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Monday, Nintendo he announced that it will stop selling the Switch first in Europe next February. That choice comes in response European regulations that will soon require easily replaceable batteries in most consumer electronics. Instead of remaking several original Switch models to comply with this rule (as they did with the Switch 2), Nintendo has decided to stop selling the old console in the region.
The new battery rules won’t affect Switch availability outside of Europe, of course. But the move made us wonder if Nintendo will continue to sell the Switch for 9 years while the Switch 2 is the focus of the company and the market.
Ars’ analysis of Nintendo’s recent history (as documented in its annual output) shows that sales of even the best-selling products of the industry drop to zero after nine years on the market. But the data also shows that the Switch is a stable market that can sustain its commercial life up to the second decade in the market.
