The State of Nintendo in 2026
The Switch 2 has had an impressive start since its launch in June last year, but can Nintendo maintain that momentum as we head into its second year on the market?
I’ve been a Nintendo fan for as long as I can remember. The launch of a new system has always excited me, and typically I’ve been all in from day 1, The same was true for Switch 2. Launching alongside Mario Kart World and a handful of ports from other current and last-gen systems, it’s safe to say Switch 2 got off to a solid start. What the new system needed, however, was momentum, and this is where it’s safe to say the Switch 2 faces a battle ahead in the coming months and years. With hardware manufacturing costs increasing, driving up the price of consoles, and Nintendo’s push towards higher prices for games, the Switch 2 could be a hard sell for many.
New ways to pay
Mario Kart World launched at a retail price of £75 ($80) while it was also available as a bundle title with the console for a limited time at a slight discount, provided you were happy with a digital copy of the game. That said, Nintendo has taken the welcome decision to charge less for many of its first-party titles when bought digitally via the Nintendo eShop, with Mario Kart World selling for £66.99 in the UK at release and other titles following a similar structure. Alongside this change also came the ability to lend digital copies of games to members of your Switch Online family, albeit through an odd in-person-only system, meaning if your family isn’t all conveniently local or you share an account with friends, you’ll have to meet up to exchange digital licenses
A Link to the Past
A significant part of Nintendo’s release strategy for the first year of Switch 2 has focused on releasing upgraded versions of Switch 1 titles, either for free or as paid upgrades, with titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both available at launch as a paid upgrade, or included as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription. The Subscription also added a new feature not available on Switch 1, the ability to play a selection of GameCube titles on the system, a grand total of 3 of which were available at launch, with 6 titles added at an irregular pace in the year that followed.
The Virtual Boy also made a surprise return this year, with the entire console’s library and several unreleased games due to be released onto the Nintendo Switch Online service. However, the games do require additional hardware in the form of a faithful plastic recreation of the Virtual Boy’s chunky 90s glory or a much more affordable, and less comfortable to use, cardboard alternative.
You could also just hold the screen up to your face and cross your eyes, but You’ll just end up with a headache that’s worse than using the original Virtual Boy
A look to the future
Nintendo’s upcoming slate of releases includes a number of new entries in old franchises, with Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave coming out in September, joining the likes of other Nintendo series already present on the console, including Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Kirby Air Riders, and surprise hits like Pokemon Pokopia. Where things get a little odd is in the treatment of some of Nintendo’s biggest titles, at present there is no new mainline 2D or 3D Mario game announced for the system and classic series like Zelda and StarFox currently set to receive remakes of N64 Ocarina of Time and Lylat Wars (Starfox 64 outside of the EU) both of which already received remakes in 2011 for the 3DS, interestingly those remakes are now older than the original games were when 3DS games were released.
The recent Nintendo Direct announced a slew of additional ports from other systems, Indie titles, and upgrade paths for Switch 1 games, all of which should be releasing in the next few months.
Anyway, back to my crippling Vampire Crawlers addiction…