Reggie Fils-Aime admits Switch is a make or break product after Wii U

Nintendo Life

"You know, Nintendo has done so many innovations in the space... I think what Nintendo did with the Switch, after the poor performance of Wii U, I think to me and what I was part of, that's my lasting memory."

"People forget, when the Wii U launched, the performance over that life cycle was so poor, I mean it was the worst-selling platform, I think maybe Virtual Boy was a little bit worse, but Wii U underperformed pretty radically in the marketplace."

"And when your only business is video games that next had to be successful and the Switch continues to be a dynamic platform - selling exceptionally well. And the ability for the company to come up with the concept, to bring it to life, to bring it to the marketplace, to have not only great first-party content but great third party and independent developer content - that is going to be something I will always be proud of."

"Along with so many of the other things I was part of, but the Switch really was a make or break product for the company and luckily it was a hit."

Thank the Gods, it was a success then! That would've been REALLY, REALLY BAD if it wasn't!

And all those demanding Nintendo to "pull a SEGA" after Wii U's failure (which infested gaming sectors of the internet at the time, more so than GameCube):

I’m really glad that Nintendo made the Switch. I Iove my switch so much that I’ll buy the next gen version.

Absolutely love the Switch, in many respects it's the dream console I've always wanted (portable and can be connected to TV).

Damn! They were so close. Maybe next time. 😎

But did the Switch succeed because of the combination handheld/tv console or in spite of it? It may be one of those popular opinions, but I'll say in spite of it. Nintendo got lucky, because the Switch is not a very portable handheld device at all, and is rather underpowered for a TV console too. They're lucky that decent games managed to save it because i really don't think the whole dual mode concept will result in a device that is more than mediocre at both.

I recently bought a Switch, it's my first console purchase in about 10 years. It sits on the deck, it has never moved from the dock, and it'll never be removed from the dock. It's better than the lame ass Wii and Wii U because it at least attempts to use a somewhat non-gimmick control interface, but I bought it because it has a decent collection of good games, no other reason.

So happy that the Switch did well then. While I still have a few gripes about it I do very much love the system, all the great games that I currently have for it, all the great games that I still want to get, and all the great games that will come out for it still.

I'd love Zelda on PS5. Imagine a Zelda the likes of Twilight Princess but with modern graphics. That would have been awesome. Oh well... the wait for Breath of the Wild 2 continues. I'm betting 2022.

Reggie. Still kickin ass and takin names, but no longer makin games. How is Nintendo supposed to replace this guy?

You've got a plethora of clones with the PS family, buddy. Immortals: Fenyx Rising being the most recent.

Immortals is closer to Assassin's Creed.

@nintendoboy16: You know it's not the same.

Regardless, I have a Switch for the family. I'm set.

Lol. Well, the same thing happened to Nintendo when they needed the ds to be a massive success after The release of the GameCube.

Iwata once said: - If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell

Has Reggie ever given the 411 on why NOJ thought Wii U failed terribly?

It’s crazy to me that the make or break console was just an evolution of what failed previously. Most companies coming off a failure would have tried something drastically different and desperate like giving all their first party games away in a subscription service that costs as little as $1 or a box of pop tarts. Nintendo stuck with their vision and went all in.

This is what happens when your systems survive on gimmicks. Glad they survived, but its kinda sad that this is what's needed for Nintendo to survive.

That kind of goes without saying

Survive? The Switch has outpaced everything. It passed the PS4 LTD sales in Japan in a hurry. The Switch blew by the Xbox One in the U.S. in a fraction of the time on the market. The Switch has won the NPD for like 2 straight years now... I would say that's just a tad better than, "surviving."

Sounds like it survived to me. Surviving is not limited to barely surviving.

thats a sample of one. in my case its about 70/30 in favour of docked. but a few years ago nintendo came out saying that overall its 50:50 ish in terms dock to portable usage....even favouring portable slightly. you may see no value in the flexibility of it but a lot of people clearly do.

@goldenelementxl: the switch isn't really an evolution of the wiiu though but your comment on why the wiiu was a failure is a clear indicator of why it failed so badly. functionally the switch is a slight regression if anything.

the wiiu was designed to bring dual screen gaming into the living room. it was to make your room a big, more powerful and more flexible DS basically. hardware wise they did it and did it well. but it had a few big problems.

1) nintendo made a spectacular screw up of telling people this. people didnt know what to make of it. their promotion of the wiiu was a disaster in general.

2) the games on the DS didn't really make much use of the 2 screen facet of the system. the second screen was a nice to have for maps and such but very few DS games really needed that second screen. nintendo got away with it since the DS still got cracking games and the system itself didnt cost a fortune.

The wiiu was a different story. it really exposed the fact that nintendo themselves didn't really make games that use 2 screens effectively. so they were offering a system more expensive than a PS3 or 360 at the time (that gamepad came at a price) with a collection of games that was a lot more limited and its hook was not really all that useful or interesting to people. the wiiu had no killer app.

The switch is what people thought the wiiu was. the switch is an easier sales pitch and its a device that suits nintendos own games quite well (games like animal crossing are made for handheld gaming...being able to play it on the telly is a bonus really).

Yeah it's amazing isn't it... you can see what they were going for with the Wii U, but just didn't execute it well enough. Luckily they nailed the Switch... it's honestly up there on my list of favourite gaming devices. It's awesome.

I don't agree. Nintendo marketed the dual screen stuff, sure. But that was more asynchronous gaming than it was a DS clone. The tablet mode was more of a selling point throughout the life cycle. Nintendo struggled with the asynchronous stuff from the get go and kinda dropped it. While most Wii U owners, all dozens of them, used the tablet functionality as a way to play the system without tying up the TV, or to play in bed etc. The Switch completely removed the tethers of a console box and gave users complete freedom to do what they want. That's why the Switch succeeded. And looking at the systems side by side, the Wii U looks like a prototype of the Switch.

Sure there are things the Wii U shares with the DS. But the Switch is far more like the Wii U than the Wii U compares to the DS.

They merged their home console market with their handheld market. It was a genius move. Now they are able to focus on one platform.

The only thing I hope they do next time is allow the dock to actually have some processing power so it will perform significantly better when it's hooked to your TV.

@goldenelementxl: But the concept of the wiiu during its development was as a DS like system: asynchronous gaming for the living room. the promotion changed around it later, sure, but the system itself didnt. the initial concept was all about that dual screen gaming and nintendoland was supposed to really show it off.

the off big screen gaming was a side feature that it inherited from its design but nintendo didn't make the gamepad primarily for just playing away from the main screen. this was not the focus during the wiiu's development. just look at its reveal (if you can endure the cringe again :P)...all 2 screen stuff and a zelda tech demo to show off graphics.

did many games use the dual screen nature of the system? sadly no. this contributed to its failure. even nintendo didnt know what to actually do with it (on a side note: i think BOTW was quite different before they had to port it to the switch).

I have a wiiu, switch and 3DS in front of me. i'm one of the dozens. i can tell you absolutely that the wiiu is a console 3DS. i played pikmin 3 and xenoblade X and they had me looking at both screens at times and using the touch screen...like a DS. you do have a point in that most people in the end probably did just use it to play games off the main telly but that's just a reflection of lacking software. the wiiu itself was supposed to use both screens at the same time.

the switch has more in common with the wii than it does the wiiu. the joycons are more like wiimote/nunchuck 2.0s. the switch cant render to 2 screens at the same time. there is no big horsepower leap from its predecessor. its a smaller, portable and functionally upgraded wii.

most importantly, like the wii, the switch has the software to back up and show off its features. games suitable for short bursts on the go and games that can be played for longer sessions and everything in between. games the compliment the system well. this is the key reason the switch is doing well and why the wiiu failed so badly.

Switch is a homerun for Nintendo, but feels like a missed opportunity too.

Would've loved to see companies port big name games from older gens- games that could run well on the Switch.

Still- its become the same tier good as SNES and Gamecube

Does it really matter how much money they've made with the Switch? By barely reading the article, from my understanding, if the Switch failed like the WiiU did, Nintendo would've been in the Sega shoes. So how is this not surviving? They were lucky for not only surviving, but striking gold with the Switch. But it could've been a very different story, especially since they've reused the same but improved WiiU formula.

I kind of hate the Switch as a product. It's not ergonomic. Joycons are dumb and small. It's underpowered and it shows in the performance of the games.

I am clearly not Nintendo's target audience, but I'm glad it did well for them. I do want them to stick around.

I honestly think Switch is the best Nintendo system ever. I hope they nail it with the Switch 2/Pro.

I have the Switch Lite it feels better than the Vita too me. I play it a lot more. I dunno what your talking about its a little bigger my hands kinda cramped on the vita. No dude this doesn't feel bad at all do you have the Lite or the regular one? Get the lite.

Given your posts... are you though?

Not because i bitch n moan about Nintendo that i want Nintendo to die. Maybe i want Nintendo to change their direction and aim at core gamers instead of children. Maybe i'd own their system if that was the case.

Dude... Nintendo is DONE with the "core gamer" and rightly so. Why else do you think they went the way they did with the Wii after GameCube blew up in their face? And why would they WANT to cater to an audience that had little regard for them to begin with?

Very closed minded thinking. I'll help you out. Now imagine for a second that the Switch 2 has 2 sku's. SKU 1- Improved Switch. Meaning, high resolution screen (1080p), DLSS support on all titles, around the same specs the original 2013 Xbone was and does not include the docking station. SKU 2 - DLSS support on all titles, 1440p screen, noticeably more powerful (i am aware that portable specs are limited and i don't know how good it can get, so i can't comment on the specs i'd like to see), Includes a standard well built controller for those who prefer using one instead of the tablet and a docking station. Said docking station is not a worthless piece of plastic that you currently have on the Switch, tho. Lets say that SKU2 is able to produce standard ps4 visuals when in portable mode. When docked, you receive a large boost in performance, be it visually and frames wise. Lets say 12tflops of juice when docked.

Now, how the hell would this be a bad system? You have choice. You get performance. You get portability and couch gaming. You get graphics. Porting third party would be easy af, so you'd get all the third party as well. Improve their shitty online system and this thing would be plowing through the ps5/seriesx.

But no. Lets just stay two gens behind competition and create children games as our main selling point of the system.

Yeah, you don't get to be throwing that around. Glass houses...

I really do not think that has anything to do with the success of the Switch though. I think abandoning the gimmicky controller schemes and adopting a more traditional layout as evidenced with the joycons having all the same functions of an xbox or playstation controller, as well as the Switch Pro has made a lot more people willing to buy it. If this was another Wii type of console, that's what would have killed it, not if it was a home only system.

I haven't purchased a video game console in over 10 years (since the 360/Wii era) but a few days ago, I purchased a Switch. Coming from PC gaming the last 8 years to the Switch and playing BOTW, I can immediately see where corners were cut to make the game large, but still playable. Textures look compressed AF, colors aren't as vibrant as they could be, shadows are extremely pixelated. Even Genshin Impact looks better and that's because of how low end the Switch hardware is. I am not saying Nintendo needs to change anything, because it's still the most successful console of the generation, however, there are some realities to consider.

The first reality is, I've never seen anybody carrying a Switch outside their homes. Not like they did with the DS and GBA, but obviously gaming handhelds have been killed by mobile devices and that is what people are mobile gaming on. You just can't fit a switch in your pocket and take it with you, it's too big to be all that portable. It seems to be fine for around the house or sitting on your bed, but I am not sure a lot of people bought the console for that. But in giving it that dual mode capability that doesn't really do mobile gaming all that well, it's made some sacrifices to hardware performance.

If Nintendo did release a desktop console, shipped with a pro controller, let's say with similar hardware specs to an Xbox Series S, sold for the same price with all of Nintendo's IPs but games like BOTW looking more beautiful than any Switch gamer could have ever imagined on top of it, again, all for the same price of what they have now, I think the sales they would make would blow current Switch sales completely out of the water.

It may be time for Nintendo to abandon the handheld idea, phones own that niche now and there's nothing Nintendo is going to do about it, but they could absolutely dominate the home console world if they focused on it.

Its funny cuz when their platforms were split between a home console and a handheld, they offered a shitton more games ON BOTH SYSTEMS. So how is merging both into one and offer nothing on yearly basis a good thing?

Well Nintendo is one of the only studios still making good games so even without hardware they would still sell tons of software I don't think it was do or die yet for them.

When I buy a game the first company i think of now is probably Nintendo...blizzard just put out garbage like war3 reforged and third parties are basically trash now a days.

@nintendoboy16: its interesting, when you think about it, yes the switch is one of the best selling consoles of all time, BUT Nintendo is in a risky position, because they cant compete with their handhelds anymore. They only have one egg in their basket hardware wise. If they cant succeed every generation now with non-handhelds, they will be screwed. This gen the switch is crazy successful. But when Wii and DS were hot, Nintendo was making a lot more money back then, AND if their next console isn't as successful as the switch they will keep going downhill and then maybe reddit will have to save them.

7th gen: 2 successful platforms (Wii, DS)

8th gen: 1.5 successful platform (1/2 of Switch, 3DS)

9th gen: .5 Successful platforms (1/2 of switch)

The Switch has far more games then the Wii U. Maybe not the 3DS but those games were far cheaper to develop. You wouldn't be getting any of the upcoming MH on switch if 3DS was still around though.

So you honestly don't think the kids who got the 3DS didn't migrate over to the Switch? Look at the sales numbers. There has to be some correlation between the two.

Yes I would love a powerful switch that rivals the PS5 / XSX but Nintendo has gone down that road before and every time they have got obliterated. Honestly their best bet would be to replace a more powerful handheld and allow the docking station to have a small cpu/gpu to allow the console to compete in docked mode.

WiiU had no games at all. The Switch has a lot of games, but most are from third party or lazy ports. I am referring to Nintendo exclusives made for the Switch, it doesn't get anything. Back when the 3DS was around, you were getting a bunch of games on it and the Wii.

I wonder if the Wii U would have been more successful if it was called anything other than the Wii U? I know a lot of people thought it was just a tablet accessory for the Wii and didn't realize it was a whole new console.

I still don't understand what exactly Reggie did for Nintendo. He's charismatic and has perfected the art of delivering entire paragraphs without actually saying anything of substance, but as far as Nintendo's success, what exactly did he contribute other than simply managing the distribution and marketing of Nintendo products in the US?

Correlation doesn't equal causation. Sales for all consoles are up, and cell phones killed the DS/3DS/2DS and Playstation's portable consoles as well. You can't fit a Switch in your pocket like you could a DS, and there's nothing a Switch can do your mobile device can't which is why Nintendo has already released some mobile games on phones. The most I see people using a Switch undocked for is to sit on their bed and play, or if someone else is using the TV for something. The Wii-U had both those capabilities, and they certainly didn't sell record numbers of those because of it, so when the handheld functionality of a Switch is no better, why assume it's the reason Switch is as popular as it is?

As for what Nintendo could do, I don't think they need to compete with the PS5 or XSX. Nintendo has ALWAYS maintained the same exact price point. You can go back to SNES sold for $199, adjust for inflation and find it'd be valued at $299 in today's currency. Same is true for N64, Gamecube, Wii, etc. But for a $299 price point, imagine if the Series S wasn't an Xbox budget console, but Nintendo's new console, how great their games would look on that, especially when they do not focus on photo realism anyway.

Here's an example of what BOTW could look like, which I believe looks as washed out and compressed as it does on Switch, with highly pixelated shadows due to hardware limitations. As it is, BOTW on Switch compared to the video below looks like I am playing the game with cataracts in my eyes.

@eoten: I understand what you're trying to say, but blowing Switch sales out of the water is pretty much impossible. The only dedicated gaming hardware that has consistently sold faster than Switch is the DS. Nintendo just updated the sales, and Switch isn't targeting Wii like you may think; it's gonna outsell Wii by the end of 2021. It needs that extra push.

On top of that, remember that they don't own Game Freak, and Game Freak does want Pokemon on a dedicated home console. They likely would have moved Pokemon to 100% mobile, which would have limited your theoretical console's sales. You're also assuming that people aren't getting value out of the portability unless they play outside of the house, which is just completely untrue

The Switch is great and much better than the WiiU overall but I thought the WiiU was way better than the Wii. Glad Nintendo is doing so well and I will still likely buy two of the updated consoles when they release.

I bought one because I was bored and liked the idea of playing indie titles on the go. Don't regret it actually. Although the first party library is not exactly extensive and there are a lot of wii u ports. If I'd bought a wii u then that I might like it less.

It is what I said the Wii U should have been.