Despite Nintendo's legendary management eccentricities—and in some cases, because of them—the company looked a little unsure of itself in 2025. Perhaps it was the pressure. After a reported delay until late 2024, Nintendo finally had to bite the bullet and release the successor to the most successful console of all time: the Nintendo Switch.
It sounds like an enviable position, and it is, but the leader of the group has never been where Nintendo was most innovative or relaxed. Oddly enough for such a conservative company, Nintendo never fares better than when it throws caution to the wind on its way to a comeback from a timid setback – following the GameCube with the Wii or the Wii U with the Switch. Putting managers and designers in the position of being responsible for managing success seems to stress them out, reinforce their conservatism, and drain their best ideas.
This threatened to happen throughout the Switch 2's release year, but it never happened. There were PR gaffes and misreporting. There were unpopular pricing decisions. The games were good, but by Nintendo's high standards, most of them left a lot to be desired. And in the end, none of it mattered. With an enviable lack of drama, Switch 2 smoothly transitioned into biggest console launch of all time.
It may have been destined, but at times this year it felt like it wasn't guaranteed. The year 2025 began with the official presentation of the Switch 2 amid a flood of leaks. Nintendo refused to back down from a strict PR schedule that was a carbon copy of the Switch's launch campaign, despite an advanced level of pre-production that meant the new console was almost out. In this context basic launch video and the predictable premise – it's called Switch 2, it looks like a Switch, it has Mario Kart – prompted a universal shrug of “Is that it?”
Then I had to wait a long time until Full disclosure in Aprilan event that was very informative – a lot of details, a lot of games – but still left observers with many questions. The first one was, “Wait, is that really worth $450?”
It talks all about the shocking rise in prices of everything with microchips in 2025, but nine months later it seems strange that we thought it was too expensive. Remember when the Trump administration's tariff policies were the enemy of affordability, not the rampant expansion of artificial intelligence data centers that produce processors and memory chips. more expensive than gold? Those were the days!
In hindsight, we can now admit that while Nintendo may have gotten a lot of details wrong this year, this major decision hit the bull's eye. Through good timing and common sense, under enormous pressure but backed by vast market experience, Nintendo executed the perfect retail strategy for the Switch 2. The killer blow was the sub-$500 price per console. World of Mario Kart a package that looked like an even better deal after the widely ridiculed decision to sell the game separately for $80. This was enough for the right side of too much.
Can Nintendo handle these prices? As component costs rise, the company may have to make a choice between a frying pan (reduced profits, perhaps even selling the Switch 2 at a loss) and a fire (increasing prices). Both will be extremely unattractive to management. But it's a 2026 issue worth thinking about after Nintendo sold a conservative 19 million items during its current fiscal year.
In the face of this booming hardware sales success—and World of Mario KartWith a connection speed of 92%, it seems trivial to raise questions about consumer-unfriendly policies like physical game key cards that don't have games on them, or laughable mistakes like the decision to sell an impressively dry demo package. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour instead of just giving it away, or the stinginess and brand pedantry that underlies the existence of products like Super Mario Jamboree Party – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV Upgrade Pack.
Perhaps it's more instructive to pick up the Switch 2 and remember that Nintendo hardware designers and engineers were right. The console has become so seamlessly integrated into our lives – as intended – that it's easy to overlook how perfect it is. It's amazingly powerful, supremely elegant, built and finished to a high standard, packed with features, and in terms of design and usability, it's perfect. hosts laptop competitions at a lower price.
Backwards compatible, attractive design, competitive price: the Switch 2 performs well. And that's for the best, because games on their own don't make a compelling case. As a developer and publisher, Nintendo had a 7 out of 10 year. World of Mario Kart It's exquisitely crafted in detail, but feels half-realized and irritates some players' preferences. Donkey Kong Bananza is a boldly conceived, big, blunt explosion that doesn't hit the sides any more than a banana. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond it's a disappointment that's playable on Switch anyway; Pokemon Legends: ZA passable bypass.
And yet. The universally accepted truth is that Nintendo will become Nintendo, and that includes doing something as inexplicable and brilliant as commissioning Masahiro Sakurai to make a sequel to the 20-year-old cult cartoon racing game that was hated by critics – in the year of Mario Kart! It sounds stupid and it won't win any console wars, but Kirby Air Riders it's clever fan service, great counter-programming, and a real dose of video game fun. No other gaming company can deviate this much, any more than they can release overpriced, primitive remasters of a couple of old platformers – Super Mario Galaxy And Super Mario Galaxy 2 — and get away with it because games are literal, timeless perfection.
The Switch 2's stellar sales start doesn't guarantee its long-term success. The price of silicon poses a real threat to it, and if Nintendo's game developers don't start firing on all cylinders soon, it could run out of steam. But now the pressure is off and Nintendo can be itself again. There is always the possibility that one day this legendary company will run out of ideas. But I remember thinking about this before Switch; I remember thinking about this before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And just look what happened.
