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The Verge
3 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
The Switch 2's promising start hides an uncertain future
With the Switch 2 launch days away, analysts and consumers are watching to see how well Nintendo can follow-up the best selling home console in its history. Judging from the pain of trying to secure a Switch 2 pre-order, it seems like Nintendo has nothing to worry about – at least at launch. Down the line, however, concerns about tariffs, a steadily rising cost of living, and a saturated market might cast a shadow on the Switch 2. The Verge talked to analysts, journalists, and normal video game playing people to put the Switch 2 launch in perspective. The key takeaway? While the console will assuredly have another blockbuster debut, its future looks much less certain. The Wii U gets brought up a lot in the conversation surrounding the Switch 2, as it's the most famous example of a Nintendo failure. 'The Wii U, with its confusing controller-screen gimmick, sluggish user interface, and lack of a great Custom Robo game, was one of Nintendo's worst flops,' GameFile author Stephen Totilo explained in an email to The Verge. It sold less than 14 million units, a dramatic drop from the Wii, which sold over 100 million. And while Nintendo expects to sell one million more Switch 2 units in its first year than the Wii U sold in its life, that's not necessarily indicative of long-term success. 'The Wii U nevertheless sold out at launch back in November 2012,' Totilo said, 'pulling in sales that reportedly topped the US launch sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3.' When looking at launch sales projections and predictions, Mat Piscatella, video game analyst for Circana, warned that what a console does during its launch period is no indication of what it'll do overall. 'Sales around the launch period are more reflection of available supply than anything,' Piscatella said. Another, more important factor for a console launch is the audience. 'With anything regarding gaming right now, we have to separate the enthusiast market from the mass market, because they're behaving very differently,' Piscatella added. According to Piscatella, it's the enthusiasts driving most of the Switch 2 hype we're seeing, particularly since the last major console launches – the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S – happened five years ago. 'We haven't had new hardware designed for the masses in a long time,' he said. 'So we have a big pent up demand just for something new.' We're seeing part of that demand satisfied by the Switch 2 pre-order frenzy. The day pre-orders opened in the US (after a few weeks' delay because of President Donald Trump's tariff chicanery) they sold out within hours. GameStop held in-store pre order events that saw people lining up outside storefronts for hours to secure one. But what will really determine the success of the console is how the bigger, mass market reacts, the same one that made devices like the Wii and original Switch such hits. Piscatella says this group is biding its time right now, 'leaning into free-to-play and the content they already have.' It's a tricky time for the industry. New blockbuster titles are getting ever more expensive to make. Consumers, in turn, are buying fewer of them in favor of spending their time and money in established games, all while persistent layoffs three years running are making it harder for new games to come out on time. Add that to 2025's unique and volatile US tariff situation and the associated price increases, and now is one hell of a time to launch a video game console. 'A games console is for a lot of people [...] an unaffordable luxury, especially for families,' said Keza MacDonald, video game editor at The Guardian and author of a forthcoming book about Nintendo's history. MacDonald believes that most people who want a Switch 2 will have already pre-ordered one and that Nintendo's real work will be to convince everyone else they want one too – a job the company doesn't seem to be doing that well. Silvie Krekow, a gamer who works at Vox Media as a creative director, says she knows 'almost nothing' about the Switch 2. She doesn't frequent gaming websites or consume gaming media, but she noted it was odd that 'a 33-year-old gamer with disposable income who owns a Switch, PS4, and Xbox One' didn't casually come across at least some Switch 2 information. Other colleagues and self-described 'gaming casuals' I spoke to expressed similar sentiments. According to MacDonald, Nintendo is handling this launch period very conservatively. 'It's like, 'We know everyone's going to buy this anyway. We don't have to sell you on it,'' she said. 'But I'm not sure if that's true.' At the Switch 2 Direct in April, Nintendo showed off a console with some slight quality-of-life and performance upgrades. That may work for the enthusiasts – they get more of what they already liked about the original. But without something more to entice consumers beyond the diehards, the Switch 2 may struggle to find its audience. 'As for the [Switch 2 features] I'm not particularly excited,' said Kushal Raval, an operations manager at Vox Media. 'The rolling controller sounds interesting, but the voice chat feature seems a bit pointless.' Kushal owns a Switch, which he said didn't run games like Fortnite as well as he wanted. And while the Switch 2's technical upgrades will likely improve this, Kushal said, 'With a $450–$500 price tag, I'm leaning much more toward getting a Steam Deck.' The Switch 2 also has to compete against people content with its predecessor. 'I have a Switch Lite that I bought during the pandemic,' said Jackie Noack, a video producer at Vox Media. 'My husband has the Switch 1, and I don't think we use them quite enough to justify replacing them.' For Noack, the console's price is also a major factor. '$500 does seem steep to me!' The Switch 2 will not be a dud like the Wii U, but it likely will not reach the heights of the original Switch. The price and lack of defining new features are two reasons, but perhaps the biggest is that the circumstances that fostered the OG Switch's success were incredibly unique. 'The Switch really picked up during the pandemic with Animal Crossing. That was an enormous hit,' MacDonald said. 'And obviously that was such a unique combination of circumstances, I'm not sure that could happen again.' Piscatella agrees: 'The Switch is an outlier success. I think [the Switch 2] is unlikely to do Switch numbers in the long term.' The lead up to the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has been filled with so much built-up pressure from the anticipation of hungry gamers eager for any news, which was exacerbated by prolific leaks and Nintendo's typical propensity for silence. With the console's official reveal and the enthusiastic response from dedicated fans, that pressure could not be higher – and with launch coming next week, the release valve is finally about to open.
The Verge
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
With the Switch, technology finally caught up to Nintendo
The Nintendo Switch is on the cusp of becoming Nintendo's bestselling hardware ever. In retrospect, it's easy to see why: it's a device that seamlessly transitions from a home console to a handheld, erasing the distinction between the two. It's been so successful that Nintendo isn't changing all that much with the Switch 2. But both consoles are well-executed versions of ideas Nintendo has been working on since the failed Wii U — and maybe even earlier. Purely by sales numbers, the Wii U was a flop. The Switch has sold more than 150 million units in its eight-year lifetime. The Wii U, by comparison, sold 13.56 million units — less than a 10th of what the Switch did — making it Nintendo's worst-selling home console. As a result, it had a much shorter lifespan, launching in late 2012 before being superseded by the Switch about four and a half years later. But many of its ideas and its games were not only excellent, they were also well ahead of their time, and, in some ways, predicted several modern trends in gaming. The Wii U, with its tablet controller, also worked as a device that could play games on a TV or in handheld mode. The ability to see a game on a big screen or curl up with it on the couch is an enduring one, as the existence of the PlayStation Portal and Steam Deck now show. The concept has become a whole category of video game hardware, and even Xbox wants to make a handheld now. Nintendo's interest in the idea long preceded the Wii U, as it toyed with handheld-to-TV connections with things like the Game Boy Advance's ability to connect to the GameCube or the Super Game Boy add-on for the SNES. The Wii U had the major limitation that you couldn't play the games if you were too far away from the console, so they weren't truly portable. The tablet's battery life wasn't great, either, so you could only play for so long before having to charge it. The Switch improved on all of these ideas. Instead of a TV-connected console that could beam a game to the tablet, the Switch was a tablet that could easily display on a TV. The Switch's dock made that connection seamless, as it was nearly impossible to mess up just dropping the Switch into the dock so that it could show up on your TV. (And easily recharge the console's battery.) Many of the Switch's defining games started out on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch's bestselling title by far, is a port of Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was originally going to be a Wii U exclusive before Nintendo decided to release it for the Switch as well. The first Splatoon title launched on Wii U before getting a pair of Switch sequels, and so did the original Super Mario Maker. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, and Xenoblade Chronicles X are all great Wii U games that got new life on the Switch. The Switch 2 looks to build off that legacy by being backward compatible with the vast majority of Switch games, including the Switch versions of those Wii U classics. Breath of the Wild will even be getting a third version for the new console with technical improvements. Features like GameShare and GameChat could also help people more easily play games with their friends. Before the first Switch came out in March 2017, Nintendo was aggressively moving on from the Wii U. Production of the console ended in Japan in January of that year, and the company was also dipping its toes into mobile as another avenue to reach players. Even at the time, the company seemed to realize that it was on to something with the concept. It was just too early. This is something Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto seemed keenly aware of in a 2016 interview with my colleague Andrew Webster around the release of the mobile game Super Mario Run. 'I hope people will continue to recognize the areas where Nintendo has taken that first step,' Miyamoto told The Verge. 'And hopefully someday people will look back on the Wii U and think 'Oh wow, I remember when Nintendo did that, and now look at what's come of that.''
Metro
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Mario Kart World was originally designed for Switch 1 reveals Nintendo
The new Mario Kart for the Switch 2 was not originally designed for the console, as Nintendo reveals how and when the game came to be. The launch of a new console is always an exciting time but the first few years of a new format's existence can be frustrating, when it's obvious that most of the games were actually designed as titles for the previous generation of hardware. This has been exacerbated on the PlayStation 5, where Sony continued to release cross-gen games for much longer than usual. It was equally obvious with the Switch 1, given launch title Zelda: Breath Of The Wild was released simultaneously on Wii U and many of the other first party titles were also Wii U ports. The only similar situation so far for the Switch 2 is Metroid Prime 4, which is primarily a Switch 1 title, but Nintendo has revealed that Mario Kart World was originally designed for the earlier console, until they realised it was never going to work on the older hardware. Nintendo has revealed that they first started thinking about the new game way back in March 2017, when the Switch 1 was originally released. That's not too surprising, as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a Wii U port and technically there's never been a new Mario Kart made for the Switch 1. 'I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we'd been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses,' says Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki in a new interview. 'That's why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this.' The idea that Mario Kart 8 takes the original idea as far as it can go has been echoed by many, with Mario Kart World appearing to be the series' Breath Of The Wild moment, where it radically changes the franchise's approach. No previous Mario Kart game has had an open world environment but according to programming director Kenta Sato, the current Switch 1 couldn't handle the ideas they wanted to include. 'We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation,' he admitted. 'Once we decided to release this game on Switch 2, we expected our worries to evaporate all at once. I remember being overjoyed when I discovered we could express even more than we'd originally set out to.' According to Sato, the decision to move the game to the Switch 2 took place 'around 2020', which enabled the team to expand their plans and ensure the game would still run at 60fps. More Trending 'Back then, we already had an idea of the next console's expected specs, but it wasn't until a bit later that we actually received working development units. Until then, we just had to proceed with development based on provisional estimates,' says Sato. 'Once we decided to release this game on Switch 2, we expected our worries to evaporate all at once. I remember being overjoyed when I discovered we could express even more than we'd originally set out to.' The whole four part interview is well worth a read on Nintendo's website, with a lot of insight on both the game and how Nintendo prepares for the launch of a new console. Mario Kart World will launch alongside the console itself on June 5. Controversially, the game is £75 for the physical edition and £67 for a digital download. However, the game is effectively half price if bought along with the console, as part of the official hardware bundle. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Xbox exclusive with best graphics ever is getting enhanced on PS5 Pro MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will feature at least two cities says franchise creator MORE: Fortnite mobile still not available in UK despite return to US App Store
Metro
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be a third party port machine - Reader's Feature
A reader predicts that while the Switch used a lot of Wii U ports to fill out its schedules the Switch 2 is going to rely on third parties instead. I always felt it was unfair to criticise the Switch for the amount of Wii U ports it had. Nobody bought that console and many of their games were complete flops, so it made absolute sense to bring them over. Especially when you've got something as amazing as Mario Kart 8 or Xenoblade Chronicles X. The only reason it happened to the degree it did is because the Switch didn't have a disc drive and Nintendo are backwards with their online accounts. Neither of those issues are relevant to the Switch 2 though, so it hasn't got a useful backlog of high quality Nintendo games that almost nobody has seen before. I'm sure that won't be a problem for Nintendo, even if, as other have pointed out, their post-launch line-up is a bit weird, with no big hitters that we know of yet. In fact, the whole unveiling of the Switch 2 has seem strangely rushed and not fully planned for, considering the timing was entirely up to Nintendo and they've had loads of time to prepare. Many console launches are botched though, I'm even tempted to say most, but few people remember that as it becomes irrelevant after a few months, unless the console is a dud. But, like I say, I doubt this will be an issue for the Switch 2. Another surprise so far is that there's relatively few third party games that have been announced. There was a good spread of publishers involved with the Nintendo Direct in April, but not all of them and the focus was on just a few big hitters. I'm sure this will change soon though. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that instead of Wii U games the Switch 2 is about to be overwhelmed with ports of third party games from the previous and current generation. Just as I'm writing this there's been a rumour of Red Dead Redemption 2, and I find that perfectly believable. If the Switch 2 is an instant hit, and I think there's a very good chance of that, then the first thing publishers are going to think is: 'What low effort/low cost thing can I do as quickly as possible, that can take advantage of this?' Remember that despite being potentially the best-selling console ever, and having won two generations in a row, third party publishers made very little effort with the Switch. For whatever reason they didn't bother porting PlayStation 3 and 4 era games, so even just doing that much for the Switch 2 would be a much bigger effort. It seems lazy to us, and it is, but I think the idea that EA or Activision or Rockstar Games is going to bother to make a Switch 2 exclusive is a pipe dream. Games just aren't that cheap to make anymore, especially not if the Switch 2 actually has good graphics. More Trending Nintendo will be fine with this, as they get to prove they have good third party support now and I imagine their Japanese partners will be more adventurous. But if you're worrying that the Switch 2 won't have enough games I have a feeling that by the end of the year you're going to be drowning in a sea of ports and re-releases. By reader Onibee The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: PS6 is Sony's chance to wipe the slate clean and forget the PS5 ever happened - Reader's Feature MORE: The truth is digital video game downloads are better than physical games - Reader's Feature MORE: I don't like the look of GTA 6 and I'm not afraid to admit it - Reader's Feature
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Switch 2 launch could be "significantly bigger" than the OG Switch's, but only if Nintendo can keep up: "When in history [...] did a launch for a popular new console go smoothly?"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We're fast approaching the launch of the Switch 2, and despite cries to "drop the price," pre-orders have been selling out around the world. Some analysts are already expecting a "significantly bigger" launch than what we saw with the OG Switch, but it all hinges on one key factor: supply. Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japan games industry consultancy Kantan Games, is one analyst who's expecting a "significantly" larger release for the console compared to the Switch 1. Speaking to GamesRadar+, he says that "the initial momentum for Switch 2 vs 1 is like night and day," pointing out that in 2017, Nintendo had "just suffered from the massive failure with the Wii U," meaning that "not too many people took the Switch seriously." With the Switch 2, he expects the console "will be not only sold out at launch (a banality) but also hard to get for weeks or perhaps even months after." He adds: "Sorry, but we as an industry have seen so many console launches now: When in the history of the video gaming business did a launch for a popular new console go smoothly?" He continues: "I hope I am wrong and I understand Nintendo will try their best, but I would be very surprised if you can just walk into a store and buy a Switch 2 before late summer at the earliest." This sentiment is echoed by David Cole, CEO of research and consulting firm DFC Intelligence. He tells us that "the main issue is whether Nintendo can meet initial demand, and then continue to have enough units available this fall and into the holiday season," noting that "supply shortages could be a major issue in coming months." Games industry researcher Joost van Dreunen, who writes the SuperJoost Playlist and teaches at NYU Stern School of Business, also believes that "acquiring a Switch 2 at launch will likely be challenging." He adds: "I anticipate stock shortages to persist through the holiday season and potentially into Q1 2026. The current global trade situation and tariff uncertainties have likely prompted Nintendo to be even more cautious with their manufacturing and distribution strategies." Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst at Circana, reiterates "the success of the launch will depend on how many units will be available," noting: "Demand will likely be there globally, but that doesn't mean the units necessarily will be." If Nintendo is able to supply enough consoles, "I don't see why the launch of Switch 2 should not be bigger than the original Switch," he explains. The console's price and announced Nintendo Switch 2 launch games apparently don't matter too much in the immediate future, either, as he suggests: "Pricing and available games becomes much more important once we get outside the launch window, and we move away from the price insensitive Nintendo hyper-enthusiast day-one buyers more towards general gaming enthusiasts." Nintendo has predicted that it'll sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles in its first year, as well as 45 million games, but has already indicated that the demand for the device has exceeded its expectations. Let's just hope everyone who really wants one doesn't have to wait too long at the console's release. Keeping up with all the Nintendo Switch 2 news? Be sure to check out our roundup of upcoming Switch 2 games, too.
