Gearbox's Randy Pitchford says everyone expects Nintendo to do something "really interesting," and sometimes you get "brilliant" things like the Wii and Switch 2, and other times you get the Wii U, which "didn't work as well"

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says Nintendo's innovation has resulted in great consoles like the Wii and Switch 2, as well as occasional duds (from a sales perspective, anyway) like the Wii U.

Pitchford has been a vocal fan of the Switch 2, but for reasons that don't need explaining, he's been less vocal about the Wii U, which is in my opinion Nintendo's best console from purely a hardware perspective even though it was an objective failure in terms of sales.

Talking to GamesRadar+ during Gamescom 2025, Pitchford briefly touched on the awkward middle child of the Nintendo console family, if only to single it out as an example of a misstep from Nintendo, as if it hasn't been beaten up enough.

"The Nintendo Switch 2 is an awesome, awesome machine," said Pitchford. "I'm so grateful for it. I remember when I was first briefed by Nintendo about this platform, and I was so excited, because what we're always expecting is that Nintendo's gonna do something really interesting, and sometimes there's an incredible innovation, like the Wii, which just exploded.

"And other times," Pitchford added, "the innovation, like I was saying sometimes, like the Wii U didn't work as well as the Wii. The Switch 2 is just brilliant. It's less about innovating and more about perfecting and giving us what we want and what works."

During the same interview, Pitchford called the release of the Switch 2 "the most successful new console launch in the history of video game consoles," which is true in terms of sales, and said he naturally wants to "bring more games to it."

Speaking of, the whole reason Pitchford is talking about the Switch 2 is because it's getting Borderlands 4 on October 2.

In the meantime, here are the best Switch 2 games you can play today.