In a recent interview with The Game Business Show, ex-Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé was asked a series of questions regarding the games industry at large, but also more specifically the Switch 2 and his thoughts on the recent launch of the device. The first Nintendo console Reggie hasn’t been involved with in over 20 years, he’s been quite impressed with how well Nintendo managed to keep brand momentum going from the first Switch, which is practically on the cusp of becoming the company’s best-selling piece of hardware ever. It’s a feat that typically doesn’t happen with new consoles, which usually struggle to bring in bigger audiences off the back of astounding success before.
Speaking to host Christopher Dring, Reggie said, “The launch of the Switch 2 really was a huge success for the global team. And again, just to think about this and put it in perspective, when you look at video game history, arguably with the exception of the original PlayStation being followed up by the PS2. The incumbent with strong momentum has always been challenged in following up the next system.” He then references how the Wii U failed to take off as a successor to the Wii, but Nintendo consoles historically sold worse over time starting with the SNES. The pipeline from NES to SNES to N64 to GameCube saw diminishing sales each generation. The Wii broke that trend.
He continued, “Being able to successful launch a new system after you’ve had historical success with the prior system is quite a challenge. And, you know, the team has done a masterful job.” He reckons some of that is from the fact that the Switch 2 is (mostly) fully backwards compatible with the previous system, but people seem to love the Switch brand. The same maybe cannot be said for the launch lineup of games, which has been somewhat weaker compared to the original Switch’s first year.
When talking about new games, Reggie stated, “I remember the Switch 1 launch and you know in that year, it was Zelda, Mario Kart, Splatoon, Mario Odyssey: just absolute mega hits and this year, this lineup’s been… well, it’s just, it’s good. It’s good stuff like Mario Kart. You don’t get bigger than that, and there’s Pokémon as well.” He’s clearly not as enthused about the games as the console, itself, but you can’t really fault Nintendo for trying. There was only so much that could happen with development times taking longer and a juggernaut game like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releasing just two years ago.
Dring stated that he believes it comes down to being a continuation from the original Switch versus an entire rethinking of the format, to which Reggie agreed. “I think that’s a very fair observation,” Reggie said. “When I first saw that lineup, you know, I scratched my head a little bit. But I think, certainly, what I underestimated was the enhanced performance.” We all enjoy that aspect, especially since the Switch 1 was starting to become long in the tooth.
There’s more interesting tidbits to gleam from the interview, which you can watch over on The Game Business’ website. Running roughly 45 minutes, it’s not a terribly long watch, either.
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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.
