Remember Wii U, the very unfortunate Nintendo console that turned out to be a resounding flop for the company? Reggie Fils-Aime also remembers it well, who in recent days talked about the very delicate situation in Nintendo at the time and how Switch was seen as the final hope for the great N.
The former president of Nintendo of America participated a few days ago in a Twitch stream of New York Gaming Awardsalong with other big names in the industry such as Jack Tretton (Sony) and Robbie Bach (Microsoft).
Fils-Aime was asked what his defining achievement was during his time at Nintendo, and the executive talked about the company’s transition from the Wii U generation to the Switch. The ex-president of the American division of the big N does not get lost in too much talk: after the very heavy flop of Wii U, which managed to place just over 13 million units, the new hybrid console Switch was seen as the last resort for Nintendo consolesand the fate of Nintendo gaming would have derived from the new hardware:
Switch was a really decisive product for the company [dopo il flop di Wii U]and fortunately it was a great success.
Fils-Aime then recalls that Switch remains an incredible platform on the market even today, almost 4 years after its release:
When your only business is video games, it was necessary to be successful and Switch continues to be a dynamic platform, selling exceptionally well. This is also thanks to the ability for the company to devise the concept, to bring it to life, to bring it to the market, to have not only excellent first party content, but also fantastic third party content and independent developers: it will be something I will always be. proud.
We know how things went (Switch has sold approximately 70 million units to dateand still faces a long enough future), but what would have happened if the hybrid console had represented a new flop for Nintendo?
There are several possible avenues, but the most likely hypothesis is that Nintendo would have become a cross-platform publisher, continuing to expand its incredible franchises on other platforms, a bit like SEGA did in the 2000s after the failure of its latest hardware. In short, a Super Mario or The Legend of Zelda on PlayStation and Xbox would not have been unthinkable after all, in the event of a Switch flop. An eventuality that will not occur, however, in light of the extraordinary success of the console.
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