The Nintendo Switch is on the cusp of becoming Nintendo’s bestselling hardware ever. In retrospect, it’s easy to see why: it’s a device that seamlessly transitions from a home console to a handheld, erasing the distinction between the two. It’s been so successful that Nintendo isn’t changing all that much with the Switch 2. But both consoles are well-executed versions of ideas Nintendo has been working on since the failed Wii U – and maybe even earlier.
Purely by sales numbers, the Wii U was a flop. The Switch has sold more than 150 million units in its eight-year lifetime. The Wii U, by comparison, sold 13.56 million units – less than a 10th of what the Switch did – making it Nintendo’s worst-selling home console.
As a result, it had a much shorter lifespan, launching in late 2012 before being superseded by the Switch about four and a half years later. But many of its ideas and its games were not only excellent, they were also well ahead of their time, and, in some ways, predicted several modern trends in gaming.
The Wii U, with its tablet controller, also worked as a device that could play games on a TV or in handheld mode. The ability to see a game on a big screen or curl up …
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With the Switch, technology finally caught up to Nintendo