13 years ago, I was sitting in a packed auditorium at E3 2011, waiting for Nintendo to reveal the successor to the Wii. When former Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aimé said the words “Wii U” out loud, I turned to my colleagues in disbelief and stifled a laugh. It wasn’t just its name that caught me off guard—the whole concept didn’t make sense to me.
Was a bulky controller with a 6.2-inch screen slapped on what Nintendo thought people wanted after the success of the Wii and its sleek, simple remote? My concerns turned out to be justified, as the Wii U failed to attract a fraction of the audience that the Wii did, but as we approach the debut of the Switch successor, it seems as if Nintendo learned its lesson.
Without the Wii U, we might never have gotten the Switch, which was a clear evolution from its immediate predecessor. Nintendo, as is often the case, was ahead of its time. That said, the Wii U was a bust, and even in light of the Switch’s record-breaking success, some fans are worried that Nintendo is due for another big swing and a miss.
Thankfully, the recent avalanche of Switch 2 leaks suggests otherwise.
If you’ve been keeping up with the leaks in recent weeks, you’ll know that a multitude of sources have been zeroing in on the final design of the Switch 2. First were the accessory makers, which have been more than happy to share images of cases for the console, including some with a 3D render of the console inside the case.
Then came the Reddit leak. u/NextHandheld claimed to have gone hands-on with a retail unit of Nintendo’s next console, getting an up-close look at the hardware before its announcement. He sent proof to mods on the r/NintendoSwitch2 subreddit and The Verge, and everyone who saw that proof was convinced the leaker was telling the truth.
What we’ve learned from all these leaks is that the Nintendo Switch 2 is shaping up to be a true sequel to the original. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel, Nintendo appears to be taking what worked about the old Switch and simply upgrading it, from its display to the Joy-Con controllers to the internal specifications. It might be “boring,” but that’s exactly what we all want.
That’s also what Nintendo ignored 10 years ago with the Wii U. All gamers wanted was a Wii 2, not the experimental Wii U that they got. Switch 2 leaks suggest that Nintendo won’t be making the same mistake twice. At a glance, the Switch 2 appears to be little more than a larger Switch. The display is 8 inches instead of 7, the Joy-Con controllers are larger and attach magnetically instead of on rails, and the chip should be far more powerful.
Nintendo even seems to be naming it “Nintendo Switch 2,” based on a picture of the dock seen by The Verge. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Nintendo console if it didn’t surprise us in some way, so we’ll be looking out for that when the console is unveiled in the coming weeks.
