“Saturday Night time Reside” poked enjoyable at characters from two of the vacation season’s most anticipated online game releases final month: Hyperlink from the upcoming remake of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” and Jason from “Grand Theft Auto VI.”
The segment, which aired on October 3, highlighted how totally different the 2 video games are: Hyperlink, in his inexperienced tunic, described how he began his day in Hyrule by shopping for magic beans and taking part in his ocarina, a wind instrument. Jason, seated subsequent to him with a bandaged bloody arm, bragged about stealing vehicles and spending $1 million at a strip membership.
Beneath the humor, the sketch hit on a key level. Nintendo is the one gaming firm keen to go toe-to-toe with GTA VI, which is anticipated to be the largest recreation launch of all time. It’s a testomony to Nintendo’s religion in its technique during the last 4 many years: bringing again its mainstay characters in new codecs throughout console generations. It’s a tactic that’s not too long ago expanded to motion pictures, live shows and theme parks.
And it’s paying off: The gaming big reported a 52% year-over-year improve in gross revenue throughout its second-quarter earnings, regardless of declining gross sales of its newest Swap 2 console. This was thanks partly to surging earnings associated to its “Tremendous Mario Galaxy Film.”
Nonetheless, gaming nonetheless accounts for many of Nintendo’s enterprise. Between skyrocketing reminiscence costs and elevated competitors from free video games that aren’t on Nintendo gadgets, like Roblox, it may be a troublesome time to be within the console gaming enterprise. Nintendo is betting that its remake of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” will assist drive Swap 2 gross sales this vacation season.
“The stakes are excessive for Nintendo, and so they have to come back out of this vacation season very sturdy,” mentioned Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York College’s Stern Faculty of Enterprise who has printed a e-book concerning the gaming trade.
The Nintendo Swap 2 was off to a robust begin, with roughly 24 million consoles bought since its June 2025 launch. However Nintendo must maintain giving followers causes to improve, particularly with such a broad library of video games out there for its predecessor, the first-generation Swap.
Nintendo mentioned in its most up-to-date earnings report that Swap 2 {hardware} gross sales declined 34.4% year-over-year, however that’s largely as a result of many players purchased the system final yr when it launched.
Its roster of unique video games is vital to that push. After launching with “Mario Kart World,” Nintendo has trickled out new video games in well-liked franchises like “Donkey Kong Bonanza,” “Hearth Emblem: Fortune’s Weave” and “Pokémon Pokopia.”
However whereas these franchises all have their followers, they’re not Mario or Zelda.
The unique “Ocarina of Time” was launched in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 and is “acknowledged as among the best video games ever made,” mentioned Mat Piscatella, government director of video games protection for market analysis agency Circana. He expects nearly all of Swap 2 homeowners to purchase the brand new model.
It’s not the primary time Nintendo has re-released “Ocarina of Time”; the sport was additionally launched for the GameCube, Wii U and 3DS. However the brand new model isn’t only a direct reboot; Nintendo has up to date the controls, dialogue, graphics and different components, bridging the basic story and acquainted characters with the extra trendy gameplay launched in newer Zelda video games like “Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom.”
Nintendo additionally launched a fortieth anniversary version Zelda-themed Swap 2 console in late October, which is at the moment bought out. A Zelda orchestra live performance and film are deliberate for subsequent yr.
It’s a part of Nintendo’s basic playbook: betting large on the characters its fanbase grew up with.
“It’s a broad alternative to offer totally different experiences that join with the gamers and followers, after which open up the door to Zelda for brand new generations of gamers to come back in,” Devon Pritchard, president of Nintendo of America, mentioned in an interview with CNN.
The brand new Zelda recreation is launching simply earlier than GTA 6, which is anticipated to interrupt gross sales data. Nevertheless, NYU’s van Dreunen says Nintendo doubtless gained’t have to fret concerning the competitors as a result of the video games attraction to very totally different audiences. However that won’t at all times be the case.
“Over time, it’s like, yeah, what are you going to supply this growing old viewers, the technology that grew up taking part in Nintendo? Sooner or later, they’re going to need extra mature content material,” he mentioned.
Nintendo’s technique has labored for many years. However like different gaming corporations, it’s grappling with rising costs in video video games.
A scarcity in reminiscence has induced Nintendo and different console makers to lift their costs, with Nintendo rising the Swap 2’s value from $450 to $500 in September. Shopper spending on {hardware} throughout all console makers is down 9% to date within the US this yr in comparison with final yr, Circana’s Piscatella mentioned.
And video video games themselves now value round $70 to $80. (The digital model of the brand new Zelda recreation is $60, and the bodily version is $70).
That would make it tougher to persuade gamers to shell out for video games, particularly as free-to-play multiplayer video games like Fortnite have grown in reputation.
“You’ve more and more kind of a velvet rope within the video games trade, the place there may be the gang that may afford it early and for a excessive value and is keen to pay a premium to have nice {hardware}, nice experiences, after which there’s everyone else,” van Dreunen mentioned.
Nintendo is healthier positioned to climate the reminiscence scarcity as a result of its consoles don’t require as a lot computing energy as these made by Sony and Microsoft, based on Piscatella.
Microsoft and Sony additionally promote pricier consoles than Nintendo; the Xbox Collection X digital version is listed at $750 on Microsoft’s web site, whereas the PlayStation 5 begins at $649. Microsoft additionally sells a less expensive model of the Xbox known as the Collection S for $500. These prices replicate value hikes introduced by each corporations earlier this yr.
However the scarcity has made it more difficult for corporations to provide cheaper electronics, an viewers that Nintendo has historically catered to. After the primary Swap’s launch in 2017, Nintendo launched the inexpensive Swap Lite in 2019 as a less expensive various for many who simply wished to recreation on the go.
Pritchard mentioned Nintendo was centered on the Swap 2 platform and didn’t touch upon whether or not the corporate has plans for a Swap 2 Lite. Nor did she say how lengthy Nintendo plans to assist the first-generation Swap, which makes up nearly all of Swap customers with about 156 million models bought.
After I sat down with Pritchard, our dialog began with a easy query: What recreation am I taking part in proper now? That’s the type of impression Nintendo needs its video games to have, whatever the console or platform.
“It goes again to that relationship with the participant and fan,” she mentioned. “We wish to construct these experiences that join with people who they wish to come again to time and time once more.”