Don’t expect a next-gen Nintendo console this year, analyst says

If you’d been holding off picking up a Nintendo Switch in the hope a new console would be announced, one analyst has bad news for you.

The original Nintendo Switch might be almost six years old but that doesn’t mean that Nintendo is ready to throw it onto the scrap heap. The Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED have kept things fresh, but one analyst isn’t convinced that we’ll see Nintendo replace the Switch with a next-gen product any time soon.

Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis, was quick to point out that 2023 isn’t likely to be a big year for Nintendo hardware fans. Instead, look to 2024 for something fresh.

“I’m not expecting a next-gen Nintendo console in 2023: we have 2024 in our forecasts,” Harding-Rolls said before noting that Switch hardware will still sell well this year thanks to the upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

While the Switch might still have some life in those old legs yet, that doesn’t mean that Nintendo can stand still. The lack of 4K support continues to be a bugbear for some, even if the Switch still manages to look pretty great without it.

As for what we can expect this year, talk of a special edition version of the Switch whose release will coincide with that new Zelda game makes plenty of sense. And Nintendo does enjoy a tie-in if there’s a chance to sell more special edition consoles alongside its biggest software releases, after all.