Bonus: A New Switch?

OK, people have been inaccurately predicting the imminent announcement of a follow-up to the Nintendo Switch since the day after it released. At this point, there are so many predictions that someone getting it “right” will happen by the law of averages. But is there reason to think 2023 might be the most likely year for, at the very least, an announcement?

Well, here’s a theory: Nintendo has marked new console generations with a new Zelda game for quite a while now. Not because of some bizarre tradition, but rather because their technological ambitions for each new title seem to outstretch the abilities of whichever device they originally build it for. For example, 2006’s Twilight Princess came out for the GameCube a week before it came out for the brand new Wii. Breath of the Wild came out for Wii U the same day it was released on the new Switch. So could it possibly be that with Tears of the Kingdom, we might just be looking at the bridge to the Switch U, or whatever Nintendo calls their next console?

Probably not. It’d be crazy if they could keep that under wraps this close to release. But will we maybe see news and perhaps a release for the 2023 holiday season? That’s my guess. You can hold me to it. I’ll be hiding, wearing a suspiciously large hat.