Nintendo Switch is a game changer for the gaming industry

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Nintendo has been stepping up its game in the past year with its latest console, the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo’s leadership finally figured it would put to rest the age old formula it has been using to make money off of since the dawn of video games, and bring in new strategies to shake up the industry and make a name for itself once again.

As one of the first gaming companies, Nintendo dominated the game for decades and is still a major player, but in recent years with the rise of more modern and complex techniques in making games, it has fallen off the top.

To many gamers, Nintendo has become a caricature of the secondary game company to the mighty Sony and Microsoft who make the major consoles, Playstation and Xbox. This is especially true with Nintendo’s huge flop, the Wii U, which seemed to have become a little more than the laughing stock of the next gen consoles, in my opinion.

Nintendo, instead of bringing the cutting edge in graphics and performance, has mostly relied on its exclusive ownership of their own games. This is because it was so huge and able to monopolize the industry, buying up most content to be published on exclusively Nintendo consoles.  

Xbox and Playstation do not own most of the games that are published for their consoles, whereas Nintendo owns a very large repertoire of some of the biggest names in gaming titles period.

It owns games like Mario, Zelda, Kirby and Pokemon. This has solidified a state of consistency in sales for Nintendo because each of these games has a committed and consistent fan base that will continue to buy the next game, and will buy the newest console to play those newest games.

With the recent failure of the Wii U, Nintendo has decided to step up its game and change with the Nintendo Switch. First, they released one of the most well acclaimed video games of all time. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” on many top 100 games of all time lists including Metacritic, has been a huge must-have game this year for many gamers that have more recently abandoned Nintendo.

I might add that they are also breaking the mold with their Mario games. For years Mario games have been the most well known games in the world, but they have also been well known with gamers to know what to expect from the gameplay.

With their new title “Super Mario: Odyssey,” they are breaking the mold and doing away with so many things that typified Mario games. For one they are doing away with the lives system and making it so that the famous coins that Mario collects along his journey have monetary value, which makes it into more of an RPG type game than the typical Mario game.  

This is something that Nintendo needed; they needed to reevaluate their formula and make changes to get them back on the top of the gaming industry. I might add that Nintendo is also discontinuing its age old Pokemon games and revamping the series by allegedly making a 3D RPG Pokemon game.

Even the Switch itself is extremely innovative. It is a home console that doubles as a mobile console. For years Nintendo has dominated the mobile console game with the gameboy and eventually the DS. Now they are using that to make a new innovation in consoles.

Something else they are doing that is very healthy for the gaming industry is promoting third party games on their system. Indie games have been flocking to the switch because they are allowing indie titles more room to work and making it easier for small production companies to publish on their consoles.

Now Nintendo is working its way back up to the top which is good for the industry because it leaves more than two viable options for gamers and creates a diversity in the gaming industry.

Ultimately it also keeps the companies on the top on their toes and keeps them competitive which also results in more creativity in the industry to stay competitive. Hopefully this new surge from Nintendo will continue and will spread to the rest of the major gaming companies and in the gaming industry.

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