Nintendo has confirmed it will be focusing development on Nintendo Switch 2 going forward and that it plans to strengthen its game development capabilities, including by acquiring studios.
Anyone who is a long-time Nintendo fan will know that when a new system arrives, sometimes it will take Nintendo longer than most to admit it's over. The DS was positioned as a "third pillar" alongside the GameCube and GBA rather than a replacement for the latter, while Nintendo kept making 3DS games as late as 2019. But this time around, Nintendo is ready to move on quicker than usual.
While 2026 still has original Switch games releasing, like Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and my beloved Rhythm Heaven Groove, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa – in the company's latest financial report – says that "going forward, we will shift our primary development focus to Nintendo Switch 2 and expand our business around this new platform."
Not only that, but he also confirmed that Nintendo will be looking to strengthen its game development capabilities going forward. This will be done through its current facility expansion with the construction of the memorably named "Corporate Headquarters Development Center, Building No 2." But what's more interesting is that Nintendo has listed "acquisition of developers as subsidiaries" as a part of its expansion efforts.
While I'm sure the recent Microsoft-led acquisition era will conjure up ideas like Nintendo buying Sega, Capcom, or Konami, based on Nintendo's previous acquisitions, it's probably more likely to be studios it has worked with for a long time. For example, the likes of Grezzo (The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom), Good Feel (Princess Peach: Showtime!), Tantalus (Skyward Sword HD), and ILCA (Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl) are more in line with studios Nintendo has acquired in the past. Nintendo doesn't even own Intelligent Systems or Hal Laboratory, who have pretty much been Nintendo-exclusive since they formed.
