(Nintendo Image)
Nintendo broke months of silence on Wednesday morning with an hour-long pre-recorded livestream devoted to the upcoming Switch 2. It’s scheduled for release on June 5 for a starting MSRP of $449.99, with a library of launch titles that includes new entries in the Mario Kart, Metroid Prime, Kirby, and Hyrule Warriors franchises.
The most interesting thing about the Switch 2 is what Nintendo chose not to do with it.
It doesn’t innovate in some random mechanical direction, attempt to take over your living room, or leverage AI in some significant way. It is simply a better version of Nintendo’s current console. The end. It’s a unique decision in Nintendo’s history as a console maker.
As with the previous edition of the Switch, you can see the Switch 2’s release as a midpoint between console generations. There have been indications from both Sony and Microsoft that they don’t plan to release their next systems until at least 2028, which gives Nintendo a solid window in which to build up sales momentum.
It’s still an odd overall choice for Nintendo, which maintains an American headquarters in Redmond, Wash. It has historically used each new generation of its console hardware as an excuse to reinvent at least one wheel. If it isn’t some mechanical innovation like the Wii’s motion controls, it’s a first-party game that rewrites the rules of a popular genre, such as 2000’s Super Mario 64.
Instead, the Switch 2 simply builds on the Switch. The marquee feature for the Switch 2 is, once again, its ability to switch on the fly between a portable and desktop machine, with several quality-of-life improvements over the original model such as magnetic controller docks. It’s an unusually conservative move from a company that’s known for taking big, random swings.
It’s also uncommonly expensive for a Nintendo product at launch. The original Switch released at a standard price of $300, and many of the Switch 2’s new features like the Console Tour app are paid extras. Combined with several recent moves like the end of its Gold Points program, it suggests Nintendo has a new set of priorities.
This isn’t to say that Nintendo wasn’t motivated by profit before now. While it tends to portray itself as an organization of cheerful toymakers, Nintendo has always kept one eye on its bottom line. However, its previous console strategies revolved around slow and steady growth via expanding its audience. Now that it’s got one of its biggest installation bases it’s ever had, with over 150 million Switch units sold, it seems like Nintendo’s plan is to cash out.
That being said, analysts have already noticed that the Japanese version of the Switch 2 is both region-locked and significantly cheaper than the U.S. SKU. While nothing has been confirmed at time of writing, the higher buy-in for the Switch 2 may also reflect how tariffs and trade wars are already affecting the American games industry.
If that asking price doesn’t slow it down, the Switch 2 is already an early frontrunner in what may turn into a new console war. Several years ago, the accepted wisdom in the gaming space was that in the age of the smartphone, consumers weren’t interested in carrying around a second device that was just for video games.
However, Valve Software challenged that and won with the release of its portable Steam Deck gaming PC. That’s led several other companies such as Lenovo to put out their own competing products, and reignited rumors that Microsoft plans to enter the fray with a handheld edition of the Xbox.
If you were going to jump into portable gaming this June, the Steam Deck currently offers more games for a lower overall price, as well as a number of possibilities for dedicated tinkerers like doubling as a Linux-based desktop computer.
The Switch 2, conversely, features the same strategy that every other Nintendo system has always had: it’s the exclusive home of Nintendo’s first-party software. When a new Super Mario or Legend of Zelda comes out, it will only be on the Switch 2 and it will never be legally available for another platform. That’s been enough of an argument to keep Nintendo in business for 40 years, although not without ups and downs. It’s hard to imagine the Switch 2 will break that streak.
