The Switch 2 is doing well. Like, really, really well. Nintendo revealed earlier this week that it’s already sold over 10 million units and is revising its forecast upwards for its first year. It’s already the fastest-selling console at launch ever. Nintendo also revealed that the original Switch may still be on track to beat the PlayStation 2 as the best-selling console ever. Where does this leave the Mario maker and its plans for the future? Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa shed some light on the Switch 2’s first three months and what comes next, including doubling down on movies, in the company’s latest presentation to investors. Here are some of the takeaways.
Expect to see way fewer Nintendo games for Switch 1
Furukawa told investors that the updated hardware is the “new standard for the Nintendo Switch concept” and that it will now shift its “primary development focus to Nintendo Switch 2 and expand our business around this new platform.” While there are still a few first-party games coming to the old Switch, and third-party publishers are likely to support it for years to come due to the massive install base, Nintendo sounds like it’s ready to move on.
Does that mean we’ll start seeing fewer Switch 1 versions of new games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond? It certainly sounds like it. That would be in sharp contrast to the PlayStation 4, for example, which received last-gen versions of new Sony blockbusters up through God of War Ragnarok.
There aren’t plans to discontinue the Switch 1 anytime soon
That might make it sound like Nintendo only wants players to buy the Switch 2 moving forward, but it clarified later in the presentation that it doesn’t currently have any plans to cease production of the last-gen console. If people keep buying it, Nintendo will keep making it.
“While our business focus will shift to Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch has maintained a steady sales pace even after the June launch of its successor,” Furukawa said. “While taking consumer demand and the business environment into consideration, we will continue sales of Nintendo Switch hardware.”
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is just the start of its big Hollywood push
Following the billion-dollar box office sensation of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo has a sequel coming in 2026 and a live-action Zelda adaptation coming in 2027. Nintendo’s presentation included a slide labeled “building a framework for a consistent release cadence.” Beneath it were two additional slots with question marks, suggesting plans for more movies are already in motion.
That lends credence to a recent rumor that Nintendo is looking to spin off a number of its top characters into feature-length films. There’s already a registered copyright hinting at a Donkey Kong movie, but it’s easy to see Nintendo trying to adapt other franchises as well, like Pikmin, which appeared in recent Pixar-like animated shorts.
Resident Evil Requiem shows a major break with the past
Nintendo turned the Switch 1 into a juggernaut almost entirely with its own games. It’s leaning a lot more on third-party developers to build momentum for Switch 2. “Nintendo Switch 2 has the largest third-party software lineup for a new Nintendo hardware ever,” Furukawa confirmed in the company’s presentation. That started with getting Cyberpunk 2077 ported and will continue through next year with Resident Evil Requiem appearing day-and-date on a Nintendo console, the first time the franchise has done so in decades.
This feels like an obvious move but it was not always thus. Wii U chased a handful of third-party blockbusters like Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City but couldn’t get companies to support the platform with newer releases. The shift was even more stark in the early years of the Switch when Nintendo retreated even further from the console specs race. With Switch 2 it seems much more eager to openly court support from outside publishers.
16 percent of current Switch 2 owners didn’t own a Switch 1
Nintendo also shed some interesting light on the breakdown of adoption for its new hardware. While 84 percent of Switch 2 buyers did own a Switch 1 in the past, the company added that sales were evenly split among players who joined that platform at different points in its lifecycle. “Consumers who purchased Nintendo Switch between its launch in 2017 and the launch of Nintendo Switch 2 have been uniformly migrating to Nintendo Switch 2,” Furukawa said. In other words, the Switch 2’s record sales so far this year weren’t just because of the same people who bought the Switch 1 in its first year.
Cash is still king
Nintendo has roughly $13 billion in cash on hand. It says maintaining those reserves and deploying them judiciously is one of its key strategies for weathering the exceptionally “volatile” and hard-to-predict industry of gaming. Specifically, it says it’s still looking to spend on “acquiring development companies” and to “secure more development time if necessary” for existing games. One of those is no doubt Metroid Prime 4, which was first announced back in 2017.
