Culture
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Max Knoblauch

As Nintendo delays, others take it upon themselves to show off the Switch 2

A 3D-printed mock-up of what’s said to be the next Nintendo Switch console has become the center of attention at CES.

Third-party gaming-accessories maker Genki has been showcasing its planned Switch 2 accessories using the mock-up and has dropped renderings on its website. Reports say the rumored design lines up with earlier leaks: a wider console with larger controllers that attach magnetically.

For its part, Nintendo has remained quiet about the Switch-cessor — except to say it will make an announcement about it by the end of March — while it squeezes one last holiday sales season out of the Switch. In the meantime, it has slashed Switch sales expectations by 1 million consoles and its overall revenue has fallen 17% from last year.

When it does come out, the Switch 2 may face more handheld competition than its predecessor did: Valve’s Steam Deck and Asus’ ROG Ally have been gaining steam, and Microsoft last year confirmed it’s working on an Xbox handheld.

Is this the Nintendo Switch 2?

Is this the Nintendo Switch 2?

For its part, Nintendo has remained quiet about the Switch-cessor — except to say it will make an announcement about it by the end of March — while it squeezes one last holiday sales season out of the Switch. In the meantime, it has slashed Switch sales expectations by 1 million consoles and its overall revenue has fallen 17% from last year.

When it does come out, the Switch 2 may face more handheld competition than its predecessor did: Valve’s Steam Deck and Asus’ ROG Ally have been gaining steam, and Microsoft last year confirmed it’s working on an Xbox handheld.

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Having aired its first-ever paid ad at last year’s Big Game, the ChatGPT maker is set to take another 60-second ad slot during NBC’s broadcast on February 8, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends
Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

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