Nintendo’s Collectible Nature Looks to Shine With the Switch

Nintendo has an inconsistent past when making collectible and customizable hardware and software.  The Wii, which sold over 100 million units existed only in white for the first two and a half years of its existence, and even then, only added black and red models.  The poorly selling Game Boy Micro, on the other hand, featured a variety of colors and had the option to swap removable faceplates to give your handheld a unique look.

Throughout its history, Nintendo has made a habit of reserving its more flashy limited edition items for its less expensive equipment.  For the most part, this difference is seen in the divide between handhelds and consoles, but console accessories have proven a fruitful ground for experimentation.  It’s hard to imagine a Nintendo 64 without a few colorful controllers attached and the Gamecube paved the way for the wonderful Wavebird.  Even the Wii dabbled with limited edition input devices; I’m sure my golden Zelda Wiimote+ is still kicking around in a box somewhere in my house.

This brings us to the Switch.  With the 3DS at the end of its life and the WiiU long gone at this point, the Switch is taking the role of both handheld and console, really a first for Nintendo.  But in a time when we’ve seen Nintendo experimenting with things like paid mobile apps, it’s clear that they’re willing to buck tradition to find success.  In the case of the Switch, this means that they’re adopting the strategy of customizing both the accessories and the device itself.  At $80 a pair, Joycons are one of the steepest investments Nintendo has put out in terms of adding a splash of color to their console.

Personally, though, I think Nintendo realized that the appeal of the Switch as an on the go device that would have multiple players crowd around a small screen at a party (or at any of the other scenarios imagined in their early marketing) fell flat.  The Switch Lite was the perfect solution to the fact that households seemed open to having multiple Switches, and that the brightly colored models were selling better than the standard grey.  The $200 price point of the Lite puts it where consumers expect a handheld to be, which is the kind of device Nintendo would hope for each child in a household to own.  It only took four months for Nintendo to announce a fourth standard color for the Switch Lite, coral, which is already starting to evoke the type of color variety seen in early handhelds like the Game Boy Pocket.

Experimentation outside of just color with limited editions was the norm during the life of the 3DS, but the Switch has already started experimenting with specific game-themed consoles.  Pokemon’s Let’s Go, Tsum Tsum, and Super Smash Bros. each had limited edition consoles that featured unique Joycons and docks, and it looks like Nintendo felt good enough about the results to begin rolling out versions that customize the most expensive part of the device, the hardware unit with the screen.

The Switch Lite seemed like the natural extension into these limited edition consoles, and while the Pokemon flavored Zacian and Zamazenta console is a fantastic example, the new full-fledged Animal Crossing themed Switch sold out a month ahead of its release. I think it’s safe to say at this point that we’ll be seeing many new Switch iterations throughout its lifetime. Gold Joycons seem like the absolute minimum to accompany the Breath of the Wild sequel, with the more likely scenario being its own Switch Lite model.

A cynical part of me wonders, though, how much of the demand for second or even third consoles is coming from issues that Nintendo has created and are masked by the beautiful cool blues and greens of Tom Nook’s new console.  In an announcement that surprised many, in order to have multiple islands in the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players need multiple consoles as opposed to just the multiple game cards they’d need in other versions of the game.

Now sure, not everyone plays Animal Crossing, but it’s a popular enough game that it feels like the perfect testing grounds to see whether or not software can drive the purchase of not just an initial console, but supplemental ones as well.  Nintendo’s battery life upgrade has certainly been a consideration for those thinking of a second console, but in the same way someone with a launch Xbox One probably doesn’t need an Xbox One S, it’s something that should drive a family’s first console purchase rather than their second.

It’s tough to pin this experiment purely on a plan to increase console sales, particularly because the lack of cloud saves means someone who already owns two Switches won’t be able to work on a single world across their multiple consoles.  For someone who is the only gamer in a household, this may actually dampen the appeal of having a second Switch.  Nintendo says that the restrictions have a lot to do with people being able to exploit the console’s clock to access timed events, but frankly that explanation doesn’t carry quite enough weight for a game that might be the least competitive of all their offerings.

Regardless of whether or not there’s a sinister conspiracy at Nintendo to drive fans of bug collecting and fishing to fork out $200+ on a new console, the Switch’s variety of completely unique consoles and accessories are sure to expand.  With the line already blurred between whether or not it’s a handheld or a full blown home console there’s plenty of room for experimentation to see whether consumers are willing to shell out $300 for limited edition consoles or if we’ll revert back to the more traditional strategy of seeing Switch Lites have all the fun with colors while keeping the traditional console’s colors restricted to its controllers.