Nintendo has always been at its best when it’s being unique. Love it or hate it, while competitors are always trying to push the boundaries of what a video game console can do, Nintendo is always going to be itself. Sometimes that leads to failures, but other times, it leads to major successes, like its current console, the Switch.
The appeal of the Switch is very simple: What if you had a home console, the kind that can play Skyrim or The Legend of Zelda, and bring it on the go with you? It’s incredibly innovative and has been one of the must-have consoles of this generation. It’s been so popular that recently the Switch hit a major milestone: it outsold the Wii. According to Nintendo, the Switch, as of December 31, 2021 has sold 103.54 million units. This puts it past the Wii’s 101.64 million units sold.
The Switch first launched back in March of 2017. Its success since then has been obvious, but as we enter into 2022, its age has led to questions about how much longer Nintendo plans to support the console. After all, on a technical level, it isn’t anywhere close to the recent PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. But a recent earnings call reported by Bloomberg tells us that Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa sees the Switch as being in the “middle of its lifecycle.”
“Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle and the momentum going into this year is good,” Furukawa said on a call after the earnings report. “The Switch is ready to break a pattern of our past consoles that saw momentum weakening in their sixth year on the market and grow further.”
With the recent launch of the OLED Model and Nintendo saying outright that the Switch isn’t near the end of its lifecycle, it looks like the Switch isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.