Nintendo releases new Switch 2 game console

In Tokyo, about 100 people who won a lottery to buy the console at Bic Camera Inc. lined up at its Ikebukuro store, waiting to receive it. A male office worker in his 30s, who took a day off, said, "The first new console in eight years means a lot."

 The Switch 2 features a 7.9-inch liquid crystal screen, which is bigger than that of its predecessor console. It has new functions such as a voice chat that enables users to talk online with others using a built-in microphone.

The new console sells at a suggested retail price of 49,980 yen.

Most software for the original Switch can be used in the new console. Nintendo also simultaneously released dedicated game software titles such as "Mario Kart World," a new version of the popular racing game.

The Switch 2 had been very popular even before its release. About 2.2 million applications were placed in Japan alone for Nintendo's first sales lottery on its official e-commerce site in April, far above its expectations.

Nintendo expects to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2 in the initial year of its release.

Cumulative sales of the original Switch had reached 152.12 million units as of the end of March this year. But its sales slowed in recent years, falling about 30 per cent from the previous year to 10.8 million units in the year ended in March.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]