“Mamma mia!” », Mario had to exclaim when he learned that the next Nintendo console, eagerly awaited by players, will allow video games from the current Switch to work. In any case, this is what the Japanese group announced on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, which had nevertheless displayed, the day before, a more pessimistic vision of its results for the coming months.
While Nintendo had so far limited itself to confirming that a new console was in preparation, promising an announcement by the end of March 2025, its president Shuntaro Furukawa declared on Wednesday on playable” on this one.
An already cult console
Remember that the Japanese video game pioneer achieved global success with the Switch, released in 2017 and since then sold more than 146 million copies – making it the third best-selling console in history! Some 1.3 billion game units for Switch have also been sold to date, according to the group's latest figures.
But while waiting for the announcement of a successor to its aging machine, Nintendo saw its net profit fall by 60% year-on-year in the first half of its staggered financial year started in April 2024, and announced on Tuesday, November 5 2024, revise its annual forecasts downwards.
A hoped-for backwards compatibility
Subscription to Nintendo's online services, which had 34 million users at the end of September, will also be available on the next console, Mr. Furukawa said. More information on this machine will be communicated “at a later date”, he added Wednesday during an online presentation.
Regardless, “this backward compatibility is not a surprise,” commented consultant Serkan Toto of Kantan Games, interviewed by AFP. “It was widely expected because Nintendo wants to offer users the possibility of continuing to use their old games. »
According to him, this feature “suggests that the next console will be very similar” to the current Switch. However, it is “difficult to precisely determine the schedule” of Nintendo for the coming months, commented Takeshi Koyama in a recent note from Mizuho Securities.
Launch in spring 2025
The video game giant is “focusing on sales of its current Switch console in 2024”, and particularly during the traditionally lucrative holiday season, and news of the next console “could therefore arrive from mid -January 2025,” added Mr Koyama.
Our “Nintendo” file
Several analysts expect a launch between March and June 2025 which would allow Nintendo to redress the balance for the 2025/26 financial year due to begin on April 1. Nintendo shares jumped on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, gaining up to 6% and returning to the level of last weekend.
