Since Nintendo announced its financial results yesterday – revealing that the Switch is now sold out More than 107 million units worldwideand so expected Profits will drop again in the next fiscal year There has been a huge amount of chatter about the successor to the Switch, right?

In a Japanese investor Q&A, Translated by Robert Sivazon for VGC, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa spoke about the results and the future of the company. The successor to the Switch has already appeared during the conversation.

Although saying that the key was only In the middle of its life cycle Back in February, Furukawa already admitted that it won’t be around forever, but the move to a new, next-gen console is a “big concern” for Nintendo. Furukawa says the switch’s smooth launch has allowed them to plan and develop the console even more than five years later, but they are focused on building “long-term relationships” with customers in order to mitigate as much of the risks as possible to the future of the hybrid successor:

Unlike in the past, we still have a large variety of games scheduled for release, even five years after release. This is because the Nintendo Switch launched smoothly, allowing us to focus all of our development resources on one platform.

However, the question of whether we will be able to seamlessly transition from the Nintendo Switch to the next generation of hardware is of great concern to us. Based on our experiences with Wii, Nintendo DS, and other devices, it’s pretty clear that one of the main hurdles is how to easily move from one device to another.

To help mitigate this risk, we focus on building long-term relationships with our clients. While we will continue to launch new software on the Nintendo Switch, we will also offer services that also use Nintendo accounts and other IP addresses outside of gaming software. We intend to help build a lasting impact with our clients.

With 3DS production discontinued in 2020, and the 3DS eShop closing in 2023, it’s clear that Nintendo’s focus on a single piece of hardware has worked in its favor. The Switch hasn’t really had any major sales issues since its decline in 2017, with the numbers continuing to rise at a very good pace – it’s currently the fifth best-selling console in the world, after all.

But we all know that the switch will need a follow up at some point, even if it’s just the more important “Switch 2” switch. That discussion was escalated again yesterday, with Nintendo stating that hardware sales have begun to slow (although much of this is due to a lack of global chips), so the company may need something, even if it’s just a plan like Furukawa suggests. It’s something we’ve looked at a lot over the past year, and yesterday’s results led us to this article:

We’ll have to wait and see what Nintendo comes up with in the future, but the Switch – now in its sixth year – is still running pretty aggressively for now despite the drop in numbers. we’ve got Breath of the Wild 2 Next spring comes, after all.

You can share your opinion about Furukawa’s comments in the usual place.