Junior developers were also used to help brainstorm ideas of how to make sure the Switch had a longer lifecycle beyond the typical five-to-six years as most other consoles had. Miyamoto, Takeda, and Iwata were less involved, but provided necessary oversight on the Switch’s development principally around the cost of implementing new features that would make the Switch stand out. For Miyamoto, his limited involvement allowed him to spend more time on Nintendo’s software titles being developed at the time, such as Super Mario Run. The first public news of about the Switch’s hardware happened alongside the announcement of Nintendo and DeNA’s partnership on March 17, 2015. At this stage, Nintendo referred to the console under the codename “NX” and described it as a “brand new concept”.

Parkin, Simon (December 29, 2017). “Nintendo’s Switch Brings Some Magic Back”. Te, Zorine (August 16, 2016). “Nintendo’s NX Controller Could Have Detachable D-Pad, According To Updated Patents”. Frank, Allegra (June 29, 2016). “Report: Nintendo’s fear of imitators kept NX out of E3”. Makuch, Eddie (February 11, 2018). “Switch Lifecycle Could Extend Beyond The Typical 5-6 Year Window, Nintendo Says”. The New York – www.pipihosa.com/2023/11/20/binance-in-talks-to-pay-more-than-4b-to-end-u-s-criminal-case-cz-could-still-face-charges-bloomberg/ – Times. Philips, Tom (July 26, 2016). “Nintendo NX is a portable console with detachable controllers”. Soble, Jonathan (October 21, 2016). “Nintendo Switch Console Is Met With Skepticism From Investors”. Martens, Todd (April 27, 2016). “Nintendo dates its successor to the Wii U, the NX”. Leadbetter, Richard (July 26, 2016). “Nintendo NX is powered by Nvidia Tegra technology”.

The lawsuit, however, continued, and following the release of the Nintendo Switch Lite where some on social media reported the Joy-Con drift problem after 20 hours of play, additional complaints related to the Lite were added to the lawsuit. Afterwards Nintendo filed lawsuits initially against several resellers of Team Xecuter products in 2020, and in one case, settled with the reseller for $2 million. Nintendo successfully obtained an injunction in December 2019 against a distributor of a hack made by Team Xecuter that enabled Switch users to obtain and run copyright-violating copies of Switch games on the console.

Nintendo offered demonstrations of the Switch at gaming conferences including PAX South, South by Southwest, and RTX. Some expressed concern that the Switch failed to address the issues that led to poor Wii U sales, and was aimed at a small audience. Others were more upbeat, believing the Switch approach would fit in well in the Japanese market, where space for dedicated consoles and televisions are limited, and transition into Western ones. Nintendo also promoted the Switch through an “Unexpected Places” campaign in February 2017, temporarily setting up living-room-style spaces in three United States locations and inviting fans and players, including John Cena, to try out the unit. Market analysts had a mixed response to the October 2016 announcement of the Nintendo Switch.