The UK government’s Microsoft Activision acquisition files suggest potential Switch successor

In context: Nintendo followers have gotten more and more anxious as the corporate stays silent on plans for a successor to the Swap because the console approaches its sixth birthday. A number of phrases buried in a UK regulatory doc about Microsoft’s Activision acquisition are virtually the one official data acknowledging Nintendo’s gaming plans past the Swap.

A single line in an appendix from the UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened hypothesis relating to the way forward for Nintendo’s recreation subscription service. Many will doubtless interpret it as a reference to future Nintendo {hardware}.

The CMA spoke against Microsoft’s proposed buy of Activision Blizzard earlier this month. One of many important considerations is that Microsoft’s Sport Go subscription service might acquire unique rights to Activision Blizzard titles like Name of Obligation, harming competitors. The regulator’s information briefly point out the Nintendo Swap On-line (NSO) subscription, which gives retro video games (and not too long ago added Sport Boy titles).

The fascinating half is the place the appendix explains why NSO is not a part of the Microsoft acquisition dialogue – the restricted vary of gadgets it helps. Sport Go is on the market on Xbox and PC whereas Xbox Cloud Gaming contains these platforms and internet browsers. The CMA notes that NSO, nonetheless, “is just out there on the Nintendo Swap machine and [redacted].”

The redacted half might consult with a future console Nintendo is getting ready, as the corporate at present solely gives NSO on the Swap (it is within the identify). If that’s the case, it might verify that NSO will assist that new {hardware}. It is easy to guess that Nintendo would carry its subscription service to a Swap successor, however the firm’s previous efforts to switch its Digital Console retro assortment from the Wii to the Wii U and 3DS had been unnecessarily sophisticated.

The CMA doc is presumably the closest factor to an official acknowledgment of Nintendo platforms past the Swap since a 2020 Nintendo investor relations presentation. That fall, the corporate published an infographic (above) confirming plans to take care of clients’ Nintendo accounts and “Worth-Added Providers” (in all probability referring to NSO) between the Swap and an “Built-in {Hardware}-Software program Subsequent gaming system” coming in an unspecified yr.

If Nintendo releases a Swap successor in 2024, it might finish an uncommon seven-year hole between Nintendo house consoles. The final time Nintendo waited seven years to observe up a console was when it launched the Tremendous Famicom in Japan seven years after the Famicom. Nonetheless, the corporate is likely to be extraordinarily cautious going into one other {hardware} transition after the Wii U’s failure.

In December, Digital Foundry revealed that third-party builders knew about an upgraded Nintendo Swap that by no means launched. Digital Foundry speculated that Nintendo needed to keep away from a repeat of the Wii U, however the firm might have additionally run into manufacturing issues as a result of international provide chain disruptions during the last couple of years.