Nintendo bets big on Switch 2 with record 2.2 million pre-orders in Japan, as fans queue worldwide for midnight release
TOKYO, June 5 — With shops planning midnight launch parties after a run on pre-orders, Nintendo releases the Switch 2 today, hoping to score record early sales for the games console.
But the Japanese company has its work cut out to match the overall success of the Switch, which became a must-have during the pandemic with hit games such as 'Animal Crossing'.
Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since it came out in 2017 — making it the third best-selling console of all time.
Serkan Toto from Tokyo consultancy Kantan Games said he 'would not be surprised to see Switch 2 breaking sales records in the next weeks and months'.
In Japan, Nintendo's online store had 2.2 million pre-order applications for the Switch 2 — an 'insane number the industry has never seen before', Toto told AFP.
'We are looking at some sort of mega launch,' he added.
Challenges for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether it can convince enough people to pay the high price for its new device.
The Switch 2 costs $449.99 in the United States, more than Switch's launch price of $299.99. Both are hybrid consoles which can connect to a TV or be played on the go.
New Switch 2 games such as 'Donkey Kong Bananza' and 'Mario Kart World' — which allow players to go exploring off-grid — are also more expensive than existing Switch titles.
'After playing it, I think it's worth the price,' 24-year-old aspiring filmmaker Steven Paterno told AFP at a Nintendo launch event in New York City.
'I loved the original Switch, but I had to admit the Switch 2 really tops it.'
Pre-order cancellations
Retailers in the United States, Europe and other major markets are gearing up for a rush of excited fans, with some stores opening at midnight to welcome them.
'I'm very excited to pick it up at midnight,' 22-year-old recent college graduate Angel Caceres said at the New York launch event.
'I'm going to be very tired after that.'
Supply pressures have forced retailers to cancel orders, with Britain's Game saying it is 'working hard to reinstate as many affected pre-orders as possible'.
'It seems that retailers in the US were especially confident in their ability to ship pre-orders and now need to deal with some serious backlash from customers,' Toto said.
He expects 'it will be hard to get a Switch 2 not only at launch but for weeks and months after, possibly through the entire year,' as was the case for months with the Switch.
Nintendo forecasts it will ship 15 million Switch 2 consoles in the current financial year, roughly equal to the original console in the same period after its release.
The Switch 2 'is priced relatively high' compared to its predecessor, so it 'will not be easy' to keep initial momentum going, the company's president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a financial results briefing in May.
People wait in line at the Nintendo New York store on June 4, 2025, ahead of the midnight release of the Nintendo Switch 2. — AFP pic
'Super excited'
The Switch 2 has eight times the memory of the first Switch, and its controllers, which attach with magnets, can also be used like a desktop computer mouse.
New functions allowing users to chat as they play online and temporarily share games with friends could also be a big draw for young audiences used to watching game streamers.
'People were a bit shocked by the price of 'Mario Kart World', the first $80 game that we've ever seen,' said Krysta Yang of the Nintendo-focused Kit & Krysta Podcast.
But while the company is 'going to have to do some work' to convince more casual gamers that it's worth upgrading, Nintendo fans are 'super excited', she told AFP.
In the United States, Nintendo delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 by two weeks as it assessed the impact from President Donald Trump's aggressive duties on trading partners around the world.
But tariff uncertainty could in fact push consumers to buy a Switch 2 sooner, because they are worried that the price could go up, according to Yang.
And the stakes are high for Nintendo.
While the 'Super Mario' maker is diversifying into theme parks and hit movies, around 90 percent of its revenue still comes from the Switch business, analysts say. — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
14 hours ago
- The Star
Ispace aborts Moon mission
Space setback: Hakamada (centre) waiting with members of his team for news of the expected landing on the Moon by the company's Resilience craft, in Tokyo. — AFP The country's hopes of achieving its first soft touchdown on the Moon by a private company were dashed when the mission was aborted after an assumed crash-landing, the startup said. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to make history as only the third private firm – and the first outside the United States – to achieve a controlled arrival on the lunar surface. But 'based on the currently available data ... it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing', the startup said yesterday. 'It is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored' so 'it has been decided to conclude the mission', ispace said in a statement. The failure comes two years after a prior mission ended in a crash. The company's unmanned Resilience spacecraft began its daunting final descent and 'successfully fired its main engine as planned to begin deceleration', ispace said. Mission control confirmed that the lander's positioning was 'nearly vertical' – but contact was then lost, with the mood on a livestream from mission control turning sombre. Technical problems meant 'the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing', ispace said. To date, only five nations have achieved soft lunar landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and most recently Japan. Now, private companies are joining the race, promising cheaper and more frequent access to space. On board the Resilience lander were several high-profile payloads. They included Tenacious, a Luxembourg-built micro rover; a water electrolyser to split molecules into hydrogen and oxygen; a food production experiment; and a deep-space radiation probe. The rover also carried 'Moonhouse' – a small model home designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. 'I take the fact that the second attempt failed to land seriously,' chief executive officer Takeshi Hakamada told reporters. 'But the most important thing is to use this result' for future missions, he said, describing a 'strong will to move on, although we have to carefully analyse what happened'. Last year, Houston-based Intuitive Machines became the first private enterprise to reach the Moon. Though its uncrewed lander touched down at an awkward angle, it still managed to complete tests and transmit photos. Then in March this year, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost – launched on the same SpaceX rocket as ispace's Resilience – aced its lunar landing attempt. The mood ahead of yesterday's attempt had been celebratory, with a watch party also held by ispace's US branch in Washington. After contact was lost, announcers on an ispace livestream signed off with the message: 'Never quit the lunar quest.' The mission had also aimed to collect two lunar soil samples and sell them to Nasa for US$5,000 (RM21,150). Though the samples would remain on the Moon, the symbolic transaction is meant to strengthen the US stance that commercial activity – though not sovereign claims – should be allowed on celestial bodies. — AFP
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
Japan's ispace fails again: Resilience lander crashes on moon
TOKYO: Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the lunar surface during its touchdown attempt on Friday, marking another failure two years after an unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace in making successful commercial moon landings amid a global race that includes state-run lunar missions from China and India. Although the failure means another multi-year pause in Japan's commercial access to the moon, the country remains committed to the U.S.-led Artemis program and a wide range of Japanese companies are studying lunar exploration as a business frontier. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, had problems measuring its distance to the surface and could not slow its descent fast enough, the company said, adding it has not been able to communicate with Resilience after a likely hard landing. 'Truly diverse scenarios were possible, including issues with the propulsion system, software or hardware, especially with sensors,' ispace Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie told a press conference. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent when flight data was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled touchdown time during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. Shares of ispace were untraded, overwhelmed by sell orders, and looked set to close at the daily limit-low, which would mark a 29% fall. As of the close of Thursday, ispace had a market capitalisation of more than 110 billion yen ($766 million). 'We're not facing any immediate financial deterioration or distress because of the event,' CFO Jumpei Nozaki said in the press conference, citing recurring investor support. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design was mostly unchanged in Resilience. $16 MILLION PAYLOAD Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads worth a total of $16 million, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900 km (560 miles) from the moon's north pole. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3-metre-high lander and the rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with U.S. space agency NASA. Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March. Intuitive Machines, which last year marked the world's first commercial lunar touchdown, also landed its second Athena lander in March, although in a toppled position just as with its first mission. Japan last year became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander. The government last year signed an agreement with NASA to include Japanese astronauts in Artemis lunar missions and has supported private companies' research projects for future lunar development, assuming ispace's transportation capabilities. 'Expectations for ispace have not faded,' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in an X post. Although ispace will likely remain Japan's most advanced lunar transportation company, some Japanese firms may start to consider transport options from foreign entities to test their lunar exploration visions, said Ritsumeikan University professor Kazuto Saiki, who was involved in the SLIM mission. For its third mission in 2027, ispace's U.S. unit is building a bigger lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services for the Artemis program. The company projects six more missions in the U.S. and Japan through 2029. 'NASA increasingly needs private companies to improve cost efficiency for key missions with limited budgets,' ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts. 'To meet NASA's expectations, we'll support our U.S. subsidiary to keep up with development and play a role.' ($1 = 143.5600 yen)
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
Japan's ispace moon lander likely crashed during landing
TOKYO: Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the lunar surface during its touchdown attempt on Friday, marking another failure two years after an unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace in making successful commercial moon landings amid a global race that includes state-run lunar missions from China and India. Although the failure means another multi-year pause in Japan's commercial access to the moon, the country remains committed to the U.S.-led Artemis program and a wide range of Japanese companies are studying lunar exploration as a business frontier. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, had problems measuring its distance to the surface and could not slow its descent fast enough, the company said, adding it has not been able to communicate with Resilience after a likely hard landing. 'Truly diverse scenarios were possible, including issues with the propulsion system, software or hardware, especially with sensors,' ispace Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie told a press conference. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent when flight data was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled touchdown time during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. Shares of ispace were untraded, overwhelmed by sell orders, and looked set to close at the daily limit-low, which would mark a 29% fall. As of the close of Thursday, ispace had a market capitalisation of more than 110 billion yen ($766 million). 'We're not facing any immediate financial deterioration or distress because of the event,' CFO Jumpei Nozaki said in the press conference, citing recurring investor support. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design was mostly unchanged in Resilience. $16 MILLION PAYLOAD Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads worth a total of $16 million, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900 km (560 miles) from the moon's north pole. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3-metre-high lander and the rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with U.S. space agency NASA. Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March. Intuitive Machines, which last year marked the world's first commercial lunar touchdown, also landed its second Athena lander in March, although in a toppled position just as with its first mission. Japan last year became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander. The government last year signed an agreement with NASA to include Japanese astronauts in Artemis lunar missions and has supported private companies' research projects for future lunar development, assuming ispace's transportation capabilities. 'Expectations for ispace have not faded,' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in an X post. Although ispace will likely remain Japan's most advanced lunar transportation company, some Japanese firms may start to consider transport options from foreign entities to test their lunar exploration visions, said Ritsumeikan University professor Kazuto Saiki, who was involved in the SLIM mission. For its third mission in 2027, ispace's U.S. unit is building a bigger lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services for the Artemis program. The company projects six more missions in the U.S. and Japan through 2029. 'NASA increasingly needs private companies to improve cost efficiency for key missions with limited budgets,' ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts. 'To meet NASA's expectations, we'll support our U.S. subsidiary to keep up with development and play a role.' ($1 = 143.5600 yen)
