If you missed this week's hottest news in video games, Nintendo has finally officially announced the next edition of the Switch, the Switch 2. Of course, as someone who grew up on Nintendo and plays his Switch on a weekly basis, I'm absolutely over the moon at the announcement being able to see the larger display, the much-improved ergonomics, and that wonderful splash of color that excites me in ways nothing else can. But, with all that excitement, I am disappointed in one aspect of the new console:

The Name



Avoiding the Wii U Situation

If we look back to late 2012, Nintendo released the Wii U, a console which sold only 13.56 million units, making it the worst-selling piece of hardware from Nintendo in the company's history (if we forget about the Virtual Boy, don't worry, we can and we will). The GameCube, which was beloved by many, was considered to be a flop when compared to the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox during the sixth generation of game consoles, and even that sold quite a few more units than the Wii U at a cool 21.74 million.

Why did the Wii U fail to sell units? It wasn't only one factor that lead to poor sales, but a combination. To kick things off, we saw a major lack of third-party support for the console. The Wii U was considerably weaker than the PS4 and Xbox One which were released one year after the Wii U and boasted incredible graphical quality in comparison - the Wii U was a small "HD" upgrade over the Wii. With that, it was difficult to port games over to it and anything that did make it over was an inferior product. Look at Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U which struggled compared to its PlayStation 4 counterpart, which boasted far superior textures, lighting, and performance (Wii U gameplay screenshots courtesy of Cycu1).

Compared to the PlayStation 4 (PS4 gameplay screenshots courtesy MKIceAndFire).

There are some artifacts due to high-speed gameplay footage being difficult to encode at times, but it we can see a clear difference in quality between systems that were a part of the same era. If the console can't compete, what incentive is there to provide games for it which starts a vicious, self-destroying cycle of developers not wanting to put games on the device so the install size remains small, so more developers don't care to bring games over, so on and so forth.

Luckily for Nintendo, they haven't had an issue with the Switch growing its install base even though the hardware is lower-spec than other current generation systems. We'll talk more about the strengths of the Switch in a moment, let's focus back on what made the Wii U a poor console, which next we'll talk about the lack of a system seller.


Software Sells Hardware Sells Software

Sure, we saw New Super Mario Bros. U, which features everyone's favourite mustachioed plumber, Mario, but that alone isn't a system seller.

Nintendo Land, a brand new IP, Zombi U, Assassin's Creed III, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Darksiders II, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Black Ops II, Rabbids Land, FIFA 13, and a handful of other titles provided a large pool of games to kick the console's release off, but only a few were exclusive to the Wii U and for many of the games, they have previously come out on other consoles in the months leading up to the release of the Wii U which provided no strong reason for someone to buy the hardware. Nintendo hardware sells because Nintendo releases strong games. Wii U owners had to wait until March of the following year for the release of "Game & Wario" to get a first-party title, which isn't up everyone's alley. A few more months went by and Pikmin 3 finally made its debut in July of 2013, but having so few titles from Nintendo, and not seeing the incredible likes of Zelda, Mario Kart, & Smash Bros. didn't help things.


The Zelda Problem: Delays & Remasters

Speaking of Zelda, Wind Waker HD arrived nearly a year after the Wii U's launch, alongside a specially-themed edition of the console, and it wasn't even a new game! It was an incredible piece of art from the developer but no new adventures to go on didn't put much faith in the Wii U. Worse, Breath of the Wild - initially meant for the Wii U - ended up being delayed until the launch of the Switch in 2017, further weakening the appeal of the Wii U. 

Even with the Switch's limited hardware, it ran much better and looked incredible on the Switch when compared to the Wii U. We waited 5 years for a Zelda game.

It is always possible that Nintendo may have released Breath of the Wild much earlier had the Wii U been a critical hit, but it's great that they didn't because it gave the Switch an incredibly strong launch and it showcased the functionality of the Joy-Cons so wonderfully. It's important that your first-party games play with the gimmicks of the console, and Nintendo almost always has a gimmick at play (which isn't a bad thing) so it showcased the strength of the Switch. Which leads us to talk about, the branding.


Nintendon't Do This

The Wii U was marketed poorly. A big part of that was a failure to communicate what it actually was.

At the time, social media wasn’t as dominant as it is today, making it harder for Nintendo to directly engage with consumers. Without clear messaging, many casual gamers assumed the Wii U was just an add-on for the Wii, rather than an entirely new console. The “Wii” branding itself hurt more than it helped, as people thought they could just buy the new gamepad controller and use it with their existing Wii. Others were confused - was this a home console or a handheld like the DS?

Nintendo’s marketing focused heavily on the gamepad, but it never sold the concept well enough. Unlike the Wii’s motion controls, which were instantly understandable and revolutionary, the Wii U gamepad didn’t provide a compelling reason to exist. It was a bulky, underutilized, expensive addition that lacked a true system-selling feature. While some games used it creatively (like managing inventory screens), it never justified its price or necessity.

The Switch, on the other hand, has a clear gimmick (seamless TV-to-handheld gaming) that was immediately understandable, appealing, and it showcased what was possible with a Nintendo handheld after the 3DS.


Naming the Switch 2

My vote, for a long time, has been to see the Switch 2 named the Super Switch. As silly as it may sound, this would pay homage to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Super NES.

The North American Super NES (c. 1991)
The Super NES as it was released in North America.

Nintendo is very much a company that caters to an audience that is filled with Nostalgia. Someone hears about a new Pokemon game or a Mario Kart, and childhood memories rush to them. Whether that's Pokemon Blue from the GameBoy or Pokemon X from the 3DS, these long-living franchises sell hardware and that in turn sells more software. Calling the new console the Super Switch could have brought forth similar feelings of nostalgia, though admittedly for only a much older audience, but that would have been nostalgia bait nonetheless.

Being able to bust out limited-edition color schemes in the Super NES color palette would have also been very cool. Nothing prevents Nintendo from still doing this, we did see the New Nintendo 3DS XL get a SNES-themed release in North America, but it feels like there is less of a chance of this happening now and instead we will only see editions that showcase modern games.

That does kind of suck because it would have been incredible to see a promo with the Switch Online SNES games in some way. But, Switch 2, ugh. Nintendo hasn't been known to use numbers in their console names; Handhelds were a different story with the 3DS line, though that was slightly different because they wanted to emphasize the 3D effect that was now present on a DS form-factor. Super Switch just feels more powerful than a Switch 2, everyone does sequels with numbers and sure, it illustrates the point, but we're also talking about the company who put "New" in front of the 3DS XL to denote it was an upgraded version instead of just going with a number. Mind you, two numbers in the name would look so bad.

We've also got a track record of Nintendo loving the word super. Super Mario, Super Smash Bros., Super Metroid, and of course Super NES. The branding would have been strong and been rooted in history of Nintendo. Instead of Mario Kart 9, we could see Super Mario Kart make a return in name only (the original Mario Kart release was named Super Mario Kart on the SNES), which wouldn't be likely to cause much confusion due to age of the old product. Super Zelda doesn't really roll off the tongue, but Super Splatoon sounds like fun, and its an alliteration which is lovely. Super Donkey Kong, I'd play that, and Super Wario Land sounds like an absolute blast.

Also, just throwing it out there, they could bring back more nostalgia bait with the tagline "Now You're Playing with Power... SUPER POWER!" that was a part of the SNES marketing.

Nintendo loves gimmicks. Dive into it harder! Hell, I'd take the Switch Advance over the Switch 2, which was a major upgrade for the GameBoy lineup. 


Will the Switch 2 be Successful?

It would be silly to sit here and say yes without seeing any other information on the console, but the way things are currently looking, I feel like being a silly billy and saying, yes, the Switch 2 will be a successful console launch for Nintendo. They have already given us a peek into the new Mario Kart game, which leads me to believe we will see Mario Kart as a launch title which is incredibly strong and gives us the system seller; Not to mention Metroid Prime 4: Beyond which is going to kick some serious ass on this bad boy. I would be willing to wager that we will see at least three major launch titles for the Switch from Nintendo, one of which may be a remaster of an early Switch game. I have no concrete evidence of any of this, it's just a gut feeling that they are going to do this thing right. We should also see exclusive Pokemon games for it, which, had the Wii U had mainline Pokemon games, that thing would have really sold!

With rumored upgrades to older games, that is much inline with the way PlayStation and Xbox have been doing things from generation to generation in the modern world of gaming, which is promising that we might be able to see boosts to framerates on the Switch's Zelda titles which were a slight victim to poor hardware. Speaking of hardware, we're also in a fantastic spot for computing power as a whole. Look at the modern age of what you can do on your phone. People are playing truly world-class games on mobile devices and the Switch is exactly that, a mobile device. With 8 years of advancements in computing, it wouldn't be surprising to see a 3-4x performance on the handheld while giving way to the same battery life we all expect from it. That gives us competitive hardware, for a handheld anyway.

The branding? Honestly, as much as I may be disappointed that Nintendo didn't pay homage to its roots by calling it the Super Switch, naming the console "Switch 2" conveys to consumers this is a proper upgrade forward. Sony is still using the "add a number" to the consoles on each of their releases which is understood by consumers so it should fit well for Nintendo. Microsoft... yeah let's not talk about their insane naming conventions for the series of Xbox devices because their sales aren't anything special to talk about. That, paired with really drilling into everyone that there is backwards compatibility and there will be exclusive games to the Switch 2 makes it more obvious this is new. That gives us better branding and potential for marketing - we're all familiar with the Joy-Cons so there won't be any Wii U gamepad nonsense here - it's an understood mechanic.

We've also got the form-factor. You can shove the Switch in your backpack to travel with it easily, play it on your commute, cozy up in front of the window watching the snow fall, or get hardcore about it and throw it up on the TV. This is a hybrid handheld+console and it's exactly what fans of Nintendo want to play with. The 3DS was incredibly popular, and that popularity moved into the Switch - and made it so much easier to consume Nintendo games on one console instead of needing 2. This gives us comfort.

I'm looking forward to getting my Switch 2 on release and having it feel like Christmas morning all over again when we received an N64 from Santa. That first time holding it in my hands will certainly be an incredible experience and like my first unboxing of the Switch, it will not be forgotten. What do you think about the name of the Switch 2? Let us know in the comments below!