Former PlayStation government Shuhei Yoshida says he thinks Nintendo is “shedding their id” with Swap 2 by specializing in energy over innovation.
Yoshida left Sony in January after 31 years on the firm, the place he helped launch the unique PlayStation and served as its president of SIE Worldwide Studios between 2008 and 2019.
In an interview with Straightforward Allies, Yoshida was requested what he thought of Nintendo‘s Swap 2 Direct, and he replied that he thought it was a departure from the extent of innovation sometimes anticipated of Nintendo relating to new {hardware}.
“To me it was a bit [of a] combined message from Nintendo,” Yoshida defined. “In a way, I feel Nintendo is shedding their id, in my view. For me they’re at all times about creating some new expertise, like designing {hardware} and video games collectively to create one thing, [an] wonderful new expertise.
“However Swap 2, as all of us anticipated, is a greater Swap, proper? It’s the bigger display screen, extra highly effective processor, increased decision, 4K 120fps. They even had a {hardware} particular person beginning the stream, like different platforms do, proper?
“And since it’s a greater Swap, the core premise of the entire Swap 2 is ‘we made issues higher’, and that’s one thing different firms have been doing on a regular basis.”
Yoshida added that whereas the concept of a Swap with extra highly effective is undeniably a very good factor as a result of it allows sure third-party sequence to reach on Nintendo {hardware} for the primary time, he feels that is much less of an attractive prospect for gamers who’ve a number of consoles and have already performed these video games.
Particular visitor Shuhei Yoshida will get actual concerning the Swap 2 pic.twitter.com/CzZYPnTtue
— Straightforward Allies (@EasyAllies) April 14, 2025
“In fact it’s a extra highly effective Swap, so it’s nice in case your gaming was solely on Nintendo {hardware}, [and] it’s the primary time for you to have the ability to play wonderful video games like Elden Ring for the primary time,” he defined.
“However for us, the ‘core’ avid gamers who personal a number of {hardware} and play video games on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, the video games they confirmed off, particularly from third events – in principle, it’s wonderful to have all these all-stars of business video games on Nintendo {hardware} – nonetheless, what they confirmed was like… ‘ooh’.”
Swap 2 just isn’t completely with out innovation, the obvious instance being the addition of mouse controls to the Pleasure-Con 2 controllers, making Swap 2 the primary console to incorporate mouse performance as commonplace.
Different new additions to the {hardware} embody a Recreation Chat function with display screen sharing skills, and a Recreation Share function the place gamers can ship their recreation to others close by to participate in multiplayer with a single copy of the sport.
Swap 2 is launched on Thursday, June 5.
