Viewing video game history is also possible with the Nintendo Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 was announced today and it made me not happy with the launch of the original Switch that came in 2017.

Nintendo revealed the previous console, the Nintendo Switch, on October 20, 2016 in a Nintendo Direct. It was from a weak point, due to the poor sales of the Nintendo Wii U, which sold only 13.56 million units compared to the success of the Nintendo Wii, which sold more than 101.6 million units.

This time, the reveal came in the form of a Nintendo Direct video that lasted two minutes and 21 seconds, and had no audio. It was released at 5 am Pacific time today. Years from now, I think we will all remember this moment as something special. It was a moment of great anticipation, without a doubt we looked around the world for the leak, and at least we found the official name: Nintendo Switch 2. But if you are looking for more, it is a little less if you have to wait until the next one to reveal in a fair long and slow ‘ono commercial striptease.

Back in 2017, the entire gaming industry was doing well. Sony’s PlayStation 4 was selling strongly, and Microsoft was having trouble chasing it with the Xbox One. Nintendo’s cartoon world and low-res games seem like they are finally fighting the race to high-quality 3D graphics and other games.

I’ve been writing about sports every day since 1996, and every launch feels like a cultural moment. I didn’t enjoy the time being set up like the Nintendo GameCube, the original Xbox, the PlayStation 2 and almost every console that has been released since then. I miss those days when reveals were made at live events like E3, and products were announced and launched at midnight in stores.

Major games for the Switch included 1-2-Switch, a small game; The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Just Dance 2017; Skylanders: The Sims; Super Bomberman 3; I’m Setsuna; Snipperclips; Knight Knight: Treasure Trove; Knight Shovel: Specter of Torment; and Fast RMX. The Zelda title was the most memorable, while the 1-2-Switch had beautiful games like Quick Draw that showcased the Switch’s unique and gun-toting gameplay.

The Switch was officially launched on March 3, 2017, and it was a huge hit. The change was aimed at managing the number of players through a number of ways to use it on TV and on the run. It became Nintendo’s best-selling game with over 146 million units and 1.3 billion games to date.

No one needed to write anything about how weak the gaming industry was. Fast forward to now. Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion and industry seer, threw the 220 page which explained why the game industry has decreased in the past 2.5 years and the industry has faced 34,000 layoffs among the game industry.

Business revenues are down, mobile game growth is down, pandemics are on the rise, and business is down at a time when other industries are booming. For this year, it may be up to Switch 2 and Grand Theft Auto VI to save gaming sales.

Last time, Nintendo had Zelda and now they will have a Mario Kart game, including 24 players in the race. The next story is coming in the Nintendo Direct show on April 2nd.

Nintendo said it will have a Switch 2 tour in North America:

• New York, April 4-6, 2025
• Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025
• Dallas, April 25-27, 2025
• Toronto, April 25-27, 2025

Ball said in his train so far that sales of the Switch have benefited Nintendo greatly. Switch users buy 25% to 33% fewer games than PlayStation/Xbox owners, and more than half of sales are Nintendo games versus 10% for PS/Xbox. It is led by the sales of titles like Mario Kart 8 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Empire (2023).

Switch sales are not from new players, but from lobbying and hand sales. Both PlayStation and Xbox Series X/S sales fell after 49 months of sales. The Switch 2 should sell more to solve those problems.

Now Nintendo has to convince us if there is enough new stuff here. For the Switch 2 to succeed, it must compete with Steam Deck, which, like the PC version, has helped the PC gain market share in recent years over the consoles. And the biggest player of Steam now in Asia and especially in China, Ball said.

One of the challenges is the flooding of the market for new games. Steam now launches as many new games per year as the lifetime of a Nintendo console.

Nintendo left a lot of questions open, because they didn’t say anything. It showed how the Nintendo Joy-Con controllers can now be attached magnetically to the side of the console, which is a hybrid TV and also a handheld. It also featured a slightly larger screen and a stronger display. It’s coming sometime in 2025. Hopefully we’ll know more about its price and timing at the next event.

As mentioned before, I’m curious to know if the Switch 2 update will make game development on the platform more difficult or easier. The Switch 2 hardware will be the same as the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam Deck. This means that companies won’t have to create different versions of games to have a title on the Switch 2.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Switch 2 is another hit. But we’ll find out in the coming months as titles are revealed and Switch 2’s special features are revealed.

For now, I’m thinking back to the happy days of 2017 when the last machine came out.