Nintendo and the Last Hardware Exclusives

Nintendo is positioned as the last major company still committed to selling its first-party games exclusively on its own hardware, an observation prompted by the June 2025 launch of the Switch 2. The essay argues that this long-standing console model, once universal in the industry, is now an outlier as competitors abandon hardware exclusivity.

The piece traces Nintendo's history across roughly fifty years. It begins with projector-based proto-games such as the Laser Clay Shooting System in 1973 and Wild Gunman in 1974, then moves to the 1975 acquisition of Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey and the 1977 Color TV-Game console built with Mitsubishi. It also covers the 1979 Game & Watch handheld and the early arcade releases Sheriff, Radar Scope and Donkey Kong, in which hardware and software were inseparable. The 1983 Famicom, later the NES, was the first Nintendo machine to separate hardware from software. Since then, Nintendo has released a new console every five to seven years, and playing its newest games requires the latest device. The Switch to Switch 2 gap of eight years was the longest in company history.

The author contrasts games with other media, where streaming services and content are accessible on nearly any device. The rare exceptions, such as the HD-DVD-exclusive home releases of King Kong and Children of Men during the format war, are treated as curiosities. In games, the walls are now falling: Xbox is embracing a multi-device strategy, Gears of War is heading to PlayStation, and PlayStation titles including The Last of Us, Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted are available on Steam or Steam Deck. The author predicts games will eventually resemble music, TV and film, available on all hardware and perhaps gated behind apps, while admitting he will still pay $499.99 for a Switch 2 to play Mario Kart. Reader comments echo the sentiment, one joking about buying the "Mario Kart machine" and another questioning why Nintendo doesn't use a PC storefront.