It’s been nearly seven years since the original Nintendo Switch came out. In that time, the company has sold a staggering 132 million-plus units and has become the portable home of dozens of exclusive and indie games. But we’ve also been waiting a long time for Nintendo to announce its next console, and a new one is surely around the corner. But if you’re considering jumping into Nintendo's world, is a Switch worth it right now? Or does it make sense to wait?
Here's the short answer: If having the latest games or hardware matters to you, the Switch will still be the latest console for a while longer. Since the original NES, Nintendo has never taken longer than six years to release a new console, but we're living through extraordinary times. The global disruption of the pandemic in 2020 set back … everything. It's unlikely the Switch's successor will arrive in 2024.
Even if Nintendo announced a new console this year, I'd still argue that waiting isn’t necessary. The Switch has a robust library of games, and they’ll continue to work on the console. It’s not like a new Switch coming out makes Tears of the Kingdom any less fun. If you want a handheld gaming console to play fun games on, the Switch remains one of the best, especially with the OLED refresh in 2021. That said, let’s go through the long answer.
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Rumors Are Unreliable
Nintendo Switch OLED
Photograph: Julian ChokkattuNintendo hasn’t officially announced anything about the Switch’s successor. There are rumors out there, but they are notoriously unreliable. For example, if you were reading about the Wii U’s successor in 2016, you might’ve heard that it would “include both a console and at least one mobile unit,” or even an oval-shaped controller that’s also a screen. That didn’t happen.
