Benedict Corpuz has always been a “day” type when it comes to fueling their habit of video games.
From his high school years, Kent’s 45 -year -old on -board agent Washington tried to get their hands on new Nintendo systems on the day of their release, be it the Nintendo 64 or its less popular successor, the Gamecube. The new Nintendo Switch 2 was no different. He aligned himself at 6.30 p.m. Wednesday at the Federal Way Best Buy in Washington, was authorized in the store at 9:01 p.m. and was back in his car with the coveted article – which he had pre -ordered – at 9:13 p.m.
“It’s a good feeling of being one of the first,” he said. “I really like playing games.”
The demand for the portable system of around $ 450, which officially launched Thursday, was high, because the buyers wishing like Corpuz awaited online for hours to acquire the last iteration of the Switch, which was launched eight years ago to robust sales. “Let them start!” Nintendo of America has published on social networks, presenting photos of excited customers who keep their Switch 2 devices.
In the afternoon in Los Angeles, there were reports on the devices that were sold in some retailers, a clear indication of the console’s success. Shortages have been reported on a number of international markets. The last time a console version generated so much attention in 2020, when Sony’s last Xbox and Microsoft Xbox were published in the same month.
“Realisticly, he will be exhausted for a while,” said Michael Pachter, Managing Director of Wedbush Securities, about the new switch. “In January, they may get the supply and demand in balance.”
The popular apparatus, which introduces several new games, including “Mario Kart World”, will give a boost to the global market for video services and game games, which is expected to increase from $ 1% to 201 billion this year, according to ampère analysis based in London. Video games are a massive entertainment company, with raw income far exceeding annual sales of world box office tickets for films, for example.
Consoles sales are due alone to reach $ 16.5 billion this year, compared to $ 13.4 billion in 2024.
Ronald Santa-Cruz, research manager at Ampère, estimates that Switch 2 will sell 13.6 million units in 2025 and attributes its popularity to a large installation of SWITCH users ready to upgrade, improved performance and capacity to take care of higher loyalty games, and fidelity of fans to Nintendo, which include “Super Mario Bros ”. and “The legend of Zelda”.
The original switch, which was launched in 2017, saw the sales rising in Nintendo during the Covid-19 pandemic while people were looking for ways to be entertained at home. Nintendo said that it had sold 152 million Nintendo Switch equipment units on March 31.
Before launching the switch, Nintendo’s future was uncertain. The video game pioneer, based in Kyoto, Japan, had struggled to compete in the intense console market against Sony and Microsoft, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group Advisory Service Company. The chief rival of Nintendo OneTime, Sega Corp., ceased to do and sell consoles in 2001 after a series of failures.
But the switch announced a turnaround. Its hybrid design, which allowed a game on the go, has widened its appeal beyond typical console players.
“Before the switch, he was really clear if Nintendo would survive,” said Enderle, adding that the switch was enough different from other offers and laptops. “The end result is that it allowed them to restore their market opportunity. But without change, I think they would have been put below.”
Nintendo provides that change 2 sales of equipment will total 15 million units during its financial year, in order to reach sales that the company had with the first change during the period of 10 months compared to its launch in March 2017, said Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd. During a briefing last month. Furukawa said the pricing situation in the United States and the possibility of a recession did not reduce business forecasts.
“Our first objective is to go to the same departure that we made with Nintendo Switch, and we work to strengthen our production capacity so that we can respond in a flexible way on demand,” said Furukawa.
“We appreciate the positive response of our fans,” Nintendo said in a statement, refusing to share the sales issues of the launch day.
Nintendo said that it had provided its retail partners “a large amount of products for launch” and encouraged anyone who did not get a switch 2 during the pre -order to visit its favorite retailers.
“We will work hard to reconstruct our retail partners with a constant flow of products while we strive to meet demand,” said Nintendo.
The president of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser, told CBS News on Thursday that the company had been “delighted with the demand that we have seen so far” and that the pre -orders have sold in a “very fast period”.
Although the switch is strong, its future price remains uncertain because the Trump administration imposes prices. Despite uncertainty, analysts said they thought the demand will remain strong for the device.
