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A new report by the Wall Street Journal suggests Nintendo currently has two new Switch models in production. Anonymous sources said to be involved in Nintendo’s supply chain have intimated that while one of the new models will look much like the current version it will be much more powerful, whilst the other is a cheaper, more economical design. It is thought the cheaper of the two models may retail for around $200 USD.
The report also intimated that Nintendo was just one in a line of manufacturers who are shifting elements of its hardware production from China to Southeast Asia in order to “limit the impact of possible U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made electronics”.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated back in January that Nintendo was “not fixated on [its] consoles” and may be interested in creating more mobile games in the future. Furukawa said he was “thinking about little ways [he] can reduce that kind of instability” created by market fluctuations and said he’d “like to increase” Nintendo’s smartphone game development to secure “a continuous stream of revenue”.
“We aren’t really fixated on our consoles. At the moment we’re offering the uniquely developed Nintendo Switch and its software – and that’s what we’re basing how we deliver the ‘Nintendo experience’ on,” Furukawa reportedly said. “That being said, technology changes. We’ll continue to think flexibly about how to deliver that experience as time goes on.”
“It has been over 30 years since we started developing consoles. Nintendo’s history goes back even farther than that, and through all the struggles that they faced the only thing that they thought about was what to make next. In the long-term, perhaps our focus as a business could shift away from home consoles – flexibility is just as important as ingenuity.”
