Former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida was recently asked for his thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal, and his response was…well, not entirely exuberant!
This comes from Easy Allies, which recently interviewed Yoshida about, among other things, his reaction to the Switch 2 reveal. Here’s his response in full when asked about it:
“To me, it was a bit mixed message from NIntendo. In a sense, I think Nintendo is losing their identity, in my opinion. For me, they are always about creating some new experience, like designing hardware and games together to create something that [is an] amazing new experience. But Switch 2, as we all anticipated, is a better Switch, right? It’s the larger screen, more powerful processor, higher resolution, 4K, 120 fps, they even have a hardware person starting the stream, like other platforms do, right? And because it’s a better Switch, the core premise of the whole Switch 2 is, you know, ‘We made things better’. And that’s something other companies have been doing all the time.”
Special guest Shuhei Yoshida gets real about the Switch 2 pic.twitter.com/CzZYPnTtue
— Easy Allies (@EasyAllies) April 14, 2025
Yoshida went on to talk about how if you only game on Nintendo hardware, the Switch 2 is great, because it lets you play games like Elden Ring that haven’t been available before. But for those who game on other platforms, it’s a bit less exciting.
“Publishers must have known that that show, last week, would be one of the most-watched shows this year. Millions and millions of people watched. It’s amazing to announce and launch your new game, if you have a chance, but most of the games were ports from past generations. I don’t know if this is Nintendo’s direction or third parties’ choice. But one game I reacted strongly [to] was Enter the Gungeon 2. That looks amazing. They did a great job announcing that there.”
Yoshida also praised Drag x Drive for being “very Nintendo”, then went on to talk about the system’s pricing and the differences in pricing between Japan and the rest of the world. He concluded as follows:
“Anyway, with some of the things Nintendo is doing, with the camera or mouse controls, creating new experiences, that’s great. But other than that, I was personally a bit disappointed, because they didn’t disappoint everyone. Because everyone wanted that better Switch.”
As the discussion went on, Yoshida acknowledged that the Nintendo Switch 2 was a good business decision, with technical improvements likely made by very intelligent, talented designers. The takeaway seems to be similar to one that’s gone around the internet for a while now, and that we’ve written about here: the system plays it safe in certain ways, and maybe that’s the right move, but it’s kind of a bummer if you’re a fan of Nintendo’s weird side. Though there’s still mouse controls and a few other functions demonstrating that Nintendo’s goofy, playful developer nature is in there somewhere.
Though Yoshida talked at length about the Switch 2’s pricing in his chat with Easy Allies, we’re still waiting to find out how much the system will actually cost here in the U.S. Nintendo paused North American pre-orders due to news of new tariffs being implemented literally the day the system was announced. With the Switch 2 launching globally on June 5, the clock is ticking for Nintendo to get all this straightened out in time for the system’s release.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
