If Nintendo Switch 2 is a failure I fear for the future of gaming – Reader’s Feature

Failure is not an option (Nintendo)

A reader worries what will happen to the games industry at large if the Nintendo Switch 2 is a failure and fears it will mean a move into PC gaming.

These should be exciting times for being a gamer. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are the most powerful consoles ever made and the companies behind them are rich and fully invested in the industry. Other publishers seem to be making plenty of money too, with Ubisoft the only exception.

We have the Nintendo Switch 2 coming up soon, probably around June, with other next gen machines hinted at for a few years after that. It all seems like the perfect set-up for a new golden age of gaming, so why does everything feel so apocalyptically depressing?

Sony and Microsoft seem to have gone mad (Sony doesn’t make games anymore and Microsoft wants Skynet to make games for them instead of people), everyone else has either been sold off or laid off, and I can’t remember the last big name game that wasn’t a sequel or a licence. Save us Switch 2, you’re our only hope!

I don’t think I’m the first person to worry about what happens if the Switch 2 doesn’t knock it out the park. It probably will, since it seems everyone is excited about it and Nintendo has had plenty of time to make new games, but so many Nintendo predictions begin with ‘probably’ and end up being completely wrong.

I was actually feeling relatively optimistic about Xbox after their Developer Direct this year but all this AI stuff they’re going on about at the moment just shows they still don’t get it. As usual, Microsoft is always looking for a shortcut instead of just putting in the hard graft and this time it’s AI that’s going to end up costing hundreds, if not thousands, of people their jobs – and end up with terrible video games to boot.

As for Sony, what more can be said? To be honest I don’t care anymore, as to why they’re acting like this, I just know that they are and that they’ve gone from one of the most exciting and consistent publishers in the world to an out of touch curmudgeon that seems to hate games.

And that leaves Nintendo: the most talented but also most unpredictable of the bunch. Who would’ve thought they’d follow up the Wii with the Wii U? And who would be willing to bet that, while the Switch 2 seems like a slam dunk, they won’t find some way to mess it up.

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A hundred different things could go wrong, from the Switch 2 being too expensive, to having bad marketing or a bad line-up of launch games – all mistakes Nintendo has made in the past. And that’s not counting things they can’t control, from tariffs to unexpected hardware failures.

If something does go wrong though and the Switch 2 is a failure, or even just not as big as expected, then suddenly Nintendo are in trouble financially and prey to Microsoft and all the other vultures out there, that have been wanting to buy them for decades.

If Switch 2 fails then probably so do a lot of other developers, particularly in Japan, that were riding on it being a success, and suddenly Microsoft and Sony have got even less competition and they can make all their destructive plans and nonsense decisions with nobody having any alternative to them.

Maybe this is why PC has become so big in recent years, because people no longer trust Microsoft and Sony and they know that Nintendo could flip out at any moment. I understand that but I don’t want a PC. They’re too expensive and complicated and I like the certainty and simplicity of a console.

Hopefully that’s what I’ll get with the Switch 2 but if not then I predict another generation of turmoil… and a gaming PC on my Christmas list, whether I want it or not.

By reader Campbell

We still know very little about the Switch 2 (YouTube)

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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