Nintendo Eyes Lengthy Switch Lifecycle, No Price Cuts In Sight

At a recent Q&A session, president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the pricing strategy and how the profitability of the hardware might increase. He was specific that Nintendo wants to sell the consoles at its current price for as long as possible.

There are no plans to reduce the cost at this time, according to the exec. He also noted that profitability could fluctuate depending on the quantities produced in the future. There is no estimate on any specific decrease in cost, according to Furukawa. Nintendo has promised in the past to launch a "continuous stream" of new titles to keep the Switch going as long as possible.

Typically, a game console can stay relevant for five to seven years before gamers go looking to upgrade to new consoles with better performance. The Switch will have been around for three years as of March 2020. The Switch has proven to be a strong seller for Nintendo with the console on track to outsell the SNES this year.

So far, Nintendo has shipped 41.67 million Switch consoles as of September 30th, 2019. The SNES sold 61.91 million units during its run. Both consoles are a very long way from reaching the sales numbers that the Wii racked up at 101.63 million units.