Nintendo Switch 2: Playing it safe with more of the same?

SINGAPORE – In a year defined by uncertainty, one of the best-selling consumer products of 2025 was perhaps the safest thing that console-maker Nintendo has ever created.

The Nintendo Switch 2, which was released on June 26 in Singapore, sold more than 3.5 million units worldwide in its first four days of release. By September, it had sold over 10 million units, making it the fastest-selling console of all time.

And yet, most reviewers agree that the Nintendo Switch 2 represents less of a leap into the future than a few steady steps forward (and one step back when it comes to battery life).

This conservative design choice perhaps captures best what consumers are looking for in a year of global uncertainty.

“The Nintendo Switch 2 feels like a victim of Nintendo’s own history, having set decades-long expectations that new hardware will always be, if not always revolutionary, at least deeply strange,” went American video-gaming website GameSpot’s review.

“The Switch 2, by comparison, is an iterative step – a more powerful successor to its wildly popular predecessor.”

Nintendo was the company that introduced a dual-screen console with a stylus with its handheld Nintendo DS in 2004. The console-maker popularised motion-sensing controllers with the Wii in 2006. In 2017, it went on to create the first hybrid console that could switch between handheld and home modes in the Nintendo Switch.

The Switch 2 shows that Nintendo is “iterating rather than inventing”, wrote news outlet Bloomberg on how the new console represented a departure from the company’s founding philosophy of taking big swings when it comes to design. “The Kyoto-based games-maker is turning its attention to generating more consistent revenue streams,” the report said.

Rather than taking any wild swings with its design, the Switch 2’s main improvements come in the form of a higher-resolution screen, more storage space and subtle hardware improvements.

The Switch 2 is “just a better version of a video game console you already liked”, said video game website Kotaku’s review. “Nintendo hasn’t added some crappy AI assistant or some ChatGPT widget that lets you talk to Mario. It doesn’t include 300 media apps nobody uses. It won’t ever support some silly AI co-pilot.”

The Switch 2 isn’t the only thing that represents a turn towards safe and conservative choices in 2025.

Of the top 20 films of 2025 by box-office earnings, 17 were sequels, remakes or reboots. (The three exceptions were F1: The Movie, Sinners and Weapons.)

The term “reheating nachos” has entered the cultural lexicon in 2025, a slang term referring to artistes reusing a prior aesthetic. This was a label often attached to Lady Gaga’s much-lauded 2025 pop album, Mayhem.

Perhaps the greatest sign of a flight to safety can be seen in colour design company Pantone’s choice of colour of the year for 2026: A shade of white.

“We’re looking for respite, looking for relief, emotional disconnection, overstimulation from visuals,” Ms Laurie Pressman, vice-president of the Pantone Colour Institute, told Elle Decor magazine. “We just want to step back.”

As many netizens point out, is there a clearer recession indicator than a colour company naming white as its colour of the year?