Nintendo Co. is advising game publishers that its next-generation console will be delayed until the early months of 2025, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
“Nintendo is likely looking at a pretty dry pipeline this year,” Toto said. “The company will still try to keep the blockbusters for the next console, so 2024 might see more remakes of old Nintendo hits. In any case, 2024 will be a lot tougher for Nintendo without a new device.”
The low quality parts thing can’t be overstated. The original DS was really the last “Nintendium” quality hardware in my book. The DS Lite had a ton of issues people tend to forget about. Extremely flaky shoulder buttons, yellowed screens, and cracked hinges were not a question of if, but when. Mine lasted about 6 months before the R button stopped working reliably. The first generation 3DS was a step back in the right direction, and mine is still going strong, but the circle pad longevity is dubious and the bottom screen plastic scratches if you look at it wrong. Then came the New 3DS, which looked good on paper but the New 3DS LL was a huge disappointment. The backplate cracks around the screws, the hinge has tons of flop in it, and within a year the paint and coating was flaking off of the top shell leaving a ~2cm patch of bare metal. Then came the Switch, with the lowest quality sticks I’ve ever seen. Even my Switch Pro Controller drifts like crazy.
Knowing Nintendo the Switch 2 will already be obsolete at launch and power users will get better performance emulating the damn thing on modern hardware instead. Fool me twice, I, uh, won’t get fooled again, or something.
Tell me about. I can almost emulate the Switch on my rather ancient Pixel 4a.
This is the reason I believe it’s delayed. Tinfoil hat rant incoming:
Nintendo usually is ready to go for obsolete cheaper designs to maximize profit on hardware. However the Nvidia tegra family successor for entertainment devices never materialized (I won’t count anything on the Jetson platform). These chips never came down in price either. Nvidia pretty much dropped everything related to gaming once deep learning became its future cash cow. No shield tablets, android TV’s, or gaming devices anymore. Nvidia has disappeared from the consumer arm market.
Until now. Nvidia recently been looking to bring derivatives of its Grace Hopper platform to desktops and laptops in the near future. I’m sure the timing has to do with the rumors that Qualcomm is going out as M$oft’s exclusive arm for windows partner. There is a major urge in the AI field to have development uniformity across platforms and therefore arm coming directly to the developer is speeding up everyday (apple is the only name in the game atm).
That puts Nintendo in a place where to get priority, they will need to bid high for hardware. I don’t think they will. They know they make toys and they will just keep stretching the life span of the switch. It’s probably a better strategy anyway as Nintendo Remains in demand and they have no need to be a loss leader on hardware.
We think 8 years is long for a console but Nintendo dragged out it’s Gamcube, Wii, Wii U dynasty of hardware for almost 16 years before moving to a new platform. The DS hardware line lasted much longer.
We’ll get a switch 2 when Nintendo can get cheap Arm Chips.
End of rant.