Nintendo First Revealed The Switch Four Years Ago Today

And the Dark Ages came to a glorious end.

Then joycon drift happened 😭😭😭😭😭

Switch came out a week before my son was born (he was born on March 10th, which was a great coincidence). I managed to snag a pre-order out of sheer luck and bought it without consulting my wife. Thankfully, she was okay with that because she wanted to get in on Splatoon 2. Three Switch consoles later (we have 4, my daughter is getting one for Christmas), and we're happy gamers.

4 MORE YEARS!!! 4 MORE YEARS!!!

I'm just glad it turned out to be such a success! I was hopeful, but after the Wii U's flop, I was worried they were just trading one console nobody wants for another. I never would've said they were doomed, but Nintendo was becoming increasingly irrelevant at the time.

2017 was a spectacular year for Nintendo. The number of top-quality must-have games was staggering.

In an alternate universe we could have spent the last 25 years playing our Ultra 64s, Nintendo Dolphins, Nintendo Revolutions and the NX!

I didn't even follow the News on the Switch. Just read on some sites that they got a new console. Man, now that i have two Switches that i love so deeply, watching this reveal makes me so excited like as if i'm hearing about it for the first time hahaha

I was someone that at that point had only owned a mega drive and stopped playing consoles since the 64 era (and was only ocasionaly playing PC games) and when I saw switch I literally put a "shut up and take my money" meme on FB... And then I bought it day One

Where are all the illegal rooftop parties at now?

@IronMan30 I had stopped gaming because with young children, never had time to go to the basement and sit there for hours playing, then the Switch came, still remember Canada Post arriving outside the house, we had just had an ice storm, so I rushed out to help get the package and save her from slipping on my icy although sanded steps. Like you 4 switches later, the whole family has a switch for themselves.

4 years ago we found out Bethesda was porting Skyrim again.

I've owned my Switch for almost a year now and absolutely love it. I'm STILL playing catch-up with its glorious library. Working my way through Super Mario Odyssey now and might start Untitled Goose Game soon.

From the moment we met
you could see that I was filled with desire...

Aww love that song

What a great 4 years it been. As an older game with a job, wife, kids, etc I’ve slowly seen my gaming time & desire dwindle over the years but Switch really helped reignite my passion. I’ve dumped tons of hours into BotW, Pokemon, MK8D, Luigi’s Mansion, etc etc. The hybrid nature of the console made it so much easier for me to jump back in. We now have 3 Switch consoles & 1 Switch Lite & it’s been so fun gaming along with 3 of my kids.

I remember that time. I thought all the rumors were crazy. And I saw it and I was in disbelief. I knew my Wii U was not going to be supported but to replace it with a handheld console hybrid seemed crazy. Of course I love the system now and it is on the way to outselling ps4 in a year or two. That is just nuts.

I do hope Nintendo has bigger games ready for next year. It still feels like something else was coming out. But COVID 19 probably stopped whatever that would have been.

And we still don't have metroid prime 4.
It was announced at lauch!

Wonder what the legacy will be for this. I mean that first year...wow. My favorite year of gaming hands down. Then after about a year...batteries started expanding, cases started cracking, usb-c Switch ports started frying because they weren't actually "usb-c compliant", and people lost save data while waiting for cloud saves to drop a year and a half+ after launch. 2018 was the beginning of a lot of us long-timers realizing Nintendo wasn't the Quality of Seal company they used to be. The games in 2018 started the trend of publishers and Nintendo realizing they could drop overpriced, half hearted ports on us with much of the game or games not on the card. Empty cases with codes. But we got Fortnite. We got a TON of AMAZING indie games (2018 for indie on Switch was fire). And we got Smash Bros. And it was glorious until we realized how awful the online was. In Sept of that year We FINALLY got our Nintendo Online services and it was...pretty disappointing and frustrating and we realized that voice chat was mostly going to remain locked to their phone app. 2019 was the year of the drift, continuing to this day. A real, very very real problem. The first half was a wasteland for games, but the second half was beautiful with every sort of game one could want, including my favorite game on Switch FE3H. 2020 Switch had it's Pokemon Go! crossed with Wii Sports moment with Animal Crossing. Huge. Lovely. Everything else? 2020 continued frustration of 3rd party ports to the system that don't seem like they had a lot of dev love put into them. Mario Games with time limits on when you can you buy them, lol. People in quarantine not traveling as much and using the system undocked, removing some of the allure of the hybrid. Whatever the legacy may be, oh baby baby, 2017 was worth 5 years of good video game times. Just such an awesome memory.

I was washing dishes when it popped up on my news feed. Washing up has never been so exciting! Then finally got round to getting one in August of 2017 and haven't really put the thing down since.

It certainly does not feel like is been that long, the Switch still feels so new and fresh!

My favourite Switch memory was playing ARMS with my brother and nephew on the day Nintendo’s underrated fighting game was released. It was the first time I’d ever played my Switch on the couch with each of us having one JoyCon (we bought the Neon Yellow JoyCon’s that day, too). It was a fantastic experience that’s still yet to be beaten! 😉

We still haven't gotten that car-seat mount.

I remember watching the reveal trailer with my friends at school and discussing the possibilities. Good times.

First console I ever bought on launch day! What a great little device it is.

@NGNYS Nintendo always make sure their consoles sell out at launch, even the Wii U sold out at launch

@StevenG No it wasn’t! Metroid Prime 4 was announced at E3 in the summer of 2017.

Titles promised at launch that we’re still waiting for include Shin Megami Tensei V - though at least we’ve got a release year for that now - and was Steep another one? That one is not happening, I think it’s safe to say.

Like I've said before, this is a rare (if not outright the only) ad that I have been willingly rewatching every now and then for years. I was moderately curious at the time, but since I don't heed rumours, I didn't expect much up my alley, just something peculiar and innovative but homestuck from Nintendo in general. And hey, it's not like I didn't still have multiple romsets' worth of older games and my recently acquired Vita and 3DS for the legal contemporary titles...

But holy crap, what I watched that day was the biggest game changer since NDS for me. After years and generations of divide between home consoles and handhelds... a console that was proudly BOTH AND NEITHER?! And a portable tabletop gaming machine for one-screen multiplayer on the go to boot? And courtesy of the latter design, a first console in forever to technically come with two controllers instead of one?

AND IT APPARENTLY OFFERED THE FRIGGIN' PORTABLE SKYRIM AMONG OTHER GAMES???????

For someone so reliant on portability for gaming as myself, a fully portable device with all the definitive offerings of a home console (you can plug your PSP to get the picture on a TV screen, but that won't give you controllers or games to play together on this same TV screen*) truly felt like an instant harbinger of a new era. It wasn't just about home console ports - handhelds have been getting those since the Game Boy as well, - it was the flexibility and freedom bound to make a mark on the philosophy of portable games. Not a console to adapt your life to, but a console trying to adapt to your life - a most appealing concept even among many younger folks, let alone the gamers who want to keep their hobby past the college years.

48 months after this ad, and almost 500 games added to my Switch library since, what can I say about this concept? Only quote Todd Howard with a straight face: "It just works". Nintendo Switch, you are something else.

man I remember those trendy roof top parties where I broke out super mario odyssey and I was the life of the party.....

@nhSnork It's a shame I can only like a comment once.

If it was announced today they would've had to have doubled the screen size to allow for socially distanced multiplayer gameplay. Complete with masked up promo video....

Karen!<33333333333333333333

Midnight release in March 2017 was fun. Cold, but fun.

LONG LIVE THE NINTENDO SWITCH!

@ToadBrigade I also lost it when I saw the title.

So many people didn't give it a chance in hell of doing well. And every time it broke a record the goalposts got moved. It's certainly been entertaining watching the naysayers getting proved wrong time and time again.

@Krull Oh I am sorry only 3 years ago.

Its been 4 years? Im old

This commercial was an instant classic. Everbody immidiately unterstood how Switch works (handheld, table, docked, + Pro Controller). And that is not a small feat, just look at „The New Controller“...

@SwitchVogel,

I think they were far from becoming irrelevant, they still shifted around 90 million consoles that generation with the Wii U and 3DS.

Remember when PlayStation and Xbox fanboys thought that the Switch would be a failure?

@johnvboy yeah, but that's 90 Million 3ds and Wii U consoles combined vs 100 Wii Console alone.

@HotGoomba,

True, but to be fair the Wii and DS era wil be tough to beat for anybody with around 350 million consoles sold, pretty much lightning in a bottle with the touch and motion controlled consoles in that generation. if you look at the hardcore markets 180 million units per generation then it's a good slice of that.

Yeah... My mosr cherished memory about the Nintendo Switch is the day I finally purshased it, last year December 4th, after dreaming of having for 3 years...

@WiltonRoots,

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/betting-time-do-you-think-the-switch-will-be-a-success.1333545/page-97#post-260668089

This thread is so awesome, can't resist bumping it from time to time.

@StevenG Exactly! So jumping the gun, there. Pfft...

I expect to hear any day now that they’ve had to restart Metroid Prime 4 again...

I'm so glad I bought stock before launch, sold it this year and the gains paid off the Switch and a bunch of games. Excited for the next few years. Hope they do a Switch Micro so I can carry it around even easier than the Lite hehe. Plus I'm a sucker for portable consoles

Time for a Switch Pro announcement without the joycon drift with the ability to save your games into an SD card

@johnvboy True, but that was basically all the 3DS. On the home console front during the Wii U's life, Nintendo WAS irrelevant and basically got abandoned by third parties. Their IP is strong enough that they'd never really fade, and their handheld business has always been strong, but they were gradually moving out of the spotlight and more towards the fringe of general gaming discussion.

Four years without a price drop. That must be some record. Good for their pockets. Not so good for new consumers.

Loved it when that trailer dropped. Must have watched it at least 10 times that day. I'd been reasoning that a hybrid was the way to go even before the NX was ever mentioned I think, so to finally see it in action was just a dream.

@The_Pixel_King Launch Day ARMS was a cool time. I was just playing it solo but was so happy to have an innovative motion-controlled fighting game.

Motion controls haven't really gone much further since then, to my disappointment, so ARMS Day remains a notable highlight for me.

@GKO900 I rather want them to make ALL save games on a sd card and in their cloud.

I thought the commercial was pretty naff but it did the job perfectly as it explained exactly what the Switch was and the basic concept of the Switch is amazing.

I love my Wii U but it was kind of like a half baked prototype of the Switch and advertising was pretty much non existent.

And still lovin' it.

Long live the switch! It has changed the way I game. Wonderful console. So many good memories already.

Those first few days (and weeks!) with BotW on TV and in handheld on the commute were just the absolute best. It's right up there alongside playing Mario on the 64 for the first time in terms of my favourite and most fondly treasured new console experiences.

Looking back over the years since Mario 64, plenty of amazing games and experiences, but for me never an experience or memory that's quite matched it until the Switch came along with BotW.

Except now it's even better... now we know it wasn't a one off moment. Roll on Nintendo's next big moment.

My favorite memory of the Switch is buying the Switch on launch-day alongside BOTW. The wait and hype was and still is worth it.

Boy was that a fun and exciting reveal. Remember it like it was yesterday. And there was no doubt I was gonna get a Switch.

Time for a hardware update.

Earlier this year I was thinking it was coming up on the 5 year anniversary... 2020 has been a long year.

I still remember all the bold and confident sales goals from Nintendo's interim president... he and the team were just SO unbelievably right on such an unconventional system in the wake of Wii U's poor sales. I feel like they must have done some unprecedented levels of surveying and market research or something.

I watched it for the first time with my class full of aspiring game design college students and most of them fell for it from that first trailer. I was pretty sure it was going to be a success at that point, but was still surprised by the extent of success, over and over.

I'm ready for a hardware upgrade, but Nintendo can do what it wants and take its time to do things right. It's really all about the games.

Looking for Switch news is the reason I found this website!

I got my Switch on launch day and since then have put at least a couple thousand play hours into it. I still play it basically every, single, day.

The Switch literally made me switch from PS4 Pro to it...and never looked back.

@ralphdibny I love how even in that universe, no one is playing project cafe 🤣

How things have changed here as well. There were a LOT of naysayers around here who immediately, and for a long time after the reveal, said this would fail, how awful an idea it was, etc, etc...

Glad to see Switch proved them all wrong and then some.

@everynowandben haha only because I didn't know what the codename for the Wii U was until now!

Well. We've been a Nintendo family for a long time. (TBH I was a Sega guy before. LOL. I had a Sega Nomad.) But my sister got us a Nintendo Gamecube when our oldest was very young. We played a lot of Mario Kart on that system. We went on to get the Wii, Wii U and Switch as well. Between Mario Party, Kirby, Yoshi, Super Mario . . . lots and lots of memories. But I think for the Switch, it is a very recent memory that has come to the top. When COVID hit, my youngest couldn't see her friends so much. But recently, a lot of her friends got Switches, so they are getting to play together on-line a lot now! It's so funny hearing her chatting away with her friends playing games as if they are in the same room.

I think Nintendo have another year on top with Switch. PS5 and XSX will really come in to their own in Holiday 2021, from a sales perspective. Switch will still be very much in the mix though: selling nicely enough.

I think a true Switch successor will land some time between Q3 2023 and Q2 2024.

@Max_the_German This was just the perfect ad. Rewatching it reminded of how great the switch's "switching" truly is. Just today I playing on the TV and then I wanted to watch show that was going to come on, just picked up and kept on playing. So incredible.

Only console I attended a midnight launch for. I adore this thing, it's like a modern Game Boy. I really hope the successor can be used as a handheld!

This is wrong. The Switch was revealed 400,000 years ago by my estimation.

I hope that 2021 can replicate 2017 in terms of a steady release of big first party games including BOTW2 -Get Nintendo to thrive even more with PS5/XBOX on the market.

@Ooyah unfortunately, no. My wife and I gave our kids names that begin with the letter "J". It's kind of a tradition in her family with the current generation. Otherwise, I'd have lobbied hard for Mario.

@digitalmarco that's awesome. I hadn't lapsed (like many Switch owners) but I can understand not gaming when you have young kids. My game time has decreased considerably compared to my early 20's and younger.

I remember wondering what Mario Kart 9 would be like 🤔

cough

That was a good day when the big N finally revealed the switch, it makes me want to look back at other reveals,

Ugh. I hate time and how it flies.

I was playing Shadowgate on the Nes one minute, now im 34..