Nintendo
Who Won 2019?
Nintendo did in 2019 what Nintendo has been doing since the launch of the Switch: keeping a steady stream of exclusive games coming alongside a few surprising third-party ports.
What eventually caught up to the Wii, and beleaguered the Wii U from the start was the lack of third-party support and even first-party support slowing down to a crawl.
Thanks to the popularity of the console and the more standard set of controls to develop around, this has not been a problem for the Switch.
Nintendo pumped out and supported excellent exclusives games such as Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Astral Chain, Super Mario Maker 2, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Pokemon and more. Joining the usual first-party lineups was surprises such as Overwatch, The Witcher 3, Mortal Kombat 11, Wolfenstein, Dragon Quest Builders, and both Civ VI expansions. Combined, it made for a very solid lineup for Nintendo in 2019.
E3 2019
Nintendo’s E3 stole the show this year. Granted, it was a fairly tame E3 as we’re heading into the end of a generation, but still, the announcement of Banjo-Kazooie in Smash, the reveal of a Breath of the Wild sequel, and a new Animal Crossing would have been exciting any year.
It was a well-balanced show that featured content coming in 2019, 2020 and beyond from both a first-party and third-party perspective.
Nintendo Switch Lite
On the hardware front, the major piece of news this year was the release of the Nintendo Switch Lite. By most accounts, including ours, the Switch Lite was an impressive hardware update although not necessarily a game-changer or a must-have.
If your Switch is downtrodden and you are in the market for a new one, the Switch Lite featured some neat new hardware upgrades such as a nice matted finished and improved buttons. Or, if you’re a parent looking to buy multiple Switch consoles for a more affordable price, the Lite is a great way to stay under budget.
