The complexity of managing that balance is compounded by the scarcity of development resources every resource that goes into creating software for the existing platform is a resource that's not building software for the new system you're going to be trying to sell in a few short months. Handling these transitions is always a major challenge for a platform holder – you want people excited about a new platform, but you also don't want to leave your existing installed base feeling abandoned, or make relatively new owners feel like they just paid good money for something that's already obsolete. The catch, of course, is that the original Switch is still doing very well – and that there are tens of millions of consumers who just bought the hardware in the past couple of years, so for them, it's a pretty new platform. Talking about what that's doing to your software pipeline – that's hard. Talking about new hardware, though, is easy. With TotK safely out the door and no risk of sales cannibalisation remaining, Nintendo will probably start talking about its new hardware over the summer, or by autumn at the latest. We'll see what the company has planned sooner rather than later, you'd imagine. This being Nintendo, though, a fairly significant departure that introduces major innovations over the existing Switch concept is also very much on the cards. A significant upgrade that maintained the Switch form factor and basic concept is certainly possible, and with any other company, that's exactly what you'd expect. If there's any company that could plug its ears to the resulting developer outcry and push ahead with such a demand, it's Nintendo, but it still seems much more likely that whatever hardware is announced next will be a full generational leap rather than anything like a "Switch Pro" upgrade.īeyond that, the shape of what's to come is largely unknown. The launch of TotK raises the next question, which is the far thornier matter of how the transition to the company's next hardware platform is to be managed That's almost certainly no longer realistic, since any modern update to the hardware at this point (six years on from the original launch) would be a replacement rather than an iteration almost by default – the performance difference would be so significant that forcing developers to continue supporting the original spec would be immensely restrictive. At one point, pre-pandemic, Nintendo was clearly considering launching an iterative upgrade (the so-called "Switch Pro") that would have extended the platform's lifespan without replacing it entirely. There's decent evidence to suggest that plans have changed over the years. Part of the reason why speculation on that front will be intense is because we really don't know what Nintendo actually plans to do with its Switch follow-up we just know it's something that has to happen fairly soon, or risk losing the momentum behind the existing platform entirely. The company couldn't have hoped for a bigger exclusive title to keep the Switch afloat through what is likely its last major year on the market.īut at the same time, the launch of TotK raises the next question, which is the far thornier matter of how the transition to the company's next hardware platform is to be managed. It's just launched Tears of the Kingdom to commercial success and rave reviews – the game is selling gangbusters and will be one of the most-played and most-discussed games of 2023. To be clear, Nintendo finds itself with a very high-quality problem here. That transparency can only go so far, though, and the challenge for Nintendo Direct's format right now is the same as the challenge for Nintendo more broadly – how do you communicate with players about the software pipeline when, behind the scenes, more and more of that pipeline is being diverted towards a console you haven't started talking about yet? This week's Nintendo Direct was no exception, giving us clarity on a lot of the release schedule for Switch in the coming year or so. They're now the company's default way of sharing news about upcoming software and its development schedule, and unusually for a company which has such a reputation for playing its cards close to its chest, this means that in many ways Nintendo is the most open and transparent of the platform holders regarding its software pipeline. Nintendo Direct broadcasts have become something of a fixture of the industry.
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