the Nintendo Switch 2 was announced today and I immediately became nostalgic about the launch of the original Switch that arrived in 2017.

Nintendo unveiled its first machine, the Nintendo Switch, back on October 20, 2016 in a Nintendo Direct. This is from a position of weakness, due to the poor sales of the Nintendo Wii U, which sold only 13.56 million units compared to the first success of the Nintendo Wii, which sold more than 101.6 million units. .

This time, the reveal came in the form of a Nintendo Direct video that lasts two minutes and 21 seconds, and it has no voiceover. It was released at the groggy moment of 5 a.m. Pacific time today. A few years from now, I think we will all remember this moment as something special. It’s a moment of high anticipation, no doubt watched all over the world because of the leaks, and at least we got the official name confirmed: the Nintendo Switch 2. But if you’re looking for more, it’s a little disappointment as you have to wait until the next reveal in a rather long and slow marketing striptease.

Back in 2017, the overall game console industry was in good shape. The Sony PlayStation 4 is selling strong and Microsoft is struggling to keep up with the Xbox One. Nintendo’s world of cartoons and low-res games seems to be finally struggling in the race with high-end 3D graphics of other game consoles.

I’ve covered the game industry every day since 1996, and every console launch is always like a cultural moment. I’m nostalgic for launch moments like the Nintendo GameCube, the original Xbox, the PlayStation 2 and almost every console ever introduced. I miss those days when reveals happened at live events like E3 and sales were announced at midnight store launches.

Big games for the Switch launch include 1-2-Switch, a set of mini games; The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Just Dance 2017; Skylanders: Imaginators; Super Bomberman 3; I am Setsuna; Snipper clips; Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove; Pala Knight: Specter of Torment; and Fast RMX. The Zelda title is the most memorable, while 1-2-Switch has great games like Quick Draw that showcase the Switch’s unique motion-detecting gunfight game.

The Switch was officially launched on March 3, 2017, and it was a huge hit. The Switch is aimed at a wide demographic of gamers through multiple ways of using TV and running. It has become Nintendo’s best-selling game console with over 146 million units sold and 1.3 billion games to date.

No one needs to write anything about how weak the gaming industry is. Fast forward to today. Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion and industry watcher, dropped a 220-page slide deck which explains why the game industry has slowed down in the last 2.5 years and companies are struggling with 34,000 layoffs in game companies.

Venture investment has declined, mobile gaming growth has stalled, the pandemic boom has fizzled, and the industry has shrunk at a time when other industries are still thriving. For this year, it may be up to Switch 2 and Grand Theft Auto VI to save game sales.

Last time, Nintendo had Zelda and now there is a Mario Kart game, including 24 players in a race. The next bit of news will come at a Nintendo Direct show on April 2.

Nintendo says it will have a Switch 2 public hands-on tour in North America:

• New York, April 4-6, 2025
• Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025
• Dallas, April 25-27, 2025
• Toronto, April 25-27, 2025

Ball said on his deck so far that Switch sales have largely benefited Nintendo. Switch users buy 25% to 33% fewer games than PlayStation/Xbox owners, and more than half of sales are Nintendo games compared to 10% for PS/Xbox. It was dominated by sales of titles such as Mario Kart 8 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023).

Switch sales are not from net new players, but from the cannibalization of living room and handheld console sales. PlayStation and Xbox Series X/S sales are the same after 49 months of sales. Had to sell the Switch 2 to make up for the problems.

Now Nintendo has to convince us if there’s enough new here. In order for Switch 2 to win, it will have to compete with SteamDeck, which, as a PC type, has helped PC gain market share in recent years over consoles. And Steam’s biggest player base right now is in Asia and China in particular, Ball said.

One of the challenges is flooding the market with new games. Steam now introduces as many new games a year as it does over the lifetime of a Nintendo console.

Nintendo left many questions open, as it did not reveal any details. It shows how the Nintendo Joy-Con controllers can now be magnetically attached to the sides of the console, which is once again a hybrid TV and handheld. It also features a slightly larger screen and a sturdier stand. It will arrive in 2025, probably in the fall. Hopefully we will know the price and timing of the next event.

As mentioned earlier, I’m very interested to know if the specs for the Switch 2 will make cross-platform game development more difficult or easier. The hardware for the Switch 2 will likely be similar in capabilities to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and the SteamDeck. That means companies don’t have to create completely different versions of a game to run a Switch 2 title.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Switch 2 is another smash hit. But we’ll find out in the coming months as titles are revealed and the uniqueness of the Switch 2 is explained.

Meanwhile, I think nostalgically back to the fun days of 2016 and 2017 when the last machine came out.