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We're now just one month away from the Nintendo Switch 2 launch on June 5, and with GTA 6 delayed to May 2026, analysts agree that the new console is poised to be the single most important gaming anything released this year.
Veteran analyst and Circana games lead Mat Piscatella predicts that the launch rush will be filled with price-insensitive Nintendo enthusiasts who are hungry for the new thing, no matter the cost or the launch games. The real measure of the system will come months afterward as less ravenous buyers size up the Switch 2.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, discussing this launch bubble of Nintendo superfans who just have to have the new thing, Piscatella also made the point that anticipation for the Switch 2 has likely been amplified by the sheer wait since the previous console launch, as well as an arguable uptick in the evergreen drive to seek fun and distraction.
"I think the thing with this is that you have such an enthusiastic, dedicated audience, that I don't think the launch lineup matters at all," Piscatella says. "What matters, I think, is the lineup as it looks six months in, when you have to start really trying to go after the more mass market or console enthusiast buyer, not just the Nintendo dedicated fan, because that person is going to buy this thing no matter what.
"So yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for the first few months. It will matter in holiday. I'm much more concerned about what that holiday slate looks like, which we don't really know yet."
Video games exist, in large part, because people want fun and interesting ways to spend their time, as is the case with any other form of entertainment.
But there is arguably an especially pertinent connection between the timing of the Switch 2 launch, the general state of the world, and the ethos attached to Nintendo games.
"It's been so long since we've had a new console hardware platform," Piscatella continues. "It's been years. It's been a long time, and people are looking for things to kind of get their mind off of what's going on elsewhere. You can even see it online, just the desire people have to have something to be excited about. I don't know, maybe it's just my own perspective, but I just see this palpable desperation, in a sense, of wanting to find something to bring joy.
"And a lot of people are locking on to this, which, good for them."
There's certainly a clear hunger for this thing. The initial Switch 2 pre-order wave was fraught with errors, cancellations, and general chaos as folks stampeded through online stores.
"But there is that for all the platforms to different degrees," Piscatella says of the superfan launch bubble. If Valve announced a new Steam Deck, a certain subset of people would be thrilled by the very idea, no matter the costs or benefits.
Piscatella also points to the PS5 launch rush which saw scalpers successfully resell consoles for thousands of dollars, "and that launch lineup wasn't the greatest either."
When some fans are so desperate for Switch 2 news that they've set about decoding banana script in the new Donkey Kong game, I think it's safe to say that some people just want the new Nintendo thing, come hell or high water.
