Early in 2017 the world was set to receive the next console from Nintendo, the Switch, and predictions for its sales were grim. Yet a year later the console/handheld hybrid is breaking records.
The Nintendo company has been around since the late 1800’s, originally making playing cards for a Japanese card game called Hanafuda. Nintendo didn’t switch to video games until the early 1970’s, and their first gaming console to come to the U.S., the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), didn’t arrive until 1986.
Including the Switch, Nintendo has released seven home consoles and multiple portable gaming systems in the U.S., with the Wii holding the record for their best selling console. The Switch is on track to beat that record.
Just a few days into the new year Nintendo announced the Switch “has become the fastest selling home video game system in U.S. history.” In the first 10 months it has sold more than 4.8 million units in the U.S., and over 10 million worldwide.
Playstation 4 is the only console to sell faster worldwide in the first year, with almost 20 million units sold.
In addition the total number of units sold, 14.86 million, has surpassed the lifetime sales of the Wii U, which was 13.56 million.
Before the new system launched analytics firm SuperData predicted the Switch would only sell five million units worldwide by the end of the year. Other critics also gave mixed early reviews, primarily citing that it felt “under-cooked,” and that it had a meagre launch line-up.
Nintendo is known for not following the crowd. Instead of focusing on being the most powerful, or having the best graphics like the other gaming companies, they tend to strive for innovation in the way we play video games.
Their first system to truly break the mold was the Wii, which was marketed as the most family friendly system rather than for the hard core gaming crowd. And its motion controls, although not without some issues, were widely accepted as a step into the future of gaming.
The motion controls for the Wii lead to the other systems adopting similar ideas, such as Playstation’s PS Move and XBox’s Kinect. With motion controls making gaming feel more realistic the gaming industry looked for more ways to draw players in, so now we have VR systems.
After the Wii’s success Nintendo continued to try new innovations. The Wii U attempted to bring a new experience with its tablet like controller that allowed you to play some games on its small screen, or use it for additional functions. Unfortunately it was not well received, and has only sold about 13.5 million units since its release in 2012.
Nintendo’s stock took a major dive after the Wii U was released, and stayed low until they shook things up with their smartphone AR game, Pokemon Go, released in 2016. Nintendo’s stocks quickly rose after this, but there was still a lot of doubt that they could compete in the console market again.
Even when Nintendo officially unveiled the details of the Switch their stock took a fairly significant dip, with many analysts worried they were making the same mistakes as they did with the Wii U. A lot of them were concerned that it was just going to be another gimmick.
The Switch, like the original Wii, is marketed towards a larger audience. They do this through the ability to use it either as a console when connected to a TV through its dock, or as a portable system you can take with you.
One complaint is that to be able to do both they had to sacrifice some power to make it small enough. However, even with less power than the other current generations systems it can still play many of the top titles out today.
The Switch was released with a fairly small amount of launch titles, yet it still sold out quickly. Even pre-orders were all taken well before the launch.
The biggest game released at the same time was “Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” which won game of the year from The Game Awards 2017 along with multiple other awards.
For the holiday season last year Nintendo released another award winning game for the Switch, “Super Mario Odyssey,” which took best family game of the year.
Although both of these games are AAA titles, they are 1st party games, and one of the big complaints for the Wii U was that it didn’t have 3rd party support. Critics have been worried that the Switch would follow in its predecessors footsteps, and only get scaled down versions of any top 3rd party titles that are ported to the system.
The majority of games brought to the Switch from other companies has either been simple indie games, or older titles such as “Skyrim,” the fifth game of the Elder Scrolls series. Most of these have sold very well, but it wasn’t until the new “Doom” game was ported that it was really tested.
“Doom” is scaled down from the other versions to work with the switch, yet it still plays well, with very minor drops in frames per second. The next big 3rd party game coming to the Switch soon is “Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.” This game will probably show the true extent of the power of the Switch.
Even if the bigger 3rd party titles are few and far between, the Switch already has a large number of other titles slated for release throughout this year. There are many rumors of other games as well, with the release of the new Pokemon RPG at the top of the list.
The new Pokemon game has been confirmed as coming to the Switch, but there is no release date for it yet. Nintendo has said it is possible to come out sometime later this year, but there is no guarantee.
During E3 2017, the biggest gaming convention in the U.S., Nintendo also showed a teaser for “Metroid Prime 4.” It is the eagerly anticipated sequel to “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption” which was released more than a decade ago in 2007.
Just this week they uploaded a Nintendo Direct, which is a live video Nintendo does to announce upcoming releases. Most of the video just gave more details about some upcoming games that were already announced, but the end of the video showed what will be one of the biggest games to come to the Switch in a teaser.
The teaser opens with two inklings, the characters from “Splatoon 2,” in an open area battling each other with their paint guns. As they’re chasing each other around, the area turns very dark with just an orange glow slowly growing behind one of the inklings. As the inkling slowly turns around the camera zooms in on her eye, where the reflection of a flaming symbol comes into focus.
Any Nintendo fan knew the logo immediately. “Super Smash Bros!” The camera pans out from the logo, showing the shadows of characters that will be in the new game. The shadows are extremely small, but many people are already zooming in to try to determine who is included.
So far we can only determine that there are some fan-favorites coming back, such as Mario, Link and Bowser. We’ll have to wait to find out about any new characters besides the inklings.
The video ends with one of the biggest surprises for the game. A year comes on screen showing the year the game will be released. Most people were expecting to have to wait at least until 2019, yet we were pleasantly surprised to see “2018” come up on screen. Most likely this will be later this year, closer to Christmas, but that’s much better than next year.
Nintendo is also releasing other games from some of their well known franchises such as Kirby and Yoshi. For cheaper titles, the eShop on the Switch already has hundreds of indie games starting at a couple dollars.
With the amount of choices gamers already have, along with the big titles set to release throughout the year, the Switch is anticipated to continue selling well. And if it keeps up the pace it could potentially beat out the Playstation 2 as the best selling console of all time.
Daniel Riley
Managing Editor