While a lot of people who are too close to the picture may have struggled to see the utility of the Nintendo Switch – here was another pointless gimmick by Nintendo, many must have surely felt – it was smart move, something that has only been vindicated more and more as the Switch’s sales have continued to break records worldwide.
In the modern era, people live busy, hectic lifestyles, and they want their entertainment to be mobile. That’s why smartphones are as successful as they are, that’s why tablets and eReaders do as well as they do, and that’s exactly the core sentiment the Switch appeals to.
Speaking to Venturebeat’s Dean Takahashi, Turtle Rock Studios President Steve Goldstein pointed out that the mobility of the Switch was prescient on Nintendo’s part. “Nintendo has historically been a bit of an outlier when you talk about consoles,” Goldstein said. “Is the Switch even a console? Is it portable? What is it? It’s a smart move on their part because I think they understand that people want their entertainment to be mobile, something they can carry with them at all times. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who say, “Man, the Switch is amazing. I was playing it on my TV, and then, I took it to bed and kept playing Zelda.” That’s a huge move on their part.
“It also ties into — when you look at the direction of VR, AR, MR, wherever it’s headed, it’s all going to be essentially a portable device that you have on you at all times. That totally got off track, sorry.”
He is definitely on to something here- at a time when people spend more than an hour on public transit daily for their commute, when the demands of family life interfere with the ability to monopolize the TV for hours on end, when people are constantly on the move? The Switch is the perfect console, and its sales are reflecting that so far.