TEARS of the Kingdom, the long-awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild, could be the last Mario or Zelda game on the Nintendo Switch.
Rumours surfaced that Nintendo was once focused on developing an upgrade for the Nintendo Switch, akin to a Switch Pro.
However, it appears that these plans were abandoned due to the global computer chip shortage.
Nintendo released the Switch OLED model in 2021, which had a better screen and battery life but no upgrades to the technological hardware.
Since this console was released, Nintendo has been rumoured to be working on a successor to the Switch console that is colloquially referred to as the Switch 2.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is set to release in the middle of this year, on May 12, 2023.
More in The Legend of Zelda
So far, no Mario games have been officially announced for 2023, and no further Zelda games have been revealed.
The last big Zelda release was in 2021, when Nintendo launched an updated version of Skyward Sword.
The latest rumours suggest that the upcoming release will be the last Zelda or Mario game for the hybrid console.
This suggests that Nintendo could announce the successor to the Nintendo Switch either this year or in 2024.
There was only four months between the announcement of the Switch in October 2016, and its release in March 2017.
This means that there could be a very short time between when a successor is announced, and when it launches.
There are a number of first-party games set up to launch on the Nintendo Switch in 2023.
Fire Emblem Engage will release this month on January 20.
The long-awaited Pikmin sequel, Pikmin 4, is also slated to release this year.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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