What Comes After The Nintendo Switch? | Monocle

Was there EVER a time you can remember before Nintendo? Unless you’re over 128 years old, your answer is probably no. The Great-grandpa of gaming was founded 127 years ago in 1889, as a playing card company. They’ve been through not one, but TWO World Wars. They’re older than music on radio, penicillin, air conditioning, and have outlived drive-in theaters. Nintendo witnessed the transformation of technology, first hand, and adapted throughout the years to make a boatload of cash. That, my friends, is called surviving. Fast forward to now, and we’re all awaiting the release of Nintendo’s latest venture: The Switch. From what we know about the Switch, it is by all means, a risk that could go one of two ways. The Switch can revolutionize gaming as we know it, and lead to bigger and better innovations, or it could be a catastrophic failure that erases Nintendo from the gaming community. Today we’re gonna speculate about both of these situations, and discuss how Nintendo’s future dangerously balances on the success of the Switch.

First let’s start with that dreaded outcome, the Switch fails. Yes, it's a possibility, unfortunately. We don't want to think about it, ya know, nobody wants it to fail, we sure don't, we love Nintendo. However it is a possibility, and like all possibilities we have to consider it. Nintendo still could very well mess things up as they’re not a perfect company. Now, what if the Switch completely and utterly fails? Well, one possibility is, they give up on the hardware market, and as a result, they shift their focus on software. Mario on PS4, Zelda on Xbox, Metroid on PC, It's a crazy thought, we know. Nintendo going bankrupt, pulling a “Sega” and going third-party is so unlikely right now, that we might have to wait another 127 years to see it happen. Remember, this is a company with a net worth of $19.4 Billion dollars that we’re talking about here. Chances are unless they blow all of their money on uDraw’s and going to the moon every Saturday (we’re looking at you SpaceX) they’ll be safe for a while. Nintendo’s even gone on record multiple times saying they’d never make third party software for other consoles. What we're saying is that they will most likely join the “Mobile Revolution”, meaning they will work on making mobile versions of Zelda and Mario, not Xbox or Playstation versions.

Now, “Going mobile? That’s insane” we can hear you say. Trust us, it’s already happening. Nintendo’s first app “Miitomo” was released back in March, and it had over 10 million users within the first month. Nintendo’s also busy making “Super Mario Run” for iOS, and although not directly responsible for it, you’d have to be a deaf, dumb, and blind Pinball Wizard to not notice the enormous “Pokemon Go” trend that happened over the Summer. With the tremendous success of Pokemon Go and Miitomo, we can assume Nintendo's other 3rd parties like Metroid, Zelda and F Zero (please) are not far behind. And with everyone and their mother owning smartphones nowadays, their games would be easily accessible to an enormous amount of people, so it would be insane for Nintendo not to go down this route if the Switch is a flop.

Ok, so it’s clear Nintendo isn’t going anywhere soon, no matter what happens, but what if the Switch is the next big thing? The influence of the Wii’s success is pretty obvious; both Sony and Microsoft tried their hands at motion control gaming when they saw it selling like crazy. Nintendo even stuck with the Wii name for a second generation, to keep riding the wave of popularity. Let’s say the Switch completely blows the Wii out of the water in sales. The Switch is a mobile-console hybrid, so you could expect Sony and Microsoft to follow suit. Consoles and console accessories inspired by the Switch will enter the market, and give Nintendo major competition. Another after-effect of a successful Switch? More games. Developers go where the gamers are, so third party support suddenly skyrockets. Nintendo, not wanting to disappoint their fans, will also double down on first party support. We already have Zelda, and Pokemon confirmed for the Switch, but expect anything and everything. Kirby, Animal crossing, Metroid, Pikmin, a hundred Mario spin-offs you didn’t ask for and maybe F-Zero will all find their way onto the Switch.

In the end, Nintendo seems to be on the right track again when it comes to making hardware. If it continues then we won’t be seeing the big N going anywhere anytime soon. Just a reminder: The Switch is set to come out in March 2017, so hang on just a little bit longer.