With Switch 2, Nintendo Can't Repeat The Mistakes It Made With The 3DS

With the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal on the imminent horizon, Nintendo finds itself at a critical juncture. Every console launch is a pivotal moment for a company, but that's especially true for Nintendo. The first Switch proved to be a remarkable rebound from the disastrous Wii U, becoming one of the best-selling video game consoles in history over the last eight years.

As such, Nintendo is undoubtedly facing a lot of pressure to maintain this momentum with its next console. And while it's tempting to compare this transition with the move from Wii to Wii U, the company's current situation more closely resembles the position it was in as it prepared to launch the 3DS--itself the successor to a hugely successful and influential system.

In fact, 14 years ago this week, Nintendo hosted a media event in New York detailing its launch plans for the 3DS. Though the company had publicly unveiled the handheld a few months prior at E3 2010, it withheld some key details--including the system's release date, price, and launch lineup--until this January event. In hindsight, however, the reveal offered a glimpse at a rough road ahead for the platform--missteps that Nintendo will want to avoid repeating when it finally launches the Switch 2.

Meager Launch Lineup

The first indication of trouble could be gleaned from the system's launch lineup. Although Nintendo had announced some exciting titles for the 3DS at E3--including a remake of the beloved Ocarina of Time, new entries in the Animal Crossing and Mario Kart franchises, and a long-awaited Kid Icarus revival--none of these would be available on day one. In fact, most would not arrive until several months after the system launched.

Instead, Nintendo pushed the 3DS out to market alongside a handful of amusing but slight built-in applications like Face Raiders, as well as three minor titles: Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, and submarine sim Steel Diver. Without a marquee first-party release to accompany the system, it fell to third parties to fill in the gap. Their offerings, however, were not much more enticing, with a port of the years-old Street Fighter IV garnering the most attention.

As a result, the handheld struggled to attract an audience right from the outset. As novel as the 3DS hardware itself was, the system hit the market without a true "must-have" game to convince players to upgrade, and many ended up waiting before finally purchasing one--a situation Nintendo will no doubt want to avoid repeating when it's finally ready to launch the Switch 2.

Price

Another crucial miscalculation on Nintendo's part was the system's price tag. By 2011, the final iteration of the Nintendo DS line, the DSi XL, was on the market for $170. Given the way Nintendo historically priced its handhelds, most industry watchers expected the 3DS to launch in the vicinity of $200. However, the final price would be much higher. Nintendo surprised many when it announced the 3DS would retail for $250--$80 more than the DSi XL.

Without experiencing the 3DS in person, it was difficult for consumers to square the steep price tag. The system's defining feature--glasses-free stereoscopic 3D effects--could not be adequately conveyed to prospective buyers without getting the handheld into their hands and having them witness it for themselves (and even then, the feature’s novelty was arguably not as enticing as Nintendo hoped and would eventually be phased out in later iterations of the platform). Moreover, the early launch games, while a clear step up from the DS in terms of graphical fidelity, were not exactly visual showpieces for the handheld, making it difficult for Nintendo to justify the system's price to consumers.

Missing Features

The final warning sign from the press event was the 3DS's features--or lack thereof. Although the system was poised to launch in March, its digital storefront, the Nintendo eShop, would not go live until June 2011: three full months later. Moreover, though Nintendo had touted the system's ability to play 3D movies back at E3, it had no further news to share about this feature during the January press event, which gave the impression the company was rushing the handheld out to market before it was ready.

Taken together, these three missteps set the 3DS on a rocky path, and the system limped out of the gate when it launched that March. Sales were so worrying that Nintendo took the unprecedented step of slashing the system's price by an eye-popping $80 USD in July, less than six months into its lifetime. (To further illustrate just how shocking this move was, the Nintendo Switch still has yet to receive an official price cut, nearly eight years into its life.) As a make-good to early adopters who did pony up the original asking price, the company also distributed an unexpectedly generous gift as part of an “Ambassador Program”: 20 free NES and Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games.

This drastic course-correction had the intended effect, and 3DS sales rebounded. By the time Nintendo stopped supporting the platform in 2019, the entire 3DS line had sold almost 76 million units--a respectable amount, but less than half of the 154 million units the original DS line moved. It's difficult to say whether or not the system would have sold much more over its lifetime had it had a smoother launch, but it's clear that early stumbles are difficult to correct, and most platforms never fully recover from a rocky start.

Nintendo is undoubtedly aware of these pitfalls, having gone through many successful (and not so successful) hardware launches over its long history. Company president Shuntaro Furukawa has repeatedly stressed the need to ensure Switch owners can "smoothly transition" to the console's successor, citing the Nintendo Account system as an integral component of this strategy. Like the 3DS, the Switch 2 will also be backwards compatible with its predecessor. Nintendo has already confirmed the new system will play original Switch games, guaranteeing it has a deep library right from the outset (especially with major Switch 1 titles like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokemon Legends: Z-A still on the way later this year).

Despite the similar circumstances it finds itself in, Nintendo is in a better position than it was when the 3DS launched. For one, every public statement indicates Nintendo will treat the Switch 2 as a continuation rather than a fresh start, as it has traditionally done when launching a new platform. To date, every system Nintendo has released has featured a distinct online service and storefront, which meant the company was continually starting from scratch each generation. The Wii stands as a prime example: Although it gradually built up an impressive selection of retro Virtual Console games over its lifetime, once the Wii U launched, Nintendo had to wipe the slate clean and release the games--at its typical glacial pace--all over again on the Wii U eShop.

That will not be the case moving forward thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, which Furukawa confirmed will also be available on Switch 2. Over the past seven years, the subscription service has amassed a vast collection of legacy games between its base and Expansion Pack tiers, so out of the gate Switch 2 users will have access to a wealth of classics--and a continued reason to subscribe to the service.

Time will tell how the Switch 2 will ultimately fare whenever it finally launches, but these are promising signs that Nintendo is taking the lessons of its past failures seriously and is doing its best to avoid repeating the mistakes that have hampered its previous consoles.