Nintendo has never taken the easy route when it comes to naming its consoles. Before the Switch 2 was announced, no one had any idea what the device might actually be called. When the Wii was succeeded by the Wii U, it felt like the exact kind of esoteric nonsense Nintendo loves indulging in. A lot of people were expecting something like “Super Switch” or “Switcheroo,” but Nintendo went basic. According to ex-PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden, that’s because the Switch name has “brand value.”
In a new interview on the KIWI TALKZ podcast, Layden told host Reece Reilly that he believes Nintendo took a page out of Sony’s playbook for its upcoming console. In his own words, Layden said, “They’ve created so much brand value in the word Switch, why would you mess with that?” You can draw a logical conclusion about the PlayStation brand, which has found tremendous success by tacking a number on the end for each new iteration.
While this may not explain why the Wii U failed so spectacularly, Nintendo obviously learned that a brand alone isn’t enough. If that console had been called the Wii 2, we might be in a different world where our current Switch’s would be called the Wii 3. At any rate, Layden pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one.
Discussing further about Nintendo’s current position in the industry, Layden stressed that Nintendo has found success by dancing to the beat of its own drum. “Everyone respects Nintendo,” Layden said, “they’re a competitor but you respect everything they’ve done to create this industry that now we all enjoy and love, so I think they’ll keep on keeping on and the way they do it, they’ve got the right people around it, the right attitude around it.”
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
