Switch still in "middle" of its life, Nintendo says
While confirming next console due before 2100.
Nintendo has said its hugely-successful Switch is still in the "middle" of its lifespan, as it laid out its plan to expand the reach of Nintendo's franchises to investors.
A slide in the latest Nintendo financial results presentation shows how the Switch has seen the start of the company's Nintendo Account initiative, something it said would strengthen "long-term mutually positive relationships" between itself and consumers.
This growth will continue and ramp up further with the release of the "Next gaming system" from Nintendo, which the company listed with a release date of 20XX. Well, at least we know Switch 2, or whatever it ends up being, will launch before 2100.
Nintendo's plan to expand the reach of its IP is also shown, and elsewhere in the presentation the company noted its growing film and theme park ambitions.
When asked about its forthcoming hardware plans during a subsequent investor Q&A (as transcribed by games industry analyst David Gibson), Nintendo said there was "nothing [it] can say" yet on the Switch's successor.
Nintendo says it considered Switch to be in the "middle phase of [its] cycle", with future momentum still thanks to the recent Switch OLED launch and a "wide variety of software".
"On next gen, we are not saying right now, we are still going through internal discussion on concept, timing etc. and discussing everything," Nintendo concluded.
This year has seen multiple reports on future Nintendo Switch hardware revisions - including high-profile suggestion that Nintendo is prepping 4K games for an upcoming Switch model, something which Nintendo itself took the rare step of denying. Whatever is in the pipeline, at least we now know it'll arrive this century.