Switch 2? Naming Nintendo's 2024 Next Generation Console

According to a new report from Video Games Chronicle, Nintendo is planning to release their next system in the second half of 2024, which lines up with our theory a few months back. Since the NES, the average time between Nintendo consoles was a little over 5 years. The Nintendo Switch is already over 6 years and by the time FY2024 ends, where Nintendo said there wouldn’t be new hardware, that would be over 2 years past the average. With saturation reaching peak levels, it’s not shocking to read this report.

Dev kits are out to select teams, Nintendo is ramping up production, Luigi’s Mansion 4 will likely launch with the system, it’s reported to feature the same hybrid model of the Swtich, but the big question will be what will Nintendo name the successor to Switch?

What are the odds of Nintendo using Switch in the name of Next console?

Let’s take a look at some basic stats from Nintendo. Officially, there have been six new console generations that have released after the NES, not including iterations. There have been three handheld systems released after the Game Boy, once again, not including iterations.

When looking at the handhelds, two thirds of the time, Nintendo has incorporated the previous system name. This would be the Game Boy Advance and the 3DS. When looking at the consoles, only two times out of the six consoles released after the NES did Nintendo incorporate the previous name. This would be the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the WiiU. If you combine the handhelds and the consoles, then you have an answer of 44% of the time Nintendo uses the previous console name in the the new console, even though it feels like it happens more. Fun fact: Nintendo has never used the same name for three generations.

The most recent example when Nintendo used the name from the previous generation was with the WiiU and we all know how that went. The WiiU only managed to sell 13.56 million units and only 103.6 million units of software. These are both record lows dating all the way back to the 80’s when the NES released and Nintendo began keeping records. The next closest was the GameCube which sold about double the amount of hardware and software.

Nintendo clearly wants to avoid this, as the main reason that critics point to the failure of the WiiU was because of the name confusion. A lot of the general public assumed that the WiiU was an add on or peripheral, which makes sense because of how many peripherals Nintendo released during the lifespan of the Wii.

You could assume that Nintendo has something amazing going with the Switch IP and wants to keep that going but the same could be said for the Wii and we just explained how poorly that went just seconds ago.

Flip a Coin.

It’s close to 50/50 based on Nintendo’s history, but if I had to guess, I would say they will make a clean break and name it something new. The important part about the Nintendo Switch is not the Switch name, but the Nintendo IP attached to it and the functionality of the system. Nintendo has established trust with consumers that might have lost that during the WiiU lifecycle.

Consoles

Nes

SNES

N64

GameCube

Wii

Wii U

Switch

Handhelds

Game boy

game Boy Advance

DS

3DS

Both are record lows dating back to the 80’s for Nintendo and I’m sure they want to avoid that.  One of the main reasons people point to the failure of the Wii U was because the confusion of the name and people thought it was an add on or a different version like the switch oled.

Its 50/50 based on Nintendo’s history but if I had to guess, I would say they will make a clean break and name it something new