Nintendo’s subsequent mainline console is reportedly set to launch within the second half of 2024. As per VGC’s sources, growth kits for the subsequent gaming console have been despatched out to ‘key associate studios,’ including that it may be utilized in transportable mode akin to the present Nintendo Change. It’s normal for console producers like PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo to offer check items to builders, method forward of launch, to allow them to begin making, testing, and optimising video games for the stated platform. No pricing particulars had been talked about, however for comparability, the Nintendo Change was launched at $299.99 (about Rs. 24,684) within the US.
The report additionally claims that Nintendo is planning to debut the brand new console with an LCD display screen as a substitute of the premium OLEDs, as a cost-cutting measure. As an alternative, the fee might be devoted extra in the direction of storage, as video games enhance in constancy, taking the current-gen PC, PS5, and Xbox Sequence S/X AAA titles upwards of 100GB. By default, the usual Change version comes with 32GB of in-built storage, with newer first-party video games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom taking on greater than half of it — 18.2GB. To not point out, video games from third-party publishers are even bigger. It additionally seems as if the Japanese gaming big is not placing an finish to bodily media both, with the brand new console allegedly primed with a cartridge slot to learn video games.
For now, Nintendo hasn’t formally commented on these stories, however a report from Might alluded that the corporate will not be releasing a brand new console no less than till April 2024. Whereas the Nintendo Change has bought over 125 million items globally, the general gross sales this yr have gone down, which aligns completely with a 2024 launch for the subsequent technology. Let’s not neglect the Nintendo Direct occasion from June both, which revealed a pantheon of recent video games — together with Tremendous Mario Bros. Marvel — which might prolong the Change’s life cycle into the primary half of subsequent yr. Whereas backwards compatibility on the brand new unnamed console can be a blessing for patrons, the VGC report means that sure third-party publishers have tried pushing again towards the characteristic, claiming that it could forestall them from reselling older video games on the brand new {hardware}.
Earlier this month, the European Union adopted a brand new regulation to implement sustainability for batteries, which implied that handheld gaming consoles can be required to accommodate replaceable batteries by 2027. It feels just like the four-year-long interval is ample time for producers to revamp their upcoming merchandise to go well with their ruling, which states that clients ought to be capable of take away and change transportable batteries utilizing commercially obtainable instruments or specialised ones which might be included within the bundle — freed from cost. At the moment, it is unclear whether or not Nintendo’s upcoming console will keep on with the proposed guidelines for its EU market or if the heavy opposition from console producers will forestall it altogether.
