The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been unveiled. But, in a minimal announcement video, Nintendo chose to mostly show off the new hardware, plus a small glimpse of what appears to be a new Mario Kart game. It’s a deflating moment, and a curious decision. For Nintendo above all game console manufacturers, the link between hardware and software is an intense and symbiotic one — and Nintendo’s exclusive games are the primary reason to buy its consoles.
The Switch 2 will be no exception. In fact, this might be more true for the Switch 2 than many past Nintendo consoles, because the Switch 2 has no major new gimmick of its own, give or take what seems to be a mouse mode for its controllers. It’s a straightforward hardware upgrade: a bigger, better Switch, with largely similar features. Why would players who aren’t fussed about upgrading to the latest tech bother getting one? To play the latest Mario Kart, Super Mario, or Animal Crossing, of course — which makes the absence of more than one of these games from this initial sales pitch rather baffling.
We’ll have to wait and see what Nintendo’s plans are for revealing Switch 2 games. It’s notable that, while there have been leaks about the console itself for months (if not years) ahead of its announcement, there have been next to no leaks about its first-party games, Mario Kart aside — and no substantive details about that game, either. The announcement video certainly doesn’t give much away about it.
Otherwise, the chatter is all about ports of existing or already announced third-party titles like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, Metal Gear Solid Delta, and even Halo: The Master Chief Collection. These games are known quantities, and publishers’ interest in bringing their recent hits to a more powerful successor to the 146-million-selling Switch is surely a given.
Nintendo itself has successfully kept its own Switch 2 titles locked down, and seems happy to wait a little longer — probably until the Nintendo Direct on April 2 — to reveal them. Perhaps Nintendo has some true surprises in store. Perhaps it wants to give each game its own time to shine. Or perhaps Nintendo’s marketers feel it’s better to wait to show the games until there’s an opportunity for people to play them on the host hardware, to fully appreciate how the experience is different from playing on a Switch.
There’s a very relevant comparison here, and that’s the Switch’s own announcement video. Like the Switch 2 teaser, this featured just one all-new reveal, and a similarly teasing one: a glimpse of the then-unannounced Super Mario Odyssey. But Nintendo showed quite a few other games playing on Switch, from both its own studios and other publishers. There was a port of Skyrim, an NBA game, and several ports of known or released Wii U titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon 2. These games were used to illustrate some of the Switch’s unique features, like its ability to switch between home TV and portable play, and its detachable controllers for portable local multiplayer.
The Switch 2 is backward-compatible with Switch games, so — since Nintendo is reluctant to reveal many of its new games — why would it not use this same playbook again, and simply show some existing titles running on the new machine? The answer lies in the crucial difference in context between the launches of the Switch and the Switch 2.
Firstly, the Wii U had been a sales flop. Games like Mario Kart 8 were consequently underplayed back in 2016, and a wider audience would have been excited at the prospect of getting its hands on these games on a new console, and thrilled at the prospect of the (already well publicized) new Zelda title coming to the new hardware. The same can hardly be said of Switch games; I assume most everyone watching the Switch 2 announcement video already has the means to play them. Even showing, say, a Switch 2 version of the upcoming Metroid Prime 4: Beyond risks sending the wrong message: Why do we need a new console again?
Secondly, the Switch was a new concept that needed explaining when the original console was announced, and this would have been next to impossible to do without showing games being played in the new contexts afforded by Nintendo’s innovative design. The same is not true of Switch 2, which offers more of the same. It is very easy to understand what this console is from a simple reveal like this week’s video. Arguably, the addition of Mario Kart footage didn’t add much to the video at all, beyond hinting at the future game reveals Nintendo has in store.
Maybe Nintendo didn’t focus on games in the Switch 2 reveal video simply because it didn’t have to. With a massively successful console on the market, and with the confidence of fans and investors at an all-time high, there’s no real reason for Nintendo to go straight for the hard sell on Switch 2 other than to satisfy our curiosity. It can afford to pace itself, not rush its marketing beats, and make us wait. But still. A little more would have been nice!
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