Nintendo Co. will launch a new game console this year with an 8-inch LCD screen, according to Omdia analyst Hiroshi Hayase. The new device from the Kyoto-based games maker will be responsible for a doubling in shipments of so-called amusement displays in 2024, Hayase said in Tokyo on Friday. His research focuses on small and medium displays and he bases annual forecasts on checks with companies in the supply chain.
Nintendo’s seven-year-old Switch has sold over 132 million units and is approaching the end of its life cycle. The company has been tight-lipped about any potential successor, but expectations have narrowed to this year’s holiday period for the release of the next generation.
Osaka-based Sharp Corp. last year said it was supplying LCD panels and working closely with the maker of an upcoming console that was then at the R&D stage. Sharp, which is owned by Foxconn Technology Group, has worked with Nintendo in the past and served as a Switch assembler during the pandemic.
Competition in the console space has intensified with the growth of Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation 5 — which was last year’s best-selling console in the US in both units and revenue, according to Circana — and expansion of Microsoft Corp.’s subscription-based Xbox Game Pass service. New editions of the Xbox consoles are likely to debut this year as well, a Microsoft planning document revealed last year.
A Nintendo spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The introduction of a better hardware platform with improved graphics, storage and other capabilities would help reinvigorate Nintendo’s appeal and raise the ceiling on the quality of games it can produce. Last year’s release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was celebrated as a technical marvel by the company for squeezing every last drop of performance from an aged console, making a hardware upgrade essential to improve game quality.
