A report by the Wall Street Journal suggests that there is a new Nintendo Switch hardware revision expected to hit stores as early as next Summer. According to the sources, the main improvement should be a better LCD display that will make it brighter, thinner and possibly more energy efficient, which would be important for battery saving purposes.
As of June 2018, the Nintendo Switch sold about 20 million hardware units and the company plans to sell another 20 million through March 2019 (two years after the hardware launched). Software sales will be critical to achieving that. We've just reviewed Super Mario Party, out tomorrow, though it doesn't seem to be a smash hit according to Dave.
And while there’s a lot to enjoy about Super Mario Party, there’s a point of contention I just couldn’t get around. It felt a bit by the numbers. A Mario Party game for the sake of releasing a Mario Party game. I don’t usually think all new games in a series need to reinvent it, iteration is fine for many game series, but here it feels too iterative. Too much like what we’ve seen before, and not even necessarily a refinement. Though, having said that, the ease of using JoyCon controllers for multiplayer, in additions to the new motion controller game types, it really is one of the more robust Mario Party experiences, even if it’s not necessarily the best.
Of course, Nintendo's real ace this Holiday season is expected to be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The fifth installment in the fighting game series is due to be available on Nintendo Switch on December 7th, featuring the largest character roster ever; in fact, Game Director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed a while ago that all characters from the previous entries will be available in Ultimate.