The Switch 2 was revealed this week, and though I was relieved to finally see a confirmation for the thing we’ve all known about for months, I was surprised by how un-Nintendo the first look felt. Comparing the Switch 2 reveal to the original Switch‘s reveal shows how different Nintendo‘s task is this time around.
The Switch 2 Reveal Feels A Lot Like The PS5’s
Of course, there isn’t that much history of Nintendo revealing consoles in the contemporary era, where hardware is shown off in videos made to be posted online, rather than in staged presentations at trade shows.
Related
All The Switch 2 Has To Do To Lock Up The Next Generation Is Avoid Being The Wii U
The Switch has been a huge victory for Nintendo, but the Wii U wasn’t that long ago.
The Wii U was the first Nintendo console to get this kind of trailer, the Switch continued the trend, and the Switch 2 is running with the ball. But comparing the Switch 2’s demonstration to its predecessors makes it clear that Nintendo is taking a very different tack this time around. The CG-heavy trailer has much more in common with how Sony revealed the PS5 than how Nintendo has historically shown off its hardware.
When Sony gave players a first look at the PS5 hardware back in 2020, it did so with a trailer that showed off every curve and texture of the new console. The camera swooped along the faceplates and vents, showing every dimple and divot in the hardware’s surface. It was less ‘here’s what our console can do’ and more ‘here’s how our console looks’. But before it even got to the gawking, it spent an inordinate amount of time showing us black, undulating, CGI orbs. They eventually coalesced to form the dark, vase-like outline of the PS5’s interior.
That aesthetics-driven presentation is a far cry from Nintendo’s initial video pitch for the Switch, which was squarely focused on function. There’s a guy playing on his TV with the Joy-Cons placed in the controller frame. When his dog needs some exercise, he slips the Joy-Cons back into the Switch, and takes it on the go. Having established the Switch’s two main modes of play — as a home console and a handheld — it then showed all the different way you could play the Switch.
From Function Over Form To Form Over Function
You could play with the Joy-Cons detached, using the Switch’s built-in kickstand. You could turn the Joy-Cons sideways and use them as individual controllers. You could put two Switches back to back and play a multiplayer game with a bunch of friends on your apartment’s roof. You could use a Pro Controller whether it was docked or in handheld.
That video became iconic — I still hear references to the bit about playing with friends on the roof — because it provided such a clear, compelling vision of how the Switch could fit into your life. And it did so with lots of gameplay from games that would hit the Switch soon after launch, like Super Mario Odyssey, NBA 2K18, Splatoon 2, and of course, Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 video — like that PS5 first look — doesn’t really do that. Like the PS5 reveal, it combines live-action shots of the console with a heaping helping of CGI. Instead of showing off all the cool ways you can play, it uses shiny CG to show the new features being added to the old Switch, transforming the console’s kickstand, the Joy-Con rail, and the charge port among other bits.
It doesn’t show how you’ll play with it in different ways because it can’t. The Switch 2 is an incremental upgrade and is being sold as one. The original Switch captured your imagination, and that isn’t a trick you can repeat again with similar hardware. This problem isn’t unique to Nintendo — Sony and Microsoft have always had to sell their consoles on the basis of graphical and performance upgrades — but it is strange to see Nintendo in a position where it is borrowing from the competition, rather than blazing its own path.
Next
The Switch 2 Needs A Completely Different Strategy From The Switch
The failure of the Wii U set the Switch up for massive success. The Switch 2 can’t run that playbook.