Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has spoken about the company’s decision to focus on increased power with the Switch 2.
In their latest Q&A with investors, Furukawa was asked about why Nintendo chose the clearly significant power increase in the new console. As we’ve seen, developers have been revealing that the console will output at 120 FPS, 120Hz, or 4K, or will use DLSS, VRR, and other features.
Furukawa said this about Nintendo’s decision:
We began development of Nintendo Switch 2 as an official internal project around 2019, but we constantly conduct R&D for new hardware, including basic technical research.
Nintendo Switch has enjoyed very good fortune in that many consumers are continuing to play it even in its ninth year. On the other hand, over the course of these eight years and counting, it has become necessary to increase hardware processing performance in order for software developers to realize one of Nintendo’s most valued tenets: offering new gameplay experiences. Thus, this time we decided to design the hardware with enhanced processing capability.
We believe that Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza offer new gameplay experiences that could not be realized on Nintendo Switch.
Regarding your questions about the innovativeness of the hardware, it may appear that there is not a major change between Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch. However, we have created new hardware and accessories from the ground up, and these are products very characteristic of Nintendo, packed full of our development team’s dedication to quality through various creative efforts and integrated hardware-software development.
Going forward, we will develop a variety of new titles centered on Nintendo Switch 2 and offer new gameplay experiences. We aim to make Nintendo Switch 2 the new standard for Nintendo Switch, as hardware that continues to provide fresh surprises to our consumers.
Furukawa also talked about this decision to increase the console’s power for developers. He said this:
Nintendo places great importance on whether the hardware is capable enough to enable software developers to offer new gameplay experiences.
Our top priority is that the software developed as a result of that policy be enjoyed by many consumers including both those who play games frequently and those who do not. Going forward, we aim to continue to develop hardware and software that will be chosen by a wide range of consumers.
As much as Nintendo fans and games press talked up how the late and beloved Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata made his impact felt even up to the Nintendo Switch, it’s time for us to recognize that Nintendo has moved on. If Iwata, or for that matter, Iwata’s predecessor in Hiroshi Yamauchi, would have also went with Nvidia to make the Switch 2, they may have still made some different decisions that could have made the console much more different.
Case in point, Iwata may have thought of coming up with more of a ‘gimmick’ to differentiate the Switch 2 from the Switch, as well as the other gaming handhelds that have emerged in the market. We could imagine that he would have extended the mouse mode even further, making it the central feature of the console. You may note that Nintendo hasn’t revealed that the mouse mode is usable in every game in the Switch 2 right now.
Yamauchi, on the other hand, was once called a Darth Vader-like figure in the video game industry. We think he would have focused on getting a cheaper SOC and made developers squeeze better performance out of it. This game philosophy, partly informed by another influential Nintendo inventor in Gunpei Yokoi, is why Nintendo developed to become masters of software optimization. But Yamauchi might have tried to buy an even less power SOC than what is in the Switch 2.
We should recognize that here and now, Shuntaro Furukawa has truly entered into his own era. There is no longer any question that all the decisions around the Switch 2 were approved by Furukawa, if he did not personally make each call himself. And Furukawa truly has to step up, as neither of his predecessors faced a console launch in as challenging a market environment as the Switch 2 is in now. Whether the Switch succeeds, falters, or completely flops, it will all be on Furukawa now. For the good of Nintendo, and the industry as a whole, we want to see Furukawa’s success.
