Nintendo has the release of the Switch 2 and the PS6 waiting until 2027. Which consoles will last the longest?
Those who were looking forward expectantly to the successor to the Nintendo Switch haven’t received such nice news in recent days. Nintendo seems to have pushed back the console to next year. So the Nintendo Switch 2 probably won’t come until March 2025.
That annoying news also offers perspective. Because it’s amazing when you consider how long the Nintendo Switch has been out. The counter is already ticking the seven-year mark. And in that time, an awful lot of cool games have come out. Still, you start to wonder how long a console actually lasts?
These consoles lasted a very long time
Especially if you consider the time between a console and its successor. Similarly, there were 7 years between the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5. But it wasn’t just the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4 that lasted agonizingly long.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
To stay in the trend of Nintendo consoles, we start with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This SNES first appeared in 1985 and was wildly popular.
We have listed all Nintendo consoles before, but this beast had to wait 6 years for its successor. That’s when the Nintendo 64 appeared. That doesn’t mean the SNES could retire then. Far from it. The console was produced for no less than 13 years, until the last one rolled out of the factory in 2003.
The SNES. (Image: Unspash/yngams)
Sega Dreamcast
Sega has largely disappeared from the gaming market. As a console maker then, as a game studio they are still plentiful. In the late last century, it still made consoles with regularity. And in the late 1990s, the Sega Dreamcast appeared.
It was a fairly standard console except for the somewhat odd controller. The console didn’t become a huge success either, largely overshadowed by Nintendo’s game consoles and Sony’s PlayStation. Still, the controller almost reflects something of the Nintendo Switch.
It wasn’t until 2005, after six years, that a successor of sorts appeared in the form of the Advanced Pico Beena: a console for small children. Still, the last Dreamcast would not be made until all the way back in 2007.
(Image: Unsplash/Taylor R)
Sony PlayStation 2
The bulk of us spent hours chained to this little box full of gaming fun. In 2000, the Sony PlayStation 2 was released and it was a worldwide success. Even after the PlayStation 3 was released in 2006, the PlayStation 2 continued to fly over the counter.
Such was its success that the console was produced until 2013. After 13 long years, this cabinet full of gaming fun was allowed to throw in the towel and almost everyone made the switch to next-gen.
Image: Unsplash/Denise Jans)
Atari 2600
A console that still used actual wood(!) to put it together. It doesn’t get any more retro than that. And that very wood exuded luxury and durability: a perfect combination if you want something to last a long time. We would love to see that in the successor to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 6.
And long-lasting went the Atari 2600. The game console appeared in 1977 and survived quite a few difficult years. Gaming was still anything but accessible to the general public. It even survived “the great video game recession of 1983”: a time when the gaming industry lost millions in revenue. Production of the Atari 2600 was stopped only after fifteen years, in 1992. Now you can still assemble it as a Lego set.
(image: Atari)
Nintendo Entertainment System
The console that started it all for a very large generation of gamers. It is a distant great-granddaddy of the Nintendo Switch: there are no less than 5 generations of Nintendo consoles between the NES and the Switch. This gray beast first saw the light of day in 1983. Seven years later, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System appeared.
Still, it would be over a decade before the last NES was produced. In 2003, production ceased. The same year as its successor.
(Image: Unsplash/Jason Leung)
Time for the PlayStation 6 and Nintendo Switch 2
Looking at all the consoles in this list, a trend can be seen.It often takes about 7 years before a successor appears, but many years after that before a console is allowed to retire. So using that logic, the PlayStation 6 and the new Xbox will not appear until 2027.
With all that looking ahead, let’s not forget about today’s games. For example, some really cool games are coming out this year on both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox series X/S:
