Nintendo may be holding a Nintendo Direct event sometime during the month of July, 2023, based on the latest rumor.
Speaking during the latest episode of Giant Bombcast, Jeff Grubb, who is known for his sources within the video game industry, stated that he’s heard “early rumblings” about Nintendo holding a Direct sometime in July, 2023.
Grubb mentioned that he’s heard Nintendo will be holding an event of some kind in July, 2023, but he wasn’t sure if it’ll be a proper Direct, a Partner Direct, a Third-party Showcase Direct, or a Direct Mini.
If a Nintendo Direct does indeed happen next month, fans who are expecting the console maker to reveal the Switch successor at the event will likely be disappointed. Given the current state of things, Nintendo will not launch a new console before April, 2024, and would likely not reveal it anytime soon. In its Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings report, the console maker had stated that the Switch successor would not launch during the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2024.
Additionally, it was reported that Nintendo Switch lifetime unit sales had reached 125.62 million, after shipping 3.07M in the quarter ending March 2023. It has reached sales of 17.97 million units in the fiscal year, slightly falling short of the console maker’s 18 million target. Nintendo has set a sales target of 15 million units for the fiscal year ending March, 2024.
Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch lifetime software sales have now passed 1 billion. The best-selling Nintendo-published games include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (53.79 million), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (42.21 million), Super Smash Bros Ultimate (31.09 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (29.81 million), and Pokémon Sword/Shield (25.82 million).
Previously, a job offer from Nintendo had also made mention of next generation hardware and cross-platform development among the position responsibilities. The job listing in question was for the position of Game Technologies R&D Engineer/Scientist at Nintendo European Research and Development. Among the listed position responsibilities, the new recruit would aim for and go beyond state-of-the-art solutions in the field of technologies related to cross-platform game development, targeting current and next generation Nintendo hardware.
