One thing I’ve learned covering Nintendo for dozens of years and a bunch of console and portable game releases is never, ever underestimate their creativity.
Oddly enough, this Switch 2 release appears, from what little we know at least, to be very non-Nintendo creatively.
The video above from Nintendo as of this writing has over 19 million views.
I’ve been reading and watching plenty of reaction to what little we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 and it’s mixed to negative. It isn’t wowing people en masse. It’s not very Nintendo, frankly.
“I can imagine ‘normies’ being a bit confused,” gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto tells GamesRadar+. “The device is bigger than the original Switch, but not comically large. The form factor, button layout, and overall design are very similar to Switch 1, so I can imagine issues arising when potential mainstream buyers look at the new device.” – Analysts predict Switch 2 might struggle with attracting mainstream buyers for the same reason Wii U failed: “I can imagine ‘normies’ being a bit confused” | GamesRadar+
Am not sure what Mr. Toto thinks of as “normies” – but I think it’s a much bigger marketing problem for Nintendo than whatever we are tagging general consumers these days. The Switch 2 doesn’t have that “it factor, yet. We all know it’s going to have Nintendo’s amazing first party IPs but if you can play these same games, albeit not as well, on the Switch, what will be the reason to buy the Switch 2?
The one thing I keep citing as a game changer would be Nintendo adopting Steam OS, at least as an option. It would be a direct fire at all other portable gaming devices, because the Switch 2 could be the only and only game system that could legally have Nintendo games and Steam games. Of course with emulation, it’s possible to put Nintendo and Steam PC games on plenty of devices, but there is no official Nintendo way to do so.
Yet.
This seemed like the perfect announcement for Nintendo to make. And yet they haven’t done so. All they’ve done is release a bigger, better version of the Switch with little to no creative vision. This Switch 2 looks almost like a Steam Deck, in fact. Yawn.
But it still hasn’t launched yet and maybe when that happens, we’re going to see something Nintendo is known for: innovation, creativity and, sometimes weird with stuff like this: Nintendo Alarmo is aimed at Kids, of course
What do you think Nintendo has up their sleeves with Nintendo 2? If it’s nothing more than an updated Switch 1 with faster processor, bigger screen, better graphics, then I doubt seriously it sells half as many units as Switch 1. It might be worse than that.
Then again, as stated at the beginning of this article, don’t count Nintendo out. There has to be a curve ball we’re not seeing here, yes? No?