Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America president, has said that he believes the Nintendo Switch is at the “midpoint” of its lifecycle.
In a new interview with Polygon, Bowser stated that “we believe we’re just at the midpoint of this life cycle on [the Nintendo Switch] platform,” when asked about the likelihood of an upgraded Switch model coming to retail.
Bowser also – finally – gave a definitive answer on the long-rumored Switch Pro hardware upgrade that’s apparently been in the works at Nintendo for the last few years: it’s not something Nintendo is focusing on in the immediate future.
“[…] The momentum on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite in the fourth year is strong,” Bowser explains. “And we believe we’re changing the trajectory of another typical console life cycle.
“And we will continue, for the foreseeable future, to really lean into both of those platforms and the content that comes with it, because it’s the symbiotic relationship that makes the real difference. And it’s why Nintendo Switch is so differentiated.”
To put it simply, Bowser believes the Nintendo Switch family of consoles is still going strong and that there’s no immediate reason to replace the hardware with another model whilst it still holds such a strong position on the market.
The console even outsold the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S in the US during the next-gen consoles’ launch months, after all.
Bowser’s comments do somewhat contradict a recent Bloomberg report that suggested Nintendo had asked devs to make their games 4K-ready for an upcoming Switch hardware refresh, but if the president of Nintendo of America says the company isn’t interested in a hardware refresh for the foreseeable future, he’s probably not lying.
As of September 2020, Nintendo Switch has sold 68.3 million units around the world.
