Nintendos latest set of financial results would make bleak reading if it hadnt just announced that it will release its next console, the Switch 2, this year.Nintendo Switch has been an extraordinary success, but it couldnt last forever. As the hybrid handheld approaches its eighth birthday, Nintendo said that Switch hardware sales had fallen 30% compared to last year, while game sales were down 24%. Nintendo was forced to cut its forecasts for the second quarter in a row; it now predicts that it will sell 11 million Switches in its current fiscal year (which ends on March 31), down from an original estimate of 13.5 million. It also lowered its profit forecast for the year.Theres no mystery to these tumbling numbers. Although Nintendo held back the announcement of the Switch 2 as late as it could, it has been apparent for a long time that the Switch was nearing the end of its life. Eight years is a long lifespan for any video game console, leaks and rumours about the Switch 2 have been rife, and Nintendos software support for the Switch has been getting notably thin.Addressing the fall in game sales, Nintendo noted the unfavourable comparison to its previous fiscal year, which encompassed the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. By contrast, Nintendos biggest hits of the last nine months have been relatively modest Super Mario Party Jamboree has sold 6.17 million units and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sold 3.9 million.It has been reported that Nintendo originally planned to release the Switch 2 in late 2024, which would make sense of the Switchs lackluster game lineup and slow sales in recent months. Nintendo confirmed that it still planned to release Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokmon Legends: Z-A for the Switch in 2025, and theres the remaster of Xenoblade Chronicles X lined up for March 20, too.The Switchs exhausted sales slump shouldnt detract from the huge scale of the success it has achieved over its lifetime, however. Nintendo has now sold 150.86 million Switches only just shy of the 154 million tally of the Nintendo DS, the second-best-selling gaming device of all time. Even bearing the release of the Switch 2 in mind, the Switch is all but certain to beat that number at some point this year and become Nintendos most successful console ever.To become the best-selling console of all time, however, the Switch would have to beat the PlayStation 2s lifetime sales of over 160 million units. That ultimate accolade is probably if only just out of reach.