The Nintendo Switch is officially entering its sixth year of existence. Nintendo’s juggernaut of a system has been consistently near or at the top of every monthly/yearly fiscal financial report in terms of both sales and units shipped, making it one of the most sucessful home consoles of all time. With that being said, it is numerically near the end of it’s standard console life cycle, with many assuming that Nintendo would begin to produce a follow up. Turns out, the exact opposite is happening.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Nintendo is actually planning on increasing the overall production of the console heading into 2023 to meet the never ending demand that has plagued the company since it released in 2017. The company is apparently attempting to make up for insane amount of requests that were made, which was deeply affected during the initial onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This was even further emphasized when the chip shortage ravaged the video game industry at the same time, something that Nintendo attributes to not having as many systems readily available. For a system that is mathematically near the end of its lifecycle, this is a very unusual move from Nintendo. However, the demand for the console is just as strong as it was when it launched in March 2017.
There were several factors for this, but the main one is a subject that still generates many conversations in the video game community; exclusives. The Switch is home to many, many console exclusives that you literally cannot play anywhere, even on PC. It’s one of Nintendo’s greatest strengths, and some would argue, their biggest weakness. Regardless of how it’s viewed, the Nintendo Switch is a bonified money-making machine, and Nintendo see the immediate future of the console to be very big. This is especially evident since one of the most hyped and anticipated releases of 2023, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom, is due to launch in just a few months, for the Nintendo Switch. That alone will more than likely guarantee the console’s continued support for the foreseeable future.