 A reader points out that Nintendo has never had two consoles be massive hits two generations in a row and that bodes poorly for Switch 2. Nintendo is renowned for many things but the quality of their sequels more than anything else. Whereas Sonic The Hedgehog, and other long-running series, only lasted a few years before going downhill, most Nintendo franchises have been top of their game for decades and many of them have never been better than right now on the Switch. But sequels to their consoles? That's another story. The NES may be the most important console ever made, and the foundation of the modern games industry, but its follow-up was the SNES and for a lot of the 16-bit generation it was getting beaten by the Mega Drive. Technically Nintendo did come out on top, thanks to Donkey Kong Country, but after that came the N64, which did nowhere near as well as either its predecessor or the PlayStation. The GameCube did even worse again, so Nintendo rethought their approach and released the Wii, which was a huge success. And its sequel? The Wii U was a complete disaster. Nintendo has never had two consecutive home consoles be uncontested winners of their generation and I don't see any reason to think it will be different with the Switch 2. The reasons for the failures, or relative failures, of each console is different, particularly the older ones, but the one that seems the most relevant here is the Wii U. The Wii was Nintendo's biggest console before the Switch and a massive, global success. But the follow-up was so undercooked it's literally unbelievable how badly Nintendo fumbled the ball. The Wii U felt like something Sega would've released after the Dreamcast, not in terms of its physical design but the fact that it was underpowered, got released with so few games, and had zero marketing. Suddenly Nintendo went from the third biggest company in Japan to acting like some down-on-their-luck start-up t){kind=link}
A reader points out that Nintendo has never had two consoles be massive hits two generations in a row and that bodes poorly for Switch 2.
Nintendo is renowned for many things but the quality of their sequels more than anything else. Whereas Sonic The Hedgehog, and other long-running series, only lasted a few years before going downhill, most Nintendo franchises have been top of their game for decades and many of them have never been better than right now on the Switch. But sequels to their consoles? That’s another story.
The NES may be the most important console ever made, and the foundation of the modern games industry, but its follow-up was the SNES and for a lot of the 16-bit generation it was getting beaten by the Mega Drive. Technically Nintendo did come out on top, thanks to Donkey Kong Country, but after that came the N64, which did nowhere near as well as either its predecessor or the PlayStation.
The GameCube did even worse again, so Nintendo rethought their approach and released the Wii, which was a huge success. And its sequel? The Wii U was a complete disaster. Nintendo has never had two consecutive home consoles be uncontested winners of their generation and I don’t see any reason to think it will be different with the Switch 2.
The reasons for the failures, or relative failures, of each console is different, particularly the older ones, but the one that seems the most relevant here is the Wii U. The Wii was Nintendo’s biggest console before the Switch and a massive, global success. But the follow-up was so undercooked it’s literally unbelievable how badly Nintendo fumbled the ball.