Nintendo has confirmed that it explored “a lot of ideas” for what to called the Switch 2 before landing on that name. In an Ask the Developer interview published on Nintendo’s website, Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto said Nintendo’s teams had a difficult time coming up with a name for the console.
“There were a lot of ideas for the name, and we really struggled to find the right one,” he said.
One of the ideas that Nintendo considered was “Super Nintendo Switch.” Nintendo decided against this, however, because it “didn’t feel right to use the same naming convention as the Super NES.”
“Switch 2 is a new system with improved performance, but we’d like players who get their hands on it not to focus on the specs, but rather to think of it as the latest system developed by Nintendo,” Kawamoto said. “So, in the hope that it becomes the new standard for Nintendo Switch, we named it Nintendo Switch 2.”
The Switch 2’s development director, Takuhiro Dohta, went on to say that the Switch 2 is not aimed at people who prefer “high-performance hardware,” but instead its ambition is to be a product that can appeal to the widest possible audience. “So, we wanted a name that would communicate simply to potential customers that, if you’re considering buying a Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 is the newest system,” Dohta said.
Another Switch 2 designer, Tetsuya Sasaki, said the name “Switch 2” is “simple and easy to understand.” Sasaki added that it was always the plan for the system to be a “proper successor to Switch,” so keeping the same name made sense.
Dohta, meanwhile, added that the teams had “lots of back and forth” about what to call the Switch 2, but in the end, they came together and “agreed that it should be Nintendo Switch 2 after all.”
The Switch 2 launches on June 5, priced at $450 and scaling to $500 for a bundle that includes a copy of Mario Kart World. For more, be sure to check out GameSpot’s gallery below that runs through all the biggest news and reveals from the Nintendo Direct.
