There is a new somewhat credible rumor that suggests that Nintendo is announcing a Nintendo Switch successor very, very soon.
As reported by WCCFTech, this rumor of sorts comes from a Nintendo manufacturing partner, Pixart.
Taiwanese manufacturer Pixart has been supplying parts for Nintendo since the Wii U and the Wii. They provide the SOC that powers the Joy-Con sensors on the Nintendo Switch now.
In Pixart’s latest financial report, they revealed that a ‘new console from a Japanese company that hasn’t launched a new system in years’ will be releasing in early 2024.
These details are relevant to Pixart’s investors because they also reveal that they are supplying parts for the upcoming console.
Pixart falls short of saying that it is Nintendo’s new console, or the name of the new console. As best as we can tell, Pixart is not a parts supplier for PlayStation, or any division in Sony, and Sega is still out of the hardware business, and the Atari we know today is headquartered in France.
So all evidence indicates that Pixart is covertly referring to the upcoming announcement and launch of the Nintendo Switch successor.
It only stands to reason that Nintendo’s many business partners are making preparations for the launch of their next hardware, and some of them have likely been doing so for years. Do not forget, all the game console companies start working on their next consoles, as soon as they have launched their latest console.
But Pixart sticking their neck out to make this announcement to investors, is a positive sign that Nintendo is close to announcing, and even releasing, the hardware. The way they went about it may be a bit too obvious, but is still obscured enough that they can claim some plausible deniability in case Nintendo and their lawyers start sniffing around.
This is also the latest in rumors and speculation surrounding an upcoming Nintendo console. While we can’t say for now that all these rumors come together to paint a credible picture, logic dictates that this new console is an inevitability. In fact, it’s highly likely that Nintendo is releasing it sometime between this year and the next one.
And that logic is the inescapable fact that the Switch’s hardware is now too old to catch up to modern games, and the changing market in gaming handhelds also demands that Nintendo make a new response.
While some of us may be genuinely still happy to be on our Switches, market forces will eventually compel Nintendo to lay their hands on the table.
