NINTENDO NEWS – Nintendo couldn’t fail with the Switch, as it did with the Wii U after the hugely successful Wii, and the conservative approach worked for the company.

First with the Nintendo 64, then the GameCube and Wii U, the big N didn’t have as much success. So it was important that the Switch successor had the right name and the right hardware. WCCFTech interviewed Rhys Elliott, research analyst at Midia Research. He was cautious about the big N? “It was smart of Nintendo to just make a bigger, better Switch. It is clever of them to take advantage of the inertia of the original. While the Nintendo Switch 2 plays it safe, the announcement video shows a number of quality-of-life improvements that fans have wanted for years, such as a bigger screen (with a seemingly smaller bezel), a sturdier kickstand, and a larger form factor for the Joy-Con. Nintendo might surprise us with something a little more out of the box, though – like the rumored mouse functionality.

The straightforward name (Switch 2) is the right choice. Nintendo learned a hard lesson from the Wii U’s confusing naming convention and that console’s abject failure. Many consumers (not just casual, but core) thought the Wii U was an add-on to the Wii, similar to the Wii Fit Balance Board or the Wii Motion Plus. This marketing fumble almost wiped out all the gains Nintendo had made with the Wii. Things would have been disastrous if the Switch hadn’t become a cultural phenomenon. And Nintendo’s leadership (more conservative than ever) understands this. Now that Nintendo has all of its console eggs in the Switch basket, it simply cannot risk confusing its fans. After all, Nintendo’s cross-entertainment efforts in movies, theme parks, toys, and even alarm clocks all tie back to its core console brand. If the beating heart of the brand fails, it all falls apart,” Elliott said.

The analyst was also asked about the chances of hardcore fans switching to the Switch 2 in the near future: “Core gamers are harder to please than more casual gamers and the general public. Other portable companion devices like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally probably have more processing power than the Switch 2, and core gamers will draw those comparisons. We expect that many of these vocal minority gamers will still buy the Switch 2. And they are not even Nintendo’s main target audience here – families and more casual gamers are. Nintendo has been awfully quiet about the fan-favorite Metroid Prime 4, which is a niche series compared to Nintendo’s other properties, but would attract some core gamers. And Pokémon fans would find a faster version of Pokémon Legends: Z-A enticing, as the framerate and performance issues seen in the Switch’s newer Pokémon games have been a major pain point for that community,” Elliott added.

Neither platform sells itself without internal support. Elliott has this to say about first-party support: “Nintendo has confirmed that there will be Switch 2 exclusive games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold over 64 million copies, so making Mario Kart 9 a Switch 2 exclusive would be very enticing to attract players to the new console. Adding more characters and tracks based on Nintendo’s other franchises would appeal to the masses there. Based on the development schedules of their internal studios, it seems that Nintendo is sitting on a goldmine of titles to release during the Nintendo Switch 2 launch window. In addition to Mario Kart, I expect to see a new 3D Mario, an updated Pokemon, and probably a few other surprises in the first year. Nintendo will be pulling out all the stops.

It’s worth noting that it’s been almost five years since Animal Crossing. The inevitable announcement of a sequel to 2020’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has sold over 45 million copies and become a cultural zeitgeist, will also mobilize couch-potato gamers in full force. A new Animal Crossing and Mario Kart would reactivate some of the consumers who played during the shutdown. I think backwards compatibility is also important. It is what gamers (especially younger ones) have come to expect from the market. It is also what the competition has done with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 generation. Nintendo would not want to alienate its fans here,” Elliot says.

What about third-party support? “Aside from Ubisoft, many third-party publishers were late to the party with the original Switch, scared off by the Wii U’s underperformance. Things will be different with the Nintendo Switch 2, and third parties will get in on the ground floor. The Switch 2 offers a springboard for third-party developers to extend the lifecycles of their game catalogs, promising engagement and revenue boosts for third-party developers large and small. For Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and the like, it’s an opportunity to extend the product lifecycles of their older PlayStation 4 and Xbox One-era games. Speaking of which, Xbox and even PlayStation have been more willing to bring games to the Switch. I expect this to increase on Switch 2 as these companies continue their off-platform strategies. I can already play Halo on my Steam Deck. I expect that one day I’ll be able to play it on my Switch 2,” the analyst added.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released later this year.

Source: WCCFTech