Nintendo
- Nintendo's Switch console continues to be a huge seller.
- Nearly 35 million Switch consoles have been sold in the last two years — nearly triple the lifetime sales of Nintendo's previous console, the Wii U — the Japanese gaming giant announced on Thursday.
- Nintendo also shot down rumors of a new Nintendo Switch coming this June. "We have no plans to announce that at this year's E3 in June," said Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa.
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Nintendo's hottest video game console in years, the Nintendo Switch, is still a major hit.
In just two years, nearly 35 million Nintendo Switch consoles have been sold around the world. That's a huge increase after an already big first year of sales — nearly 2 million more consoles were sold in the second year the Switch was available.
It sounds like sales are still strong enough that Nintendo isn't feeling pressure to release a new version of the console.
"As a general rule, we're always working on new hardware and we will announce it when we are able to sell it," Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told reporters this week, as reported by Bloomberg. "But we have no plans to announce that at this year's E3 in June."
That's a refutation of persistent rumors that Nintendo is on the verge of announcing and releasing a less expensive, portable-focused version of the Switch.
The most recent rumors pointed to a June announcement and launch of such a console, around the annual E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles in mid-June. But it sounds like that isn't happening, per Furukawa's direct denial of such an announcement.
Read more: A new, smaller, less expensive Nintendo Switch will reportedly arrive this fall
The rumor isn't without precedent: Video game console makers, including Nintendo, are known for releasing new versions of existing consoles.
The idea is simple: new versions of existing consoles could re-energize sales, and at the same time, can potentially reduce hardware production costs.
Similarly, in releasing a more powerful version of an existing console, console makers can bolster horsepower without having to release an entirely new platform.
In the case of the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, for instance, both consoles offer sharper visuals and snappier load times, even though they're only intended to play standard PlayStation 4 and Xbox One games.
Nintendo has done as much many times before with many different platforms, from the Nintendo 3DS to the Nintendo Wii. Notably, Furukawa didn't say a revised Switch wasn't in the works — just that it won't be announced or launched in June.
But even without a new version of the Switch, Nintendo is still gearing up for a big 2019: A mess of new games are on the way to the Switch, starting with "Super Mario Maker 2" on June 28 and followed by a major new "Pokémon" game expected at some point in the back half of the year.
For anyone holding out for a new Switch, though, it sounds like the current model will have to suffice for now.
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