As a console, the Switch 2 is definitely one of Nintendo’s more iterative hardware follow-ups. Both pieces of tech have the same overt sleek design with detachable controllers, and both consoles have significant overlap of their game catalogs. You’d think this might push Nintendo to try to differentiate their offerings as much as possible in the marketing, but no. The Switch 2, like Switch, comes in a red box.
It’s a smaller box, sure. You might even be tempted to point out the giant “2” on the box. At least, that’s what people are currently arguing about on an X post, where influencer Wood Hawker shared a photo pitting both packages side by side:
The post has gone viral enough that it’s also caught the eye of current and former retail workers, who have first-hand experience with the sorts of people who buy video games on a day to day basis.
“If you’ve worked in food or retail, you’d know that sad truth,” wrote Celia Bee, marketing director for Yacht Club Games, on X. “It’s definitely painful cause there is a giant 2 but Wood does have a point.”
“Yall are calling him crazy for this but as both a game designer and retail worker who has SEEN the cognitive function in the average person’s brain, he’s very right,” says X user ItsNeon2401.
The post has caused enough of an uproar on social media that Wood, the original poster, uploaded a video addressing the backlash. “General public isn’t you,” Wood says. “‘A bit confusing’ is what I said — ‘a bit confusing.’ Not like mass hysteria, not like rioting in the streets.”
The entire situation is slightly reminiscent of what happened with Wii U, a console that, despite arguable strengths, was met with indifference. While many different factors contributed to Wii U’s flop, by Nintendo’s own admission part of the problem was the way the console was named and marketed. For average people, it was difficult to discern that Wii U was a new console and why it would be worth buying compared to Wii.
“We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what’s so good and unique about the Wii U,” former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in 2013. “Because we’re always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing.”
Granted, it seems unlikely that the Switch 2 will land anywhere near the bad sales numbers for the Wii U. Nintendo predicts it’ll sell 15 million Switch 2 units in its first year, which would be more than the Wii U did in its entire lifetime. The Switch 2 will probably do fine. Retail workers who have to sell it though? That packaging is about to set off some headaches when it is released on June 5.