Has Nintendo forgotten about cosy gamers?
I make no secret about the fact that I’m a cosy gamer. Ever since I picked up my first controller at the age of 5, I’ve loved gaming but I was never really drawn to the games which incited violence or aggression. The idea of hacking and slashing another character appalled me even as a child, but that was the predominant nature of games when I was growing up, and if you didn’t play those games, you played FIFA.
As they weren’t really my thing, I very much stuck to story driven games, puzzle games, simulation games or anything which helped turn off my brain from everything that was happening outside and that meant replaying the same games over and over again because they weren’t really marketed back then. I presumed I would never find another game which would calm me down and offer me an escape from the world until I discovered the games on a Nintendo console and started playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
With calming and chilled gameplay, it was perfect for me during what was a difficult time and inevitably when the question came up of what the next Animal Crossing game would look like, I was suddenly drawn into a small world of other cosy gamers who were rejecting the violent nature of games today.
Nintendo is the best place for cosy gamers
Everyone was excited about the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Switch and, like many, I became an early adopter. I loved playing Mario Kart for hours on end, Super Mario Odyssey was reminiscent of my childhood playing other platformers and I had a whale of a time.
The Nintendo Switch was a perfectly designed console for casual gamers, those who just want to play a fun game for a bit and share it with friends and family. At an affordable price and having cute games which aren’t too taxing on the brain, it was the console for many gamers who just wanted a chilled out place to enjoy gaming away from those who like scream into a headset.
When Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched at what turned out to be the perfect timing for a game like it. It sold way above expectations with 47 million copies of the game being sold to date compared to the 13 million copies seen across the entire lifespan of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It has resulted in Nintendo gaining a new audience of gamers who are just looking for simplicity, and chilled out games and the Nintendo Switch was perfectly placed to meet those needs of gamers, whether you were alone or playing with friends.
Since then, cosy gaming has exploded in popularity with many indie developers and major publishers capitalising on a market which had previously been ignored, and Nintendo Switch has been the main console those developers needed to get their games on in order for them to do well.
So, it would be understandable that as someone who is a hardcore Animal Crosser and lover of cosy games, and has played Nintendo Switch from the beginning of the generation, that it’s highly anticipated successor would capitalise and improve on the strong market that Nintendo is well placed to target, and yet since the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct where the full details of Nintendo’s next generation console were announced, I can't help but feel really flat about the whole thing.
Switch 2 games aren’t cosy
Ignoring all of the issues to do with the pricing of the console and the games and all of the issues I’ve had around the Switch 2 Direct, the one thing that really got me down more than anything else was the lack of variety in the games shown off.
I can’t argue for one second that Nintendo didn’t show off enough games, with more than 50 at the Direct itself, there seems like there is something for everyone, except when you look at all of the games shown off and then look at the expectations of cosy and casual gamers, you notice a really big hole in the Switch 2 library.
Credit: Bandai Namco
We already knew that we were likely to see more of the new Mario Kart game, and I’m not going to lie, that looks incredible now that I’ve seen it, but outside of that, there really wasn’t anything shown off which was perfect for a cosy gamer.
I went into the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct expecting to at least see a mention of Animal Crossing and we got nothing, not even an paid upgrade for New Horizons. There was also the announcement of Gamecube games coming to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscribers. That would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase Animal Crossing support and it was noticeably absent.
The only game which was directed towards cosy gamers, we saw for a few seconds and it was a game we had seen the week before at the Nintendo Switch Direct. Witchbrook looks amazing and I’m excited to see and hear more information about that ahead of its launch. But without something for a cosy gamer, it seems like Nintendo is pushing the Switch 2 into a completely different market, one which is more hardcore gamer and prepared to pay the expensive cost of their games. It makes me question if Nintendo really wants to maintain their dominance in a casual gaming space.
I understand why Nintendo needs to move in this direction both from a sales perspective and also to try and remove the thoughts that the Switch 2 is an underpowered console. The Switch 2 Direct showed just how powerful the Nintendo Switch successor is going to be. It being capable of playing games in up to 120fps is incredible and from the showcases I’ve seen, both handheld and docked mode are pushing the boundaries of what the Switch could do, which is exactly what Nintendo needed to do.
However, with the focus of the Direct being on those big budget, AAA games, it makes me wonder why they decided to move away from a cosier landscape and wonder if they actually want cosy gamers to continue playing on their hardware.
I know that there will be some cosy games coming in the future, but to not see them at the Nintendo Direct has me worried that Nintendo has forgotten about the casual and cosy gamers which are the backbone of their community and I am worried that this will only add to the harm they may do to the sales of Switch 2 before the console launches.
What cosy games are you hoping to see come to Nintendo Switch 2? Is there a game that you saw in the Switch 2 Direct that you are really excited about? Let’s all discuss below, and I’ll see you in the next one.
