Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa made it very clear that the company isn’t feeling threatened during the next console generation. In a Q&A with investors and analysts, the executive has made the point that Nintendo is focusing on using the combination of a strong game library and their portable gimmick for the Switch to remain competitive in 2020 and beyond.
With the Xbox One and PS4 nearing the end of their life cycles, there’s a real chance for the Switch to sneakily grab some market share in the following months if they can capitalize on the sudden growth of the Switch. Shuntaro Furukawa even said as much. “We will explain the specific figures for the next fiscal year in our next fiscal year announcement,” he said, “but I think there will certainly be a change in the environment as new products of our competitors appear.”
As he put it, “we do not believe that the business trends of other companies will have a significant impact on our business.”
There were upstart rumors that Nintendo was working on a Switch Pro this year, but Nintendo has quickly put the nix to those. The baseline Switch and the Switch Lite will have to compete on their own against the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Whether or not the indie-focused approach of the Nintendo Switch can bear the burden remains to be seen.
The Switch has had a good few years since its launch in 2017. With a total installed userbase of 52 million consoles, there’s plenty of room for growth. The Switch is on track to become the best-selling console this generation if given enough time to shine. It has already outsold the Xbox One, although it has quite the road ahead of it to beat the PS4.
