3 reasons why the Switch successor is a huge challenge for Nintendo

Well, obviously, every new console is quite a challenge. This is a fact. Very tough and fundamental: you have to find the golden balance between performance and price, with one eye on the future and the other on the present, strictly check the ergonomics, its durability, and set up a satisfactory product line with many collaborations so that to meet the demand, to convince the world of its quality through effective marketing And of course to have games ready at launch that would be exciting, that should have been ready at the time, they should have been developing years ago, for a device that’s still not finalized, in short, all consoles are gigantic undertakings that require coordination between A large number of workers for years, until they end up on the shelves.

So, aside from the tremendous difficulty that comes with each conception and launch of a new console, there are also cases that seem more difficult no matter how we do it, because of the circumstances. Let’s say Nintendo has historically struggled to follow up on hit hardware with more success. On home consoles, the closest it is with the SNES’s 49 million coming in after the NES’s 62 million. That is, it didn’t outperform it, but it moved roughly at similar levels. On the other hand, the next big console, the Wii, was followed by the commercial disaster of the Wii U. It is being crushed in the industry. Like constantly moving in quicksand and struggling to stay on top. One wrong move sucks. Especially when you have Nintendo’s unconventional creative philosophy. On its handhelds, things are a bit sturdier, but then again, the only time a successor has surpassed a previously successful handheld device was when the DS shot up to 150+cm after a staggering 81.5cm tall Game Boy Advance.

So the incredible running of the Transformer, let’s say gently and with a Haval touch, probably creates an additional headache for Nintendo. However, it is not the only one, and certainly not the largest. Let’s take a look at some of the really big hurdles he has to overcome.

Innovation at the limits

Nintendo today is a little hard to pin down. But tell me, when was it easy? Its current boss, Shuntaro Furukawa, last month completed a five-year term as head of the Japanese company, practically directing the Switch’s lifecycle. However, some ambiguity remains regarding the style of his presidency. It is known that most of the company’s major strategic moves, such as getting into cinema and theme parks and focusing more on developing its IPs outside the narrow space of video games, have already been planned by – and very influential – former president Satoru Iwata.

Therefore, we do not have sufficient evidence of his identity as “Captain”. So there are two slightly contradictory elements to his tenure so far. On the other hand, when reading the official statements of the company’s financial results each year, it’s clear that Iwata’s Nintendo’s creative principles have been fully incorporated into its DNA. And to be fair, those principles are mostly rooted in its great designers, starting with Gunpei Yokoi, Miyamoto, Tezuka, and all those old guards who are now in critical positions. Iwata simply encouraged it, made it more convincing, and most importantly, turned it into an advertising slogan. Nintendo = design innovation, new experiences, originality and surprise. At least in words.

On the other hand now, looking at the Switch’s library, there’s so much depth with so many IPs from its history, that I’d personally rate it as the best since the SNES era of Nintendo’s console, but it’s also perhaps one of the more conservative. And a few new IPs, but the main thing is, in most cases, a more or less traditional implementation of the existing ones. There are not many new and strange ideas. Labo, Ring Fit, Arms and 1-2 Switch come to mind, Mario and Zelda always trying something special and more, many excellent, even great games, but nothing really weird and new. Nintendo’s totally quirky side – by design – seems to have gone down a bit in recent years.

So the question behind the switch is: How do you balance the innovation that you say is part of your identity with the familiar and successful elements of the switch? How do you make it feel familiar and new at the same time? I think we should consider that Nintendo’s next offering will also be of a hybrid nature. It would be extreme and even suicidal for Nintendo to abandon the market it has essentially created. So within that context, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from him again Switch and surprise, excitement.

All this, of course, is easy to say in theory, but in practice things are much more difficult. Every new console since the Iwata era had a new gimmick: dual screens and a DS touch, the Wii’s motion control, 3D the 3DS, the Wii U’s tablet and its Switch hybrid nature. Do you want to continue down this high-paying but high-stakes path, or will the massive success of the Switch push you to a more conservative, “one-of-a-kind” approach?

This tension between the new, which its culture seems to have a natural inclination toward, and the familiar, which business logic might dictate, is what I traditionally believe creates this confusion for Nintendo after every major success. So I’m very curious to see how you’ll choose to follow the most successful console in its history.

And maybe then we will understand what kind of president Mr. Furukawa is.

Without the Wii U board.

One of the main reasons behind the Switch’s success is the constant stream of releases. Unlike previous generations, there hasn’t been a long time without new games. Instead, Nintendo had a new title scheduled almost monthly. She, of course, deftly managed her resources and made strategic decisions by keeping addresses ready up her sleeve when she needed them, but she still had a great hidden weapon: Wii U fails.. With 13.5 million in sales, the library of Wii U titles was completely unknown to the vast majority of the Switch audience.

So each re-release of the previous console collection has been practically like a new release for Switch players. With the Wii U titles, Nintendo had the luxury of filling holes in their schedule and giving their teams extra time, without much of a commercial consequence. Let’s not forget that some of the Switch’s biggest successes are the Wii U games. Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Bros U, Super Mario 3D World, and so on.

This new console, however, was not a commercial failure. Its library of titles is widely known and played by most of the audience that Nintendo hopes to regain. In addition, it is very likely that it will be backward compatible. So, automatically, these easy, unpolished, generally effective versions of the “pads” are no longer available. Considering the fact that as technology and technical capabilities of hardware increase, game development times also increase, I think Nintendo has a difficult puzzle to solve in front of it, if it wants to maintain the same rate of releases in the new console.

Yes, there is always the option to remake old titles but it is not economical in resources, moreover it has a good balance of preserving what it offers in its online subscriptions and what it reissues as remakes/reissues.

The pinnacle of great franchises

The last and most interesting issue – to me – that I want to bring to the table is the almost forced renewal that Nintendo is being asked to do with its very pivotal franchises, which seem to have reached a head with their latest release. The most distinctive feature is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. and Mario Kart.

I guess we can say that in the Switch generation both franchises got “Ultimate” copies, which would simply make a remake with new content completely unnecessary. When they come back, and they come back because they’re giant names commercially, they’re going to have to introduce something new, something different. The same can be said about Splatoon, and maybe even Luigi’s Palace.

So it appears that the necessary revamp on the reboot borders on coinciding with several decades of the franchise. Combined with Mario and Zelda, which have something new to show in each new chapter, as flagships, a very interesting picture is formed for the games we have to wait for. This part is of course directly related to the type of console we are waiting for. That is, if it features some special tricks that they will be required to adapt to, or not.

Regardless, the creative challenges seem greater than ever for Nintendo, and let’s hope we see some really bold new approaches.

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