Home Gaming The Switch was a “make or break product” for Nintendo

The Switch was a “make or break product” for Nintendo

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Switch-sweat

Being a Nintendo fan for most of the 2010s wasn’t exactly easy. The company had brilliant games, but they were  being Wii-leased on a console that had fantastic ideas and rubbish implementation. The Wii U was an ugly black brick of missed opportunities, and it wasn’t long before the Big N went back to the drawing board while its smaller and sensational 3DS handheld console kept the brand alive.

Nintendo needed a big hit at the time, and it fortunately arrived in the form of a console that was equally at home when docked to a TV or nestled in your hands when you were out in the street. Nintendo’s business is primarily Switch-focused now, as the console is pretty much the main event player that brings in all the big cash for the company.

And according to former Nintendo of American president Reggie Fils-Aime, the Switch was Nintendo’s “make or break” product that saved the company from a dismal fate. “You know, Nintendo has done so many innovations in the space. I think what Nintendo did with the Switch, after the poor performance of Wii U, I think to me and what I was part of, that’s my lasting memory,” Fils-Aime said during a New York Gaming Awards Twitch stream via NintendoLife.

People forget, when the Wii U launched, the performance over that life cycle was so poor, I mean it was the worst-selling platform, I think maybe Virtual Boy was a little bit worse, but Wii U underperformed pretty radically in the marketplace. And when your only business is video games that next had to be successful and the Switch continues to be a dynamic platform – selling exceptionally well.

And the ability for the company to come up with the concept, to bring it to life, to bring it to the marketplace, to have not only great first-party content but a great third-party and independent developer content – that is going to be something I will always be proud of. Along with so many of the other things I was part of, but the Switch really was a make or break product for the company and luckily it was a hit.

Lifetime sales of the Switch are now at almost 80 million units so far, which isn’t shabby at all. With a special Monster Hunter Rise Switch coming to market soon, and rumours of the console getting a beefy hardware upgrade, expect those numbers to continue climbing onwards and upwards in the years to come.

Last Updated: February 1, 2021

One Comment

  1. Iskape

    February 1, 2021 at 08:29

    Well, fortunately for them, it was a “MAKE IT” scenario!

    Reply

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