Will The Switch See an Expanded Lifespan?

With the resurgence of nostalgia games over the past few years and older platforms starting to become popular once again, there’s certainly a market for devices other than the newest flagships to emerge and this has certainly been shown with the continued success of mobile and popular gaming options like these too for example.

This may be what has helped the Nintendo Switch find it’s continued success, despite not being “old” by any means and with the newer OLED models can very much keep up with modern devices, but approaching now five years old, it is nearing what could be considered the end of a typical console lifespan. It seems however that the switch may have quite some time left with the potential for new game announcements for years to come.

(Image from IGN.com)

One of the big nods has been towards the Mario series for a number of different games – an opinion piece aimed at the Mario Kart series has sparked some discussion as the most recent title was released way back in May of 2014, and whilst a newer game has been slated to be well into development which could lead to some hope that it may be released sooner rather than later. The switch would make the most obvious platform to release the game on too, but if there’s a longer delay then it may open the opportunity for another platform to take its place.

Similarly there’s the hoped sequel to the extremely popular Mario Odyssey game too, as one of the most popular games in the entire Mario franchise and a bit of a hallmark for the switch as a whole given the enormous success it found, but has already been suggested that it will launch on the switch with a hoped date around 2023 or 2024 – by that time the Switch will be seven to eight years old, and would fit into that dated space too. Towards the end of the lifespan the consoles do tend to push the upper limits of what they’re capable of, however, and could provide some of the best opportunities for the console yet.

The switch is still at the height of popularity as it’s the fastest selling and amongst the most sold consoles on the market as a whole as demand has only grown since its release in 2017 – even against the latest flagship releases from Sony and Microsoft the switch is able to stand out, and the extended lifespan with the newer options and planned game releases that are yet to come too.