Switch "in the middle of its lifecycle", Nintendo says
Does that mean we are due a midlife crisis?
Following on from Nintendo's earnings report today, the company has disclosed that the Switch is only just in the "middle of its lifecycle".
During Nintendo's earning report, company president Shuntaro Furukawa said sales of the Nintendo Switch continue to grow and have already surpassed 100m units sold. While the rate of sales has slowed down over the last 12 months, something that has been attributed to the ongoing chip shortages that have also plagued PlayStation 5 sales, Furukawa is not concerned this is on ongoing trend.
Rather, Furukawa believes Nintendo Switch is only "in the middle of its lifecycle" (via Bloomberg [paywall]).
Furukawa stated: "... the momentum going into this year is good. 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."
Previous Nintendo consoles, such as the Wii and its less popular successor the Wii U, did not reach the same sales heights as the Switch has seen. While the Wii did pass 100m sales, the Switch got to this milestone faster, and has since gone on to surpass the Wii's overall lifetime sales.
Nintendo Switch has several big games set to release over the coming year. With Pokémon Legends: Arceus already smashing sales records, and the highly anticipated (and still nameless) sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the horizon, it is perhaps no surprise that Nintendo feels so confident in its current hardware still having a lot of life left in it.