind of hype around a new Switch every year. They would just have to abandon the “hardware as a loss leader” strategy.

(All information was provided by Video Games Chronicle)