In
2018,
Nintendo
invited
me
to
a
meeting
in
New
York
City
to
see
a
mysterious
new
initiative.
It
was
teased
as
an
“interactive
experience
for
Nintendo
Switch,”
which
sent
my
mind
to
all
sorts
of
places.
This
is
the
company
that
made
a
weird
dual-screen
Game
Boy
and
bongo
controllers,
after
all.
It
could
be
anything.
Even
still,
I
did
not
guess
that
I
would
spend
that
meeting
folding
bits
of
cardboard
—
or
that
those
cardboard
accessories
would
turn
out
to
be
so
awesome.
That
was
the
moment
I
completely
gave
up
on
trying
to
guess
what
Nintendo
would
do
next.
That
meeting
has
been
on
my
mind
quite
a
bit
over
the
last
few
weeks.
While
much
of
the
game
industry
has
been
on
edge
in
anticipation
of
whatever
the
follow-up
to
the
Switch
will
be,
Nintendo
has
focused
on
pretty
much
anything
and
everything
else.
Last
month,
I
went
to
visit
the
company
in
Kyoto,
but
not
to
see
new
hardware;
instead,
I
went
on
a
tour
of
the
just-opened
Nintendo
Museum.
This
month,
Nintendo
did
announce
a
new
gadget,
but
instead
of
a
console,
it
was
an
alarm
clock.
And
just
this
week,
details
started
trickling
out
about
the
company’s
secretive
online
test,
which
some
predicted
would
provide
hints
at
the
Switch
2.
Nope:
instead,
it
seems
to
be
an
online
game
in
the
vein
of
Minecraft.
Three
big
moments,
zero
Switch
successors.
This
isn’t
new,
of
course.
Nintendo
generally
goes
its
own
way.
When
Sony
and
Microsoft
ushered
in
the
current
generation
of
consoles,
Nintendo
launched
a
new
version
of
the
Game
&
Watch,
an
LCD
handheld
from
the
’80s.
But
the
rapid
succession
of
announcements
and
reveals
from
the
company
over
the
last
few
weeks
has
been
surprising
and
indicative
of
its
idiosyncratic
nature.
And
while
it
might
seem
random,
the
weeks
full
of
museum
openings
and
alarm
clock
launches
are
likely
part
of
a
very
calculated
strategy.
Nintendo’s
Alarmo
alarm
clock.Photo
by
Chris
Welch
/
The
Verge
It
could
mean
a
few
things.
Maybe
Nintendo
is
clearing
the
runway
to
keep
the
focus
on
the
Switch
2
whenever
it
does
decide
to
announce
it.
In
the
Switch
era,
Nintendo
has
become
much
more
adept
at
clear
messaging,
which
hasn’t
always
been
the
case.
Just
think
back
to
when
the
Wii
U
was
first
announced,
and
some
(myself
included)
initially
confused
it
for
a
Wii
accessory.
So
it
makes
a
lot
of
sense
to
get
this
other
stuff
out
of
the
way
before
the
next
console.
Nintendo
Direct
presentations
have
become
huge
moments,
and
the
one
dedicated
to
the
next
console
will
possibly
be
the
biggest
to
date.
You
don’t
want
to
mess
that
up.
It
could
also
be
an
indication
of
where
Nintendo
is
right
now.
This
is
a
company
that
doesn’t
want
to
be
only
known
for
games.
Super
Mario
creator
Shigeru
Miyamoto
said
as
much
when
I
was
in
Kyoto
in
September.
“A
lot
of
people
may
see
Nintendo
as
a
video
game
company,”
he
explained
during
a
press
conference.
“But
what
I
wanted
to
express
with
this
museum
is
that
we
are
first
and
foremost
an
entertainment
company.”
While
it’s
been
building
a
new
console
in
secret
and
sending
out
its
current
one
on
a
high
note,
it
has
also
been
branching
out
in
new
directions.
That
includes
bringing
Nintendo
experiences
into
the
real
world
through
a
theme
park
partnership
with
Universal
—
an
initiative
so
important
that
Miyamoto
has
played
a
major
role
—
and
a
(so
far)
successful
jump
into
feature
films
with
The
Super
Mario
Bros.
Movie,
created
by
Minions
studio
Illumination.
It’s
relatively
early
days,
but
the
company
is
using
its
long-running
success
in
games
to
transform
into
an
entertainment
empire.
Which
is
to
say,
Nintendo
has
a
lot
more
irons
in
the
fire
than
just
a
new
console.
Maybe
we’ll
get
a
live-action
Zelda
movie
trailer
before
we
see
the
Switch
2.
Doing
things
differently
isn’t
always
a
guarantee
of
success,
of
course,
and
Nintendo
has
certainly
had
its
share
of
failures.
These
glory
days
of
the
Switch,
The
Super
Mario
Bros.
Movie,
and
Super
Nintendo
World
famously
happened
in
the
aftermath
of
the
Wii
U,
Nintendo’s
worst-selling
home
console
to
date.
It
took
30
years
for
the
company
to
follow
up
the
infamous
original
Mario
movie
flop
with
a
billion-dollar
film.
The
industry
ebbs
and
flows,
and
it
only
takes
one
console
generation
to
move
from
the
top
of
the
market
to
the
bottom.
That
only
makes
it
harder
to
predict
what
Nintendo
will
do;
I
certainly
would
have
never
guessed
the
Switch
was
its
next
system
back
in
2017
or
that
it
would
go
on
to
outsell
the
Wii
and
Game
Boy.
This
is
all
a
long
way
of
saying
that,
just
like
when
I
sat
down
in
front
of
some
stacks
of
cardboard
in
New
York,
I
am
currently
at
a
loss
trying
to
figure
out
what
Nintendo’s
execs
are
thinking.
I
have
some
ideas,
of
course,
helped
along
by
a
steady
stream
of
rumors,
but
no
real
sense
of
what
the
company’s
next
console
will
look
like
or
when
it
will
be
announced.
All
I
know
for
sure
is
that
it
won’t
be
boring.
But
if
it
is?
That’d
be
another
big
surprise.
(Originally posted by Andrew Webster)
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