Summary
According to a formerNintendomarketing lead and Nintendo Minute host, the company has made one crucial mistake with itsSwitch 2andMario Kart Worldreveals - not managing expectations for fans.
For the past year and a bit, pretty much every Nintendo fan has had the exact same question on their mind -where in the world is the Switch 2?After months of rumours, leaks, and reports, that question was finally answered with adedicated Direct that revealed everything about the console and what it’s bringing to the table.
Even though theSwitch 2’s specs are more powerful than most of us expected and its slate of games is exciting, it’s fair to say that the reactions haven’t been as universally positive as you’d expect from Nintendo,mostly due to the pricing and lack of communication. That’s a problem that even trickled down to anadmittedly disappointing Mario Kart World Direct a few weeks ago.
Mario Kart World Is Also Suffering From The Same Fate
So, what’s the problem? That’s a tough question, but it’s one that former marketing lead Krysta Yang has answered in the latest episode of the Kit & Krysta podcast (thanks GamesRadar+). Kit and Krysta both worked as marketing leads at Nintendo for more than ten years, and have had plenty of experience with the company, something that’s made them both surprised at how the Switch 2’s reveal has gone.
While discussing what Nintendo can do next to take control of the situation, Yang notes that the issue they’ve had, which is “very rare from Nintendo”, is that they didn’t manage expectations properly. This is something Nintendo was apparently very strict about, to the point where the word “surprise” wasn’t even supposed to be used.
They’ve had a thing that’s very rare from Nintendo that I was really even surprised by, where they did not manage our expectations, which is something that they were so strict about. - Krysta Yang
This hasn’t really been the case with the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World, though, as Yang points out that Doug Bowser inflated expectations by hinting that there were more “secrets” to be discovered for the game.That didn’t really happen in the Direct, leading to fans being disappointed and not having their expectations met.
With how long everyone spent waiting for the Switch 2 and how the messaging has been since with pricing and the various features of the console, it’s fair to say that Yang has a point. As for what Nintendo can do next to fix the issues,Ellis and Yang have a great discussion about it that’s well worth having a listen to.
