“Our goal is to minimize the dip you typically see in the last year of one cycle and the beginning of another,” says Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser.

Recent weeks have seen multiple leaks that have claimed that a new Nintendo console sporting support for 4K resolution, ray tracing, DLSS, and more is in the works and targeting a launch sometime in the second half of 2024. If that is, indeed, the timeline that Nintendo is intending to follow for its Switch successor, presumably, the company will be speaking about it in an official capacity in a few months’ time- but what does it have to say about its future hardware plans right now?

Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser was recently asked about the aforementioned Switch 2 leaks in an interview with Inverse, and though the exec was understandably reluctant to comment on unconfirmed rumours, the one thing that he did choose to talk about was the importance of the Nintendo Accounts system, which was originally introduced in 2016.

According to Bowser, for the first time ever, Nintendo is hoping to make the transitions from one console generation to the next smoother this time by using Nintendo Accounts as a connective tissue between generations, which is something that the company has spoken about in the past as well.

“I can’t comment — or I won’t comment, I should say — on the rumors that are out there,” Bowser said. “But one thing we’ve done with the Switch to help with that communication and transition is the formation of the Nintendo Account. In the past, every device we transitioned to had a whole new account system. Creating the Nintendo Account will allow us to communicate with our players if and when we make a transition to a new platform, to help ease that process or transition.

“Our goal is to minimize the dip you typically see in the last year of one cycle and the beginning of another. I can’t speak to the possible features of a new platform, but the Nintendo Account is a strong basis for having that communication as we make the transition.”

Earlier this year, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa also spoke about the Nintendo Accounts system, and how the company wants to use it to ensure a smoother transition from the Switch to Nintendo’s next-gen console.

Of course, Nintendo hasn’t yet given any official indication as to when it will be officially talking about its next console, but with the Switch well over six years old, one would assume it won’t be long before Nintendo is ready to introduce new hardware.

Meanwhile, recent leaks have also claimed that thanks to the Switch 2’s much more impressive hardware – which will include support for DLSS 3.5 – it will see a much larger number of major multiplatform releases than previous Nintendo consoles, including games like Far Cy 7, the next Monster Hunter, and more.