Nintendo doesn’t switch it up with the Switch 2, because boring can be profitable
Back on Rainbow Road… Nintendo showed off the long-awaited Switch 2 for the first time yesterday, and confirmed the console will go on sale sometime this year. The announcement is a BFD for gamers, who’ve been speculating for years about when the Japanese gaming legend would drop the successor to its seven-year-old Switch. The Switch 2 looks similar to its portable predecessor, but appears to have a few notable upgrades, like magnetically attaching controllers and a bigger screen.
Loading… Nintendo plans to drop more deets and let some lucky gamers demo its new device at events this spring — which might mean playing the new “Mario Kart” that appeared in yesterday’s promo.
If it ain’t broke… don’t break it. The Switch reinvigorated industry interest in portable gaming, which Sony and Microsoft are both said to be trying to tap into. With 146M units sold, the Switch is Nintendo’s second-best-selling console behind the DS, and it’s the third-most-popular console ever (Sony’s PlayStation 2 is No. 1). Plus, the Switch’s “Mario Kart 8” game is Nintendo’s best-selling standalone title of all time with 64M copies sold. But as the Switch nears its eighth birthday (ancient in console years), its sales are slowing.
Nintendo reported a lower profit for the fifth straight quarter in November and cut its annual guidance after selling millions fewer Switches than it did in the year-ago quarter.
Boring can be strategic… Nintendo’s not messing with the Switch too much, and its tried-and-true approach could help the sequel replay (or even surpass) the original’s success. Nintendo’s said to have readied a supply chain that’ll allow it to ship 20M Switch 2s in the console’s first year — a start that’d put it ahead of the Switch by 5M units.