The Nintendo Switch 2 focuses on enhancing social gaming experiences with features like GameChat, inspired by childhood memories of playing together. The development process has faced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading Nintendo to create features like seamless group chats and shared-screen play. Despite its ambitions for a frictionless community experience, it ironically seems set up for potential future lockdowns, drawing parallels to the widespread isolation during early 2020s gaming.
As producer Kouichi Kawamoto put it in Nintendo's post-reveal Ask the Developer update, development of the Switch 2 was inspired by memories of "playing games together as children at a friend's house or in a student lounge, where everyone brought their own consoles."
The pitch is harmonious on paper and, based on footage in the Switch 2 Direct, existentially terrifying as a practice.
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