Can Switch Stay Relevant?
Well, it’s been about 8 years, but the honeymoon phase for the Switch has finally ended. Their Q3 results for the 2024/2025 fiscal year were announced, and Switch console sales fell below even Nintendo’s expectations. With the official announcement of the Switch 2, it makes perfect sense. After all, why would people buy a new Switch when Switch 2 is right around the corner, waiting to make the existing model obsolete? Well, if Nintendo wants to overtake the PS2 as the best selling system of all time, that’s a question they’re going to have to come up with an answer for.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that I don’t believe Nintendo is all that concerned about that title. Nintendo is all about doing what’s best for the company long-term, no matter the optics. Responsibility is #1, and if there’s a decision to be made that could potentially hurt profits, they likely won’t make it. But I believe in my heart of hearts that the goal of making the Switch the best selling game system of all time is very achievable, and if I’m not mistaken (I probably am) it wouldn’t even be all that hard.
If you’re one of the 6 people who regularly read my nonsense, some of this might sound familiar, but I’m updating a few bits in light of recent events. Okay, time to put those tinfoil hats on!
It’s Time for The Nintendo Switch SP
With the Switch 2 being backward compatible, selling the original console is likely going to become a non-starter very quickly, especially in its current iteration. That said, the Switch has such a remarkable existing library that keeping the original on shelves beside the Switch 2, at least for the next year or two, could be a profitable idea, especially if they introduce a new model, the Switch SP.
The Switch is a brilliant machine, but it’s not without its faults, especially if you’re the kind of person who only likes playing handheld. This is where Nintendo could take a page out of their own history book and introduce a new budget-friendly version of the Switch that models itself after the Game Boy Advance SP, one of the most beloved handhelds of all time. Like the Switch lite, it wouldn’t have built-in breakaway Joycons, but it could be the most portable version released so far! It would need to be smaller. Not as small as the GBA SP, but small enough to fit in someone’s pocket. The return of the clamshell design is a must. It’s one of the coolest things about the SP and the DS line, and it helped keep those screens from getting all scratched up by the kids who owned them. Of course, it would need to be a bit more of a horizontal design like the 3DS, but the lack of a second screen on the bottom half would free up space for the additional needed buttons and analog sticks/pads. It would be compatible with the same Switch software as the Switch lite, and at a budget price, it would likely perform extremely well as an introductory system for families. Especially considering any games they buy for the thing will be playable on the Switch 2, should they decide to upgrade.
Of course, for this to work, it would involve some price restructuring. And this is where things get a little dicey.
You don’t want to have too many SKUs on the market. This means, to me at least, that it's time to say goodbye to the base-model Switch AND the OLED. Both of those models have a lot in common with the form factor of the Switch 2, and if Nintendo can help it, they probably don't want to muddy the waters in any way shape or form in terms of clearly delineating which system is the new one and which is the old one. The OLED has always been positioned as a sort of premium version anyway, so it probably makes sense to do a deep discount on remaining stock, and phase them out as quickly as possible, probably during the 2025 holiday season with an aggressively priced bundle.
But what about the Switch lite? Well, that did a great job of filling the need for a more budget-friendly version of the Switch, and I think they’re going to do that again in short order. Which is to say, the Switch lite would also be discontinued in favor of an eventual Switch 2 lite. So, in my wacky world of fantasy and wonder, this is what Nintendo Switch pricing would look like.
Switch 2 - $349.99
Switch 2 lite - $279.99
Switch SP - $149.99
Switch OLED - $199.99
Switch - $179.99
Switch lite - $99.99
The Switch 2 is probably going to be around $399.99. But if Nintendo really wanted to hit the ground running, coming out at $349.99 would be an incredibly bold move. Keeping the system under the $400 mark to that degree makes it seem a whole lot more affordable, especially against the $500 PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. Dropping the original models down to $199 and $179 respectively would help move existing stock pretty well, and clearly illustrate how much more premium the Switch 2 is by price comparison, but it also leaves room for an inevitable Switch 2 lite to sit comfortably at $279.99 without feeling too expensive.
Clear out the existing inventory at these prices and get the new (presumably cheaper to manufacture) Switch SP on shelves, and Nintendo would likely cross that PlayStation 2 threshold in no time.
The Return of Player’s Choice
So, that puts hardware into place, but hardware isn’t much without software, which also happens to be one of the Switch’s strong suits. The first and most important thing is a point I made before; Nintendo needs to create a new Players Choice or Nintendo Selects line. See, back in the old days, companies would reissue their older hits with a new banner and a lower price. Nintendo did it with the Player’s Choice label back in the Super NES days. PlayStation had their Greatest Hits line. Microsoft even got in on the action with their Platinum Hits games. Regardless, this move made a lot of sense back then because games were all physical products. Now, everything is digital, so games going out of print in the first place isn’t as much of a thing, and the older games get, the cheaper they become. EXCEPT FOR NINTENDO.
At some point, the big N made the executive decision that their first party releases would rarely, if ever, receive price drops. But in this landscape? It’s time for that to change in a very specific way.
The Switch is, for the most part, the last bastion of physical game releases. Yes, PS5 and Xbox Series games are released physically, but by and large, if you go to a Best Buy or a Target, the biggest physical games section is going to belong to the Switch. Now, we have the Switch 2 coming out, and it’s fully backward compatible with existing Switch software, so there’s no better time to take the biggest hits from Nintendo’s vault, and drop the prices. It will help bolster the Switch 2’s library, and having a line of top tier budget releases for the new budget version of the Switch would be a great way to win over customers and make some extra cash on the side.
This wouldn’t have to be limited to Nintendo’s games either. 3rd parties have traditionally released games under these banners in the past, and there’s no good reason we couldn’t see some of the Switch’s biggest non-Nintendo hits come back for fresh print runs as well.
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Now, let’s talk a bit more about the physical aspect here. Naturally, these prices would extend to their digital counterparts, and this would obviously be a great opportunity to get the best the Switch has to offer into the hands of more players. But physical games are a huge area of opportunity for Nintendo this upcoming generation, and they only need to do one small thing to make them a much more enticing proposition.
There’s no denying the convenience of digital releases. You buy a physical game, you will always have to get up off the couch and put in a fresh game card when you want to play something else. However, people like stuff. They like owning their games. They like having those cases lined up on a bookshelf. Kids like having something to open up on birthdays and holidays. They like being able to borrow a game from a friend. Digital games can’t do any of those things, but they do offer that instant gratification that can’t be underestimated.
Then there's the retail aspect. If all your games are digital, it’s harder to sell them in retail stores. Yes, the retail space has gotten considerably smaller in recent years, but there’s still a market for them, and those cute little download cards are a nice option, but they don’t carry the same weight as actually buying a game in a store and having a physical case to take home with you. What Nintendo needs to do is make their physical games more worthwhile, and it would be so very easy for them to make it happen. They just need to tie it to Nintendo Switch Online.
I’m not an expert on how these kinds of things work, but it’s always felt like a natural option to me to allow someone who physically owns a game to be able to download a digital version as well. Obviously, this opens the door to some piracy concerns, but I think the good will and service to the players would outweigh any potential piracy. Especially if you make it a feature that is only accessible to people with an active Nintendo Switch Online account. Heck, make it exclusive to the premium Expansion Pack version if you want. That might actually get even more folks signed up! They already have a number of cool perks attached to NSO like the Nintendo Music app and cloud saves. This would just be another incentive for folks to sign up. I don't know how you stop people from just borrowing or renting a bunch of games and getting them all for free. Maybe they have to put the game cartridge in their console every couple of months or something in order to keep the digital version operating. But however they do it, I think this would make for a heck of a great service.
This would also maintain a sense of value in physical releases, which retailers would probably be more than happy to give space to, which in turn gives Nintendo a bigger footprint in stores.
The folks at Nintendo are smart. Sure, they're more than a little crazy too, but that's why we love them. There’s a real opportunity to create a phenomenal generational transition here, and all it takes on Nintendo's part is recognition that the world is kind of hurting right now. Everything is expensive, the news is a constant deluge of awfulness, and video games make for a great outlet. Making sure there’s a high quality affordable option out there would be a wonderful thing, and one that I think a whole lot of people would be happy to see, especially if it makes the option to upgrade to the next generation as painless as possible.
Will Nintendo do these things? Probably not. I can’t even play the titles I own and download on my son’s Switch on my account. But I can dream, can’t I?
Whatever happens next, I’m excited, and I can’t wait to see how they’re going to handle all of this. Maybe they'll come up with something similar to what I suggested. Maybe they’ll do something completely different. Maybe Breath of the Wild will continue to be $60 dollars for all eternity. Who knows? I sure don’t, and that's a very exciting thing.
