The Nintendo Switch, undisputed king looking for succession to the throne

There is a good chance that you have already seen someone take out a Nintendo Switch on the train home or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. That your child’s Sinterklaas list was topped by the game console – or that you secretly hoped for that. You may have one in your pocket right now, longing for your playtime. The Switch console has sold no less than 141 million worldwide. Only the Nintendo DS from 2004 and the Playstation 2 from 2000 do slightly better.

The question remains whether the Nintendo Switch will become the absolute emperor of the consoles. Nintendo expects to sell around 13.5 million Switch consoles this financial year, seven years after launch. However, a different announcement may lead to procrastination. By the end of this fiscal year – end of March 2025 – Nintendo plans to announce the long-awaited successor, CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said on X.

A rather vague indication of a future announcement, certainly, but still the heartbeat of many fans jumps. The Switch has had an exceptional life cycle, although market experts initially did not give a dime for the chances of Nintendo’s showpiece.

When the Switch was officially announced in 2015, Nintendo was on a drip. The year before, the company made a loss of almost half a billion dollars, thanks to disappointing sales of the Wii U console. While Sony and Microsoft were fighting an under-the-hood battle with their consoles at the time – more graphics and more processing power – Nintendo did what Nintendo does best: reinvent itself.

All audiences

“With the Switch, we were actually able to put console quality in our pocket for the first time,” says Jeroen Van Raevels of the Game Kast podcast. In addition to being used as a traditional console, connected to the TV, the Switch is also the undisputed king of the ‘handheld’ – a portable gaming console for on the go.

The competitors may be able to put more pixels on the screen, but Nintendo sells better. According to Van Raevels, this is because Nintendo has “succeeded in bringing all audiences together for the first time in a long time.” By this he means: children, casuals and hardcore gamers. “The latter group was since the GameCube (from 2001, MIM) to remain hungry.”

With a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – the fifth best game ever according to Metacritic – Nintendo served its loyal fan base. The broad group was served with a party game such as ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’. The latter game sold more than 60 million copies.

“So does the Switch Fortnite or Minecraft supports, makes it a very popular console for children,” says Van Raevels, who sees that the Switch is in any case a nice playground for game developers. Games that have already been developed for mobile can easily be translated to the Switch. As a result, players will find a wide library of games for the Switch, from indie games to big hits.

Especially in lockdown times, the Switch turned out to be the ideal indoor alternative to a gravel bike: at home on any terrain, affordable – 290 euros – and fun for the whole family.

Animal Crossinga social game where players spend time on a tropical island, became a huge blockbuster – even Saturday Night Live made fun of it in a sketch. Celebrities such as Elijah Wood, Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner showed off their Switch online. In August 2021, the Japanese top 30 of games sold was filled solely by Nintendo Switch.

However, things now seem to be looking up, as sales are declining sharply. Despite new releases such as the cheaper Lite version (portable only) or the OLED (better image technology), the console has not become more powerful – fans have been complaining for a while about the lower performance of recent games. In addition, competitors such as Valve, the company behind gaming platform Steam, have entered the market with their own portable console.

Successor

Can the successor to the Switch soon amaze again? Nothing is known about the console yet. The name that fans give to the device – the Nintendo Switch 2 – suggests not. The loudest rumors for now are about improved battery life.

There is therefore no obvious novelty, says Van Raevels. “I simply don’t see how they can reinvent the wheel again. Perhaps it will be mainly bigger and bettera more powerful system and a better screen.”

Success will mainly depend on the games, says Van Raevels. It is expected that there will be a few top players in the queue for the launch. At the same time, Nintendo is focusing after the blockbuster success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie based on a movie The Legend of Zelda. Anyone who wants to control those heroes on the small screen afterwards will have to set Nintendo’s cash register ringing.

Financially, the success will be difficult to match. Since the very first announcement of the Nintendo Switch in 2015, the company’s stock market value has more than quadrupled.

Yet there are also critics who point to a pattern in Nintendo’s history: every hit is followed by a flop. In any case, the company always manages to find an extra life somewhere.