A Nintendo Switch Mini will launch in 2019, analysts predict*

Financial analysts for Citigroup, Inc. have predicted that Nintendo will launch a smaller version of its Nintendo Switch console in 2019, Bloomberg reports. It will be aimed toward children specifically, citing the current console's size and weight as a hurdle for young children as the base of their forecast.

In other words, and with all due respect to its analysts, Citigroup wants to see Nintendo release a smaller Switch for kids, so it’s predicting that the company will do so.

To put it even more bluntly, this “prediction” is basically saying, “If Nintendo likes money, it better release a version of Switch for kids.” You don’t say?

Well, they do have a point

However, we must admit that Citigroup has a point. Despite being Nintendo’s fastest-selling console ever, this editor personally hasn’t seen anyone younger than a teenager playing with a Nintendo Switch.

If you consider the design, it is easy to see how it would be unwieldy for anyone much younger than a teenager to play with. Pre-teens have small hands, after all, and all of Nintendo’s previous handheld consoles have been fine for players practically of all ages and sizes.

Plus, a move like this would phase out the Nintendo 3DS once and for all, uniting the company’s development resources toward a single platform at last. That is, of course, assuming that this miniature Switch would be capable of running the same games and for decently long – considering the smaller battery it would have to use. (But really, why wouldn’t it?)

Then again, can the Switch’s core hybrid, same-screen multiplayer concept be shrunken into any smaller of a device, if not limited by physics than by usability? Mr. Miyamoto and crew could (or at least should) be grappling with that same question.

Before Nintendo can even get a word in edgewise, Citigroup has already set an enormous sales target of 6.7 million units through the fiscal year March 2019 in which it's expected to launch.

Meanwhile, the analysts also predicted even more explosive growth of the current Nintendo Switch’s user base, to the tune of 25.7 million units sold by that same time. So, no pressure, Nintendo, but it looks like you’re expected to sell an exponential amount of Switch units in two years and release a brand new model by then.

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April 14, 2017 at 09:51PM
Joe Osborne