Like a jumbo jet preparing for takeoff, theSwitch 2is generating way too much noise to not be leaving the runway soon. Renders and photos ofNintendo’s next consolerecently leaked, andinsiders claimthat the images look an awful lot like what they’ve heard about the Switch successor. A manager for GeekShare, a manufacturer of gaming accessories,claims the leak is the real deal, and plenty of industry whispers point to a reveal happening within the month.
As The Switch 2 Approaches, How Are Sony And Microsoft Doing?
As Nintendo prepares to launch its next-gen console, it’s worth considering the positions the other two major console manufacturers find themselves in. Sony just announced thePS5 Proto widespread ridicule, as would-be customers scoff at the $700 price tag and removal of standard features like a disc drive and a stand. And thoughAstro Bot’s celebrated release served as a buffer, the Pro announcement came shortly afterConcord, one of the few exclusive games Sony has released this year, got deleted from existence just a few weeks after launch.
Meanwhile,Microsoftdoesn’t seem to have a strategy at all, increasing the price ofGame Passwhile offering less, and putting its big exclusive games on its competitors' platforms. Earlier this year it shut multiple studios, including the one behind one of those big exclusive games. Neither Sony nor Microsoft is releasing big, must-have games at a consistent clip because chasing triple-A trends has tied up both publishers’ first-party studios in long development cycles.
Nintendo is rarely considered the industry leader because, in terms of power, its consoles have been trailing its competitors for decades, leading to a dearth of third-party triple-A releases. But, in terms of sales,the Switch is miles ahead of the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series, the four consoles it has shared the market with in the seven years since its launch. The PS4 is the closest competitor and it’s still 26.22 million units behind the Switch. Unlike its competitors, the Switch has an indisputably strong first-party lineup, and the sales reflect that.
As Microsoft and Sony struggle, Nintendo is in pole position to continue dominating for another generation. But Nintendo has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory before with theWii U, and it’s worth considering what led to that console’s failure and how it can avoid it this time around.
Why Did The Wii U Flop? And How Can The Switch 2 Avoid Its Fate?
The Wii U flopped because it was a confusing half-measure. It introduced something entirely new with the tablet, which allowed you to play games portably, provided you weren’t too far from the console. That was an extremely cool feature that I used all the time; I basically only played my Wii U in handheld. But in retrospect, it was clearly a dry run for the Switch, and was let down by not being fully portable. Meanwhile, that new feature meant that it couldn’t be sold as an upgraded Wii that kept the good times rolling for the system that, at the time, was Nintendo’s best-selling home console.
The name added to this confusion. ‘Wii U’ sounded like it could be a Wii accessory or upgrade, rather than an entirely new console. The similarly named DS Lite and the Game Boy Advance Micro were not new consoles. The Xbox Live Vision and PlayStation Move weren’t consoles at all. Though there was precedent for Nintendo releasing a new console that included its predecessor’s name in its title (the Super NES and the Game Boy Advance), Nintendo has much more often changed its consoles' names entirely. No one would confuse the Virtual Boy and the GameCube, or the Wii and the Switch.
The other console manufacturers have their own methods. Sony adds a number, which makes the distinction and sequence of release clear (which isn’t especially exciting, but is at least easy to understand). Xbox has never settled on a naming scheme, and actually has a much more consistent branding issue than Nintendo. There have been endless jokes made about the Xbox One being the successor to the Xbox 360, and the Wii U was the one time Nintendo made the Xbox mistake of not clearly naming its new console.
The Wii U was also confusing from a controller standpoint. It came with the tablet, but not with a Pro Controller. And if you wanted to play Wii games, you needed the Wiimote and Nunchuck (and maybe the Wii MotionPlus). Meanwhile, you needed one controller for a PS4, and it came in the box.
From the Switch leaks, it seems like Nintendo is avoiding all these problems. One leak suggests it will be called the Switch 2, which would be perfect from a branding perspective. And the renders and photos point to it looking almost exactly like the Switch, which will make it very easy for customers to understand. It seems like Nintendo is on the right course. Maybe the failure of the Wii U is still fresher in the minds of the company’s top brass than it is in ours.
