Nintendo Aims to Match Switch Success with New Console

AFP-Jiji

12:49 JST, June 1, 2025

TOKYO (AFP-Jiji) – Nintendo hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its levelled-up new console hits shelves Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price.

Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third best-selling video game console of all time.

But despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out.

The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high” compared to the original device, company president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a financial results briefing in May.

“So even if there is momentum around the launch, we know it will not be easy to keep that momentum going over the long term,” he warned.

Sales of the Switch, which can connect to a TV or be played on the go, were boosted by the popularity of games like “Animal Crossing” as a pandemic lockdown pastime.

The Japanese company forecasts it will shift 15 million Switch 2 consoles in the current financial year, roughly equal to the original in the same period after its release.

The new device costs $449.99 in the United States, over a third more than the Switch. A Japan-only version is cheaper, at ¥49,980 ($350).New Switch 2 games such as “Donkey Kong Bonanza” and “Mario Kart World” — which allows players to go exploring off-grid — are also more expensive than existing Switch titles.

Most original Switch games can be played on the Switch 2, and some Switch blockbusters such as “Zelda: Breath of the Wild” will have enhanced editions released for the new incarnation.

‘Super excited’

“People were a bit shocked by the price of ‘Mario Kart World’, the first $80 game that we’ve ever seen,” said Krysta Yang of the Nintendo-focused Kit & Krysta Podcast.

While the company is “going to have to do some work” to convince more casual gamers that it’s worth upgrading, Nintendo fans are “super excited”, she told AFP.

The Switch 2 will have eight times the memory of the first Switch, and its controllers, which attach with magnets, can also be used like a desktop computer mouse.

Although the new console is not radically different, “a lot of people [are] saying, ‘this is what I wanted, I wanted a more powerful Switch — don’t mess with a good thing’,” said Yang, a former Nintendo employee.

New functions allowing users to chat as they play online and temporarily share games with friends could also be a big draw, said David Gibson of MST Financial.

“It’s a way to appeal to an audience which has got used much more to the idea of streaming games and watching games, as well as playing games,” he told AFP, predicting that the Switch 2 will break records in terms of early sales.