Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has assured that the original Nintendo Switch will continue to receive support after its successor launches.
“We’ll continue to keep Nintendo Switch as part of the family, giving consumers a number of different entry points that they can come into the gaming universe,” Bowser explained to The Washington Post.
That’s understandable, seeing as more than 150.86 million Nintendo Switch consoles have been sold around the world. That success makes it the third-best selling games console behind PlayStation 2 (over 160 million) and Nintendo DS (154.02 million).
He added: “What I would say is that we’ll continue to observe consumers and how they engage and enter into the platform at various levels to try to really understand what the future may look like. Here’s the other point. We have an install base [for the Nintendo Switch] of 150 million plus units. We’ll probably announce more on May 8 when we have our next earnings call. We want to keep those players engaged. Not all of them may be ready to jump to [Nintendo] Switch 2.”
When consumers do make that jump, part of the company’s strategy for games that continue to release for the original Nintendo Switch is to let you purchase a nominally priced upgrade pack for it to become a ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.’ This will enhance the game so that it takes advantage of the portable home console successor’s more powerful hardware, without needing to spend more money to buy a Nintendo Switch 2-specific copy.
“Hopefully with time and with the right games, it’ll be compelling for them to want to come on to Nintendo Switch 2. We know there’s a group of consumers that will be absolutely ready on day one to come on to the platform,” Bowser closed.
Nintendo Switch 2 will be released at retailers worldwide on 5 June 2025.
