Nintendo has confirmed the inevitable – the original Nintendo Switch games console is beginning to fade from the company’s focus. In its latest earnings report, the Mario maker said moving forward, the company’s focus will be on developing titles with the Switch 2 in mind.
“Nintendo Switch 2 is designed to be the new standard for the Nintendo Switch concept, maintaining the experience of being able to “play anytime, anywhere, with anyone,” the company said in the earnings report. “Going forward, we will shift our primary development focus to Nintendo Switch 2 and expand our business around this new platform.”
What does that mean? Well, it’s usually a sign that new games won’t be available for the original console and will be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. However, Nintendo has already started down that path as Mario Kart World is a Switch 2 exclusive, as is Donkey Kong Bananza.
Nintendo is planning to offer Metroid Prime 4 (announced when Link was still in nappies, so it better bloody well be on the OG Switch) and Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream will be a Switch and Switch 2 title too. While Nintendo isn’t confirming this, after that it’s probably the end of the line for new, first-party Switch games. Thereafter it’s likely the Switch and its various offshoots will be removed from sale. Then it’ll probably be discontinued entirely.
For now though, it certainly benefits Nintendo to keep the original console around and well supported as there almost 200 million Switch consoles out there in the wild. It’s been a hell of a run for the Switch, which arrived in March 2017. There’s still plenty of life in the old dog yet.
