With the Switch, technology finally caught up to Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch is connected the cusp of becoming Nintendo's bestselling hardware ever. In retrospect, it's casual to spot why: it's a instrumentality that seamlessly transitions from a location console to a handheld, erasing the favoritism betwixt the two. It's been truthful palmy that Nintendo isn't changing each that overmuch with the Switch 2. But some consoles are well-executed versions of ideas Nintendo has been moving connected since the failed Wii U - and possibly adjacent earlier.

Purely by income numbers, the Wii U was a flop. The Switch has sold much than 150 cardinal units successful its eight-year lifetime. The Wii U, by comparison, sold 13.56 cardinal units - little than a 10th of what the Switch did - making it Nintendo's worst-selling location console.

As a result, it had a overmuch shorter lifespan, launching successful precocious 2012 earlier being superseded by the Switch astir 4 and a fractional years later. But galore of its ideas and its games were not lone excellent, they were besides good up of their time, and, successful immoderate ways, predicted respective modern trends successful gaming.

The Wii U, with its tablet controller, also worked arsenic a instrumentality that could play games connected a TV oregon successful handheld mode. The quality to spot a crippled connected a large surface oregon curl up …

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