It’s been over eight years since the Nintendo Switch was first introduced. The once bold new concept and what was considered a reinvention of Nintendo’s console business – a move that initially surprised investors – feels pretty normal now. The widespread recruitment certainly helped. Since 2017, Nintendo has sold an incredible 150 million switch systems and hopes to maintain its success in 2025 with the upcoming Switch 2.
As the inches approach in the form of a dedicated Nintendo Direct, let’s take a look back at how the company originally pitched the Switch and what was promised about the system’s capabilities as it approaches.
In October 2016, Nintendo lifted the veil-on switch, which he previously mentioned under the codename NX. The company revealed the system in a video highlighting the Switch’s most central features. It is a feature that allows you to play games like consoles connected to your TV and play them on the go.
Nintendo revealed a switch that focuses primarily on the portable nature of the console, but several other features were also highlighted. The Joy-Con controller is detached from the console and connected to a shell called the Joy-Con Grip, which can be shared with friends in multiplayer games. Up to eight consoles can connect to each other for local wireless play.
It includes other features that Nintendo was advertised.
- The Joy-Con capture button on the left says, “Players can take instant screenshots of gameplay and share them with friends on social media.” The feature has been somewhat disregarded as Nintendo elicited support for posting screenshots on X (formerly Twitter) in 2024.
- An NFC touchpoint for using Amiibo numbers in games and an “IR motion camera that can detect the distance, shape, and movement of nearby objects.” IR motion cameras are used in about 12 games. 1-2 Switchyou know what they are, Ring Fit Adventureand warioware: Please run it!
- “HD Rumble” was touted as the most realistic subtle vibration Nintendo has ever seen on one of its controllers. “The effect is so detailed that players can, for example, feel the vibrations of individual ice cubes that collide into the glass when swinging the Joy-Con,” Nintendo boasted. “With HD Rumble, you can experience realism to a level that is not possible with just sights and sounds.”
“The Nintendo Switch allows gamers to play freely as they please,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo and COO of America at the time. “Game developers offer new capabilities to bring creative vision to life by opening up the concept of the game without boundaries.”
The company also teased online multiplayer services. This was later revealed online as the Nintendo Switch. Also, the smart device application that will be coming in the summer of 2017 will be “inviting users to play, schedule and chat online.”
Nintendo highlighted six games as part of its release. This is a mix of first-party and third-party software. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, NBA 2K18Super Mario Odyssey, and Splatoon 2.
Fils-Aime showed off the switch to US television in December 2016. Tonight’s show Host Jimmy Fallon has a crack The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Phils Ayme told the excited Fallon that he boasted that he could “play the game any way you want.” Wild BreathAn open world of “If you can see it, you can go there.”
Of course, Fils-Aime also did a big deal about the Switch Console itself, dramatically revealing its ability to play games on a big TV and immediately switch to portable mode and shoot on the go.
For the months leading up to the launch of the Switch, Nintendo continued to beat its drums, explaining the system’s three play modes: TV, tabletop and handheld. The following hardware overview video is a brief example of Nintendo’s message. You can “switch and play” games using the Switch’s unique motion and infrared sensing controller. arm And for more traditional games Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
After its release, the Nintendo Switch quickly proved itself, achieving “the highest sales in Nintendo history in the first five days after its release,” according to an interview with Fils-Aime. In that TV appearance, Phils Aim once again spoke about Switch’s “game changer” that allows gamers to not only have that “big screen experience,” but also “can play games on taxis, Uber, subways, and more.
But he also talked about Nintendo’s family-friendly strategies and the company’s long-standing mission to create games for players “from 5 to 95 years old.” The mission came from the late Satoru Iwata, who instructed Nintendo’s game designers to deal with all players, not just players who grew up (and stuck) with Nintendo from the 8-bit day.
For example, there is a continuous ongoing messaging that everyone has landed the Switch anywhere, anywhere, with consumers. So far, Nintendo appears to be engraved on the same approach on the Switch 2, despite tens of millions of fans having heard a loud and clear message to date. But Nintendo is still giving details. We will soon learn that we will remain interested in the idea of console handheld hybrids for years to come.
