Nintendo Switch: Reggie on whether it will struggle like the Wii U, Ubisoft on line-up

Ever since the Nintendo Switch Presentation, on Friday, quite a lot of interviews have been published about it, mostly with Nintendo executives. In this one, we’re going to focus on the following:

• GameSpot interview with Reggie Fils-Aimé
• GamesIndustry interview with Xavier Poix (Ubisoft)

In the interview with GameSpot, Reggie Fils-Aimé seems pretty confident about the Nintendo Switch, and doesn’t believe it will struggle like the Wii U did. The reason for that is that the company looked closely at why the console failed, and worked to avoid that with the Nintendo Switch:

• Nintendo did not effectively communicate the novelty of the system with the Wii U, but they knocked it out of the park with the Switch (juding by reactions online:

Nintendo Switch is a home console you can play anywhere, with anyone. Clear. Compelling.

• there wasn’t a steady flow of compelling games, with many titles delayed. Nintendo is working hard to avoid that with the Switch.

In the interview with GameIndustry, Xavier Poix from Ubisoft explains why they picked the game they did for the Nintendo Switch. Quite simply, they chose the game they thought fit the platform the best. Naturally, the company will make other announcements in the future: we haven’t seen everything of Ubisoft on the Nintendo Switch just yet.

Regarding the launch line-up, Xavier Poix seems to think the same way Nintendo does:

Nintendo’s strategy is to have a portfolio of strong games that will be released month after month, which I think is a good strategy. If I remember correctly, with the Wii U, there were many titles at launch which lacked the quality to engage the player, they didn’t understand why it was different. In this case, I think Nintendo has proposed a good portfolio. It is a good way of moving forward.

Regarding the Wii audience, that Nintendo hopes to recapture (and which is something Ubisoft as a whole is confident about), he said explained that the Nintendo Switch was basically the bridge between the “high-end” experience on TV and the mobile experience

Today, we have two ways of playing – and a lot of people are doing both. There is the high-end, high value, experience that you have at home in front of your TV – in multiplayer or not. But when the TV isn’t there anymore, if someone else is using it for example, then you are left alone with your mobile phone. So there is a need for Switch, and we probably don’t realise it right now, which is what makes this so interesting. There is a promise of keeping the player in the world that he or she loves. Switch can really change the way people are interacting with their games and the worlds we are creating.

I am confident Nintendo can create a bridge between the worlds of mobile and TV. Between the desire to play on the TV, but also the need to play somewhere else because you can’t be in front of your TV all the time.

Make sure to check out the links below for the full interviews!

The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3rd, worldwide.