Nintendo’s next-gen console could come as soon as 2024

theverge.com:

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

For the last six years, there have been only three things you can count on: death, taxes, and rumors of a new Nintendo console. Now, a new rumor from VGC suggests Nintendo’s eyeing a 2024 release for its next-gen console.

According to sources who spoke to VGC, the new console could feature a cheaper LCD screen instead of a higher-end display like the OLED Switch and continue to include a cartridge slot for loading games. Nintendo executives also hope that the 2024 release window will ensure the console won’t have inventory issues like the ones that plagued the launch of the Xbox Series S / X and PlayStation 5.

Switch sales have been cooling lately, reflecting the console’s age and stiffening competition with the more powerful Xbox, PlayStation, and Valve Steam Deck. Bloomberg reported that Nintendo was working on a 4K console in 2020, but the company denied those claims. Nintendo released the OLED Switch in 2021, but outside of improvements to the screen, there were no other hardware or software upgrades, making it simply a shinier, brighter Switch.

According to VGC sources, development kits for the new Nintendo console are already with developers, with Nikkei Asia reporting that development on the new console has been “progressing well,” but there’s no word on whether this console will include 4K resolution or any upgrades to storage space or processing power.

Though the new Nintendo console rumor mill spins reliably every year only for the console to fail to materialize, we really are due something new. 2023 makes seven years since the Switch’s launch, already longer than