On March 3, the Nintendo Switch celebrated its eighth anniversary as one of the best-selling video game systems of all time. But for Kyle Ackerman, an adjunct assistant professor at USC Games, the Switch is just the latest link in a chain of Nintendo’s industry leadership.
“For decades, Nintendo has dominated the handheld market,” Ackerman said.
The Nintendo Switch has accrued over 150 million lifetime sales on the back of a company-wide ethos to make something unique.
“For me, the Switch is like a continuation of Nintendo building their own market,” said Martzi Campos, a professor at USC Games. “Nintendo decided, I think around the Wii, that they were not going to play this console war escalation… and instead, focus really on accessibility [and] different types of play.”
Campos explained that Nintendo has a focus on unique gameplay over sheer graphical power which allows them to be competitive with rivals like PlayStation and Xbox while not sacrificing the brand’s individuality. This gameplay focus is exemplified by the lineup of Nintendo exclusive games that players worldwide want to enjoy.
“Because those games aren’t getting released anywhere else,” Ackerman said, “People are always going to buy these handheld, portable consoles, and then they’re going to get to discover all the other cool stuff that’s on them.”
Best of the Switch
Over eight years, many successful and beloved games have been released on the Nintendo Switch. That means there is no shortage of different answers when one asks “what are your favorite Switch games?”
Even with the sheer depth of quality titles, there has never been anything quite like the system’s premier launch title from 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It is something Campos constantly sees when reading applications.
“I read so many Breath of the Wild [essays],” Campos said. “It informs what you want to make as a designer.”
According to Bouchard, both Breath of the Wild and its 2023 sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, wield a massive influence across the entire gaming industry.
“Those games are brilliant games, but the cultural impact of them, I think, is enormous,” said Sean Bouchard, a USC Games professor. “The way that they changed how we think about adventure, and how we think about open world [games], and how we think about Zelda as a franchise.”
The Switch also had one other major phenomenon. 2020’s saving grace for many was Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
“That got me through a couple years of the pandemic. I celebrated my birthday in Animal Crossing for a few years, I did New Year’s in Animal Crossing…. because there was nothing else,” Campos said. “Animal Crossing, to me, goes beyond a game.”
Other common answers included multiplayer mainstays like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. On top of these classics, Campos added the Nintendo-developed workout game Ring Fit Adventure and recent indie darling Balatro, while Bouchard mentioned other indie titles like Hades and Overcooked! Ackerman said he “weirdly played Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 an awful lot,” referring to a lesser-known 2019 action game.
Looking ahead
With a system as successful as the original Nintendo Switch, hopes are high for the recently announced successor, the Nintendo Switch 2, which is scheduled to release later in 2025. Still, Bouchard warned that it is not necessarily guaranteed to be an instant victory for Nintendo and its fans.
“Not every console it releases is a winner,” Bouchard said. “For every Wii you have a Wii U, for every DS, you have a Virtual Boy, right?”
The Wii and DS are two of the best-selling consoles of all time, and the Wii U and Virtual Boy are notorious failures on the part of Nintendo. This up-and-down nature is part of what Bouchard believes makes the company special.
“I think that it is only by taking those risks that are genuinely risks, that [Nintendo] is able to do the interesting things that it does that it finds success with,” Bouchard said.
Campos also wants there to be more to this ordinary-looking console sequel than meets the eye.
“It might look the same, but I hope all of a sudden we find out that, ‘oh no, it’s got this, this and this,’ and all of a sudden we’re playing in different ways,” Campos said. “Some of them might be weird [ideas], one of them might be a mistake, but I think it’s the spirit of innovation… [is] what pushes the field forward..”
Yet, Nintendo continues to face the issue of hardware. While the company has kept prices and budgets low by releasing technology far behind its competitors, reports indicate that Switch 2 will have power on par with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One or even the current-generation Xbox Series S. But Nintendo does not need to play the “next-gen” market for Ackerman.
“The only thing that I really want out of the Switch 2 is a better screen,” Ackerman said. “The Switch is always going to be driven by Nintendo’s properties. I’m going to end up playing Mario and Zelda on the Switch, [and] it doesn’t really matter what the specs are.”