NINTENDO NEWS – The rumors weren’t wrong: the Japanese company was indeed planning to call the device Super Nintendo Switch…

The Switch 2 has been unveiled, so we know when it will be available and for how much. Games have become more expensive (especially the physical editions…) and this could bring another price hike in the games industry, like Take-Two’s NBA 2K basketball five years ago. Following the console’s launch, the Big N’s website was updated with an interview with producer Kouichi Kawamoto of the Entertainment Design and Development Department, senior director Takuhiro Dohta, also of the Entertainment Design and Development Department, and CEO Tetsuya Sasaki of the Technology Development Department.

“The three of us started working together on the new hardware project around 2019. But as far as the core development of the Nintendo Switch 2 is concerned, I remember that research and development had already started before the project was officially launched,” Kawamoto said. “We knew that we would continue to develop new consoles even after the launch of Switch, so we needed to get ahead of ourselves and start planting the seeds of ideas for what we could do with the next console. Hardware development takes time, and if we didn’t start early, the software development environment needed afterward, known as the Software Development Kit, wouldn’t be ready in time. We started by actively gathering information every day about different types of technology and what they could do. In that sense, you could say that we started development even before 2019,” Sasaki added.

It was revealed that the name Super Nintendo Switch was considered by Nintendo, but the big N realized that Switch 2 was easier to understand and was the right decision: “There were a lot of ideas for the name, and we really struggled to find the right one. We even considered ideas such as “Super Nintendo Switch”. But the Super NES, which came after the NES, couldn’t play NES games. Since Switch 2 can play Switch games, it didn’t feel right to use the same naming convention as Super NES. Switch 2 is a new console with improved performance, but we’d like players who get their hands on it not to focus on the specs, but rather to think of it as the latest console developed by Nintendo. So in the hope that it will become the new standard for Nintendo Switch, we named it Nintendo Switch 2,” Kawamoto said.

“From the beginning of development, we wanted Switch 2 to be a console that could be enjoyed by a wide range of players. That hasn’t changed from Switch to Switch 2. I also wanted to create an experience that could be enjoyed by as many players as possible, rather than an experience made specifically for those who prefer high-performance hardware. So we wanted a name that would simply tell potential customers that if they’re considering buying a Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2 is the latest console. We really struggled because there were so many different ideas, but in the end, after a lot of back and forth, we all agreed that it should be Nintendo Switch 2,” Dohta said.

During the interview, the hardware developers also talked about the battery capacity. This will be 1.2 times that of the Switch to compensate for the increased battery consumption ratio caused by the more powerful processor. The JoyCon 2 HD Rumble 2 has also been improved to support a wider range of vibration types, not to mention a stronger vibration effect and faster response time. The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, on the other hand, has smoother gliding analog arms and a seamless grip that feels better to the touch. Will the Joy-Cons have Hall effect sticks?

At least they’ve realized that sometimes a simple name is more effective.

Source: WCCFTech