Nintendo’s latest concept, the Switch, doesn’t impress gamers

Nintendo’s big idea for the next gaming trend is one machine that works equally well as a mobile gadget as it does on a big TV screen. So far, few are impressed.

A highly anticipated trailer released late last week for the device, called Switch, failed to excite investors or gamers after months of speculation that the Kyoto-based company would come up with a fresh twist on video games, like it did with the motion-based Wii in 2006.

“I love the concept of Switch, but that’s what it feels like: a concept,” says Elliot King, 33, who works in foreign affairs and lives in Tokyo. “I won’t be picking one up.”

His reaction offers a hint as to why Nintendo’s stock dropped 6.6 per cent on Friday, wiping out US$2.4 billion in market value, and falling a further 4.8 per cent on Monday. After teasing investors for more than a year with a promise of “a whole new way to experience hardware and software together,” the Switch was a big letdown, says Amir Anvarzadeh, Singapore-based head of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners.

“In an era of smart devices where you can play games anywhere, I don’t think conceptually it is evolutionary enough,” Anvarzadeh says. “The fact you can plug it in at home and take it away and play, so what? We were expecting a little bit more of Nintendo magic sprinkled, and I didn’t see it. The market is right about selling it off.”

The stock fall was even worse than the market’s reaction to the Wii U console, which came out after the Wii and was itself an attempt to combine the experience of playing on a big screen and a handheld device. Nintendo shares dropped 5 per cent on June 8, 2011, a day after the company unveiled the Wii U at a gaming conference. So far, Nintendo has sold 13 million Wii U units as of June, less than a third of the 40 million sales of Sony’s PlayStation 4s and a fraction of the 101 million the original Wii sold.