OPINION: The Switch 2 was finally announced yesterday, and while it’s been great to see Nintendo finally move on to something new after the original Switch’s near eight-year lifespan, those who were hoping for a more radical change, similar to the Wii, haven’t been paying attention to Nintendo’s trajectory over the last few years.
Even before the Switch 2 was officially unveiled, I was surprised to see a handful of articles noting disappointment off the back of the CES leaks where manufacturer Genki brought a design mock-up of the console to the show. One article went so far as to decry the admittedly similar design as being “utterly un-Nintendo”.
I will admit that if this was the Nintendo of 10 years ago then yes, it would have been strange to see the company put forth a console that doesn’t rock the boat too much, but the present day Nintendo is in a very different place than when it sought to push boundaries with touchscreens and motions controls.
In fact, there are two key reasons as to why Nintendo has played it safe for the Switch’s follow-up, and why I personally think that it’s the right decision to make.
All eggs in one hybrid basket
From the late 1980s, well up until the turn of the 2020s, Nintendo operated on a two-pronged approach where its consoles are concerned: a console to play in the home and on your TV, and a lesser powered portable device for playing games on the go.
It was an established system that gave Nintendo a bit more wiggle room for experimentation, not just in having more than one opportunity for success, but also in needing to clearly differentiate the home console from the portable one, and to convey to gamers why it was worth owning both at the same time.
For instance, the Nintendo DS featured two screens, one of which was a touchscreen and required a stylus to interact with, which created a unique gameplay loop that was very different to the very accessible motion control-led gameplay of the Nintendo Wii.
When the Nintendo Switch came out, the company effectively ended this approach altogether, deciding to merge the two concepts into one device that could be used both at home and on the go. As great as that is from a consumer perspective, it puts far more pressure on that singular console to succeed.
Even the original Switch had something of a buffer as the Nintendo 3DS wasn’t discontinued until 2020 (three years after the Switch came to market), but with the Switch 2, Nintendo is now fully pinning its hopes on one console, and after the disaster of the Wii U – the last time Nintendo tried a drastically different gameplay concept – why take the risk?
The implications of Nintendo Switch Online
When it became apparent that the Nintendo Switch would not be utilising the same ‘Virtual Console’ storefront from the Wii and the Wii U, I, and many other fans like myself, were up in arms. In the time since the console’s launch however, we’ve had the Nintendo Switch Online service come into effect, showing a rare instance of Nintendo looking to adopt a certain degree of modernity.
Just like Sony and Microsoft before it, Nintendo has hopped aboard the subscription model bandwagon where users pay on a monthly or annual basis for access to online play and retro titles, while a more expensive ‘Expansion Pack’ tier grants you access to even more classic games and a handful of downloadable content.
While Nintendo Switch Online is, admittedly, a lot cheaper than PlayStation Plus and Game Pass, it’s still a decent revenue stream for Nintendo, and one with the potential for more content to be added, alongside the inevitable price rises that we’ve come to expect from these digital services. To keep it going however, consistency is key, and while it might have been fun to imagine a new Nintendo Switch with dual-screens, it would have been at odds with how one currently accesses the NSO service.
I like the idea that I know exactly what I’m getting with the Switch 2. Its predecessor has been a Godsend whenever I’ve been traveling and I’m looking forward to having a more feature packed version of that experience. While it’s sad that Nintendo’s most off-the-wall days are probably behind it, I can’t blame the company for wanting to do whatever it can to weather the current (and very turbulent) economic storm.
