Nintendo Switch proves knockout hit for gaming giant, raising bar on console design and competitive gaming
Accompanied by a fleet of exclusive titles set to open up gaming to a new generation, Nintendo is once again on course to redefine gaming with its Switch console
The system has been selling faster than the company can make and ship units, and during this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the crowds running to see the console verged on dangerous.
One might think the system’s success has to do with its blending of a home console and a portable gaming system, but I think it really comes down to how Nintendo is using the Switch to redefine and broaden the appeal of eSports - a massively popular aspect of gaming.
To fully understand Nintendo’s approach to gaming, it’s important to go back to the 2006 release of the Wii, and what that console’s design said about the company. The Wii was Nintendo’s leap from a video game console maker, to a game and toy creator - as a result, opening up gaming to everyone.
What really sets Nintendo Switch apart is the ability to turn any coffee shop, dorm room or family road trip into a venue for some fun competitions
The company’s next console, the Wii U, was an unmitigated flop, but it did produce one very important game that helped shape the future of Nintendo: Splatoon.
Splatoon is essentially Nintendo’s family-friendly take on the first-person shooter, a genre usually riddled with bullets, blood and death. In Splatoon, you play as cartoon squids and try to out-paint one another in arenas with a variety of paint rollers and paintball guns.
It took the typical military design of a first-person shooter and changed the language into something more about fun and less about death. Hisashi Nogami, the producer of Splatoon 2 - which is headed to the Switch - says the game didn’t even start out as a shooter.
“Rather we wanted to make a game that the widest range of players possible could enjoy - from young kids to serious gaming fans,” Nogami says. “If that means, as a result, that we’ve created a game that players new to the shooter genre can enjoy, but also that shooter fans find satisfying, then that’s great.
“We also hope people watching this game for the first time feel that they’re invited into it. If that lowers the bar for the genre as a side effect, then we’ll consider that a success.”