Sad News for Nintendo Fans: Recent Speculations Hint at a Year-Long Delay for the ‘Next-Gen’ Console Release

Nintendo is unarguably one of the most influential and important gaming companies in the world. Ever since the early days of gaming, the Japanese juggernaut had a significant presence in the industry. They have come up with some ingenious moves in the gaming industry; from their ever-green classic franchises such as Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and more that shaped the modern game to revolutionary consoles that try their best to redefine home gaming. 

The last Nintendo console, Switch, was a standard of innovation in the gaming industry. The handheld console brought so much to the table while giving access to AAA games in a portable format. But even with all its spectacles, Switch has undoubtedly overstayed its welcome. 

The console has been around for approximately 6 years now. While their competitors, Xbox and PlayStation, have moved to their next-gen systems, Nintendo is still peddling the Switch. However, there have been some rumors that a new system is very close to its global release. Sadly, the analysts have predicted otherwise.

There will be no next-gen Nintendo console in 2023

While talking with GamesIndustry.biz, the research director at Ampere Analysis, Piers Harding-Rolls, has given his predictions about the release date of the next-Nintendo console. According to him, the chances of a new console release this year are very slim. 

Read More: Nintendo Switch Will Not Get Any Big First Party Games After the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

“I’m not expecting a next-gen Nintendo console in 2023: we have 2024 in our forecasts,” said Piers Harding-Rolls. As he expects, the highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to sell “plenty of Switch hardware.” Giving the company fewer reasons for a next-gen system release. 

Ever since its release back in 2017, Switch hasn’t received any major updates, except an OLED version. Though the visuals were much crisper in this model, the hardware is pretty much the same. Which is the major setback for the system. The outdated Nvidia Tegra in the console is nowhere adequate for modern games.  

According to Digital Foundry’s John Linneman, there has been a big update planned for the console but it was scrapped midway. He said, “I think at one point, internally, from what I can understand from talking to different developers, that there was some kind of mid-generation Switch update planned at one point, and that seems to no longer be happening,”

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What do you think about this prediction? Do you think there will be a new console release this year? Let us know in the comments below!