The Nintendo Switch has been picking up steam ever since it’s release in March. The system has reportedly sold 4.7 million units as of June 2017 thanks to Nintendo’s Financial Report. Nintendo also has currently reported that Legend of Zelda breath of the Wild has sold 3.92 million units, Mario Kart with 3.54 million units, 1-2 Switch with 1.22 million units, Arms with 1.18 million, and Splatoon 2, while being left off the official report, has sold 670K units in Japan alone.
The system also has a very bright future ahead of it, thanks to third party developers. Capcom reported that they are preparing more titles for the Switch after Ultra Street Fighter II exceeded the company’s expectations for sales, with 450K sold just in the first quarter. Konami is also showing their support with Super Bomberman R updates, including a major patch for 60 FPS in the game. EA and Bethesda are gearing up with their Launch of FIFA and Skyrim respectively, and 2K announced that WWE2K18 is also coming to the system.The system even has Ubisoft and Koei Tecmo developing first party exclusives for the system in the form of Mario +Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Fire Emblem Warriors. It seems that a lot of developers are really molding their games around this system, and I think it’s time to admit that the Nintendo Switch is a success.
While there are still key franchises missing from the system, such as Madden, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Overwatch, developers and publishers are looking very heavily into investing their time into the system. Nintendo continues to give updates about their third party developers and how the platform is shaping up to be a success, and not even attempting to let up steam on their 3DS line up either. Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime attributes the success to their clarity of the system.
“We wanted to make sure that the consumer proposition was clear and easy to understand – console gaming that you could take with you anywhere and play with anyone. And consumers loved the concept.” This is definitely in a stark contrast to the Wii U, which sold around 4.5 million units in its first few months of release, and around holiday season to help boost it no less. What is also helping the Switch this time around are unique games and complete editions of older well received games being spread through out the first few months, such as Mario Kart, Zelda, and Minecraft, which has been on the Best Sellers tab for a long while in the Nintendo Switch Eshop for a long while now.
And the future for the Switch continues to look bright , with Mario Odyssey gearing up in October, and the future releases of Nintendo titles on the horizon, such as Xenoblade at the end of the year, and Yoshi, Kirby, and Fire Emblem slated for 2018, with Metroid Prime 4 and Smash Bros eventually coming. We also have other games to look forward to from third parties, such as Rocket League, Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveler, FIFA, WWE, Skyrim, and Sonic among other games.
We can only hope that Nintendo keeps enough of the system in stock for more people to purchase by the end of the year. What games are you looking forward to on the Switch? What is it that you want to come to the Switch, whether it’s games or apps? What would be your dream release for the Switch?