or long time video game fan what the most coverted

gadget of the holiday season is

and the Nintendo Switch will be high on that list.

Probably at the top.

- Nintendo!

- It's been almost a year since the hybrid

handheld launched and it's still pretty hard

to get your hands on one.

And for good reason.

The switch is the most innovative console

in nearly a decade.

Basically since the original Wii.

Besides being immensely popular

the Switch also saved Nintendo.

It's easy to forget how dire the company's

console business was in the wake

of the Wii U's failure.

Nintendo found success with the 3DS and its sequel,

but the handheld was not enough to keep

the company's biggest franchises afloat

and sales of the Wii U painted a bleak picture

of the company's future in the living room.

Critics were telling Nintendo to exit

the console hardware market,

move everything to mobile, and call it a day.

So when the Switch was first unveiled,

fans were skeptical.

Some thought Nintendo had made another gimmicky device

with funky detachable controllers

and unorthodox docking system

and a mobile processor that can never match

Playstation or Xbox.

Despite these initial concerns,

the Switch proved to be a massive hit.

This month, after only nine months on the market,

Nintendo said it sold ten million units,

and many times that in software sales.

It stole the show this year as the fastest selling

home console in Nintendo's history,

setting the course for the company's resurgence

back to the forefront of the gaming market.

So how did Nintendo pull this off?

It's important to think of the Switch as

the evolution of the company's previous hardware.

It's always made wacky devices using nascent technologies

like 3D and motion control.

While an eye for innovation hasn't always paid off,

anyone remember their Virtual Boy?

The company has a history of success in handheld.

Starting with the GameBoy and more recently

with the Nintendo DS and the 3DS.

For the Switch, Nintendo put portability above all else

and the company struck gold.

You can play it on an airplane or in bed,

or even on a subway.

The device truly is a hybrid solution

that transforms to enjoy games

in a number of different ways.

Whether docked, handheld, or kickstand out using

the detachable Joy-Con.

There's versatility to choose how you want to play

and where.

It takes the concept of console gaming

and turns it into an on-the-go social experience

that gets you off your couch.

Yes, you can play at home alone,

but there are plenty of options for multi-player

using both split-screen play or local co-op.

This has always been a part of Nintendo's DNA.

Who doesn't love to play a friend in

Super Smash Brothers or Mario Cart?

And that's where the Switch's success story

becomes so heavily tied to its games.

Nintendo made sure the first year of the Switch

included The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

and Super Mario Odyssey.

Two incredible entries in two

of its most prolific franchises.

It's unheard of for a console to launch

with a Game of the Year contender

and it's even less likely for a console to get two of them

in its first year.

But Nintendo was smart and it had a new Mario

and a new Zelda game in the works for the Wii U

it moved development to its new console

and it shuffled its release schedule to make

them must-own Switch titles out of the gate.

Those two games have gone on to sell millions

and win multiple awards.

They also reestablished Nintendo as the influential

and innovative developer we've always known them to be.

You could easily argue that the Switch would never

have taken off without Nintendo's pre-built cache.

The company's behind some of the longest-running

most-beloved series since the beginning of gaming.

Characters like, Kirby, Yoshi, Donkey Kong.

They've become cultural icons that go way beyond

the core gaming demographic.

But when Nintendo's hardware fails,

fans have nowhere to play its games

and the company's reputation suffers

if people aren't buying its software.

Its entire business model depends

on its cultural significance.

So fans were desperately looking for a reason

to cheer Nintendo on, hoping it wouldn't just fade away

and peddle nostalgia.

They found that in the Switch.

The Switch is a Frankenstein of all the best ideas

Nintendo's ever had.

The 3DS showed Nintendo how a well-made handheld gaming

machine with great games could thrive in a

mobile-dominated landscape.

Much like the Switch, the Wii shied away from top-tier

graphics and realism in favor of motion controls,

local multi-player, and Nintendo's well-tested game design.

The Wii U was definitely flawed, but it was an important

stepping stone because it first introduced the idea

of merging mobile with a home console.

Where the Wii U was a tablet powered by a console

that sat plugged into your T.V.

The Switch was the inverse:

A console powered by a tablet.

So while the Wii U's tablet screen was clunky

and poorly designed and the device was a huge flop,

it did pave the way for Nintendo to incorporate these ideas,

alongside the benefits of the Wii

and the 3DS all into the Switch.

The Switch is a proper portable console

in all the ways the Wii U failed to be.

It's still too early to judge the overall impact

of the Switch.

Consumers have been more than happy to excuse its

bigger flaws because the first few games have been

so amazing.

But there's the online service that won't launch

until next year, there's the perpetual supply problems

that make just getting the thing an obnoxious struggle.

Nintendo fans will be less forgiving next year

when Zelda and Mario are old news

and it has to rely on other developers

to help its platform succeed.

But that's where the secret to the Switch's

long-term success might be.

Since launch, we've seen a bunch of interest

from indie game makers and even big name developers.

Some really great games like, Stardew Valley,

Axiom Verge, The Elderscrolls: Skyrim,

even the new Doom reboot have all made their way

to the Switch.

There's only gonna be more to come.

As it stands right now,

Nintendo is the only player in the portable gaming market.

And consumers have shown that they're really willing

to buy into its vision.

Sony already tried with its PSP and Vita handhelds.

And the company says it has no plans to make another one

any time soon.

Microsoft has also toyed with the idea

of portable gaming with handheld Xbox prototypes

in the past, but it's never taken the plunge.

Apple and other makers of Set-top boxes running Android,

they've all tried to bridge the smart phone game

market with a TV ecosystem,

but mobile games on big screens have never really

taken off.

But without a constant stream of hot new games to play,

amazing hardware becomes pretty much useless.

So it's up to developers to cement the Switch's future.

Sure, Nintendo's planning a bunch of new games

in its own franchises.

Like, a new Kirby, a new Pokemon, a much anticipated

reboot of Metroid Prime,

but those take years to make.

In the meantime, the company needs to quench the thirst

of players by working with devs to bring premium titles

that are fun, innovative, but also complex enough

to keep the Switch in the hands of consumers.

At least until the next Zelda game comes out.

Luckily, with all the consumer success

of the Switch,

Nintendo should have plenty of cash to do just that.