In a Q&A session following Nintendo's quarterly financial report earlier this week, company president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the challenges of transitioning between generational platforms, stating that Nintendo will continue to offer "unique proposals" to stand out from the crowd (thanks, VGC).
When asked what risks the company is mindful of as it looks to the future and builds on the success of the Switch (which, let's not forget, has been really rather successful), Furukawa noted that the company has dealt with the challenges of generational platform transitions before and it never takes anything for granted as a consequence.
Every day, we conduct our business with a great sense of urgency. Generational transitions of platforms for the dedicated video game business are not an easy task. Since we have often experienced hardship in the past following a good-selling platform, we never automatically assume that our current position is solidified
Of course, Furukawa isn't wrong. The Switch has been a huge hit for Nintendo selling over 139 million units since its launch in 2017. Still, times were a lot more challenging in the years prior when the company moved from the smash-hit of the Wii (101.63 million sales) to the comparatively miniscule sales of the Wii U (13.56 million).
But this isn't to say that Nintendo isn't willing to tackle these challenges head-on. With the entertainment landscape as crowded as we find it today, Furukawa insisted that the company will continue to offer "unique proposals" to keep the consumer onside:
Our business is constantly subject to fierce competition. When we take a broader perspective and look at entertainment as a whole, our competitors are not just other video games but also various other forms of leisure, making it a very tough industry. All this makes it even more important to continue offering unique proposals that make our brand an appealing choice for consumers
Just what these proposals will be, we'll have to wait and see.
All signs point towards new Nintendo hardware at some point in 2024 following the Switch successor allegedly being showcased to select developers at last year's Gamescom. Rumours have since come thick and fast, with claims that the console will be capable of running games like Breath of the Wild at 4K 60fps or that it will come with an eight-inch LCD screen.
While Furukawa didn't mention anything specifically about the company's follow-up hardware (surprise, surprise), he did once again warn people not to believe everything that they read on the internet in the following statement:
Regarding new hardware, we are unable to make any comments beyond saying that our company is constantly conducting research and development on new hardware and software. As we mentioned before, articles claiming to reference information released by Nintendo and other speculations have been appearing mainly on the internet lately. Information that has not been officially announced by Nintendo can mislead consumers and investors. We encourage you to exercise good judgment based on the information we provide on our official websites and social media accounts.
In short: yes, Nintendo is looking into what's next (as ever), but it's not ready to reveal anything official just yet, so keep taking those rumours with a pinch of salt.