There’s something about the announcement of the Switch that has me thinking about Nintendo more than I have been in a long time. I’m looking at the Switch from a lot of different angles, trying to decide what it means as a piece of hardware and as a statement about where Nintendo as a company is going. For many people of my generation the Nintendo name was synonymous with video games. If a person didn’t know what a game console was, they’d simply call it a Nintendo. It says something about the mindshare that Nintendo controlled that Mario was one of the most recognized brand mascots around.

Nintendo is not quite the same company today.

In terms of their mindshare, they hold a surprising amount of sway even today. Amongst young and old gamers alike, Mario and his fellow mascots are well known and the company’s affable Reggie Fils-Aime seems to be a meme machine that resonates with younger consumers. However, despite being recognizable, the company doesn’t seem to be consistently compelling enough to warrant purchasing their hardware or software.

The Wii sold an industry and expectation shattering 100+ million units. The Wii U barely sold a tenth of that amount. The Nintendo DS sold 154 million units, the 3DS has shipped 60 million. While both systems are caught in the shadow of their highly successful predecessors, their sales don’t exactly inspire confidence. Anecdotally I’ve encountered several people that own Wiis that didn’t even know the Wii U exists. That alone is problematic for a plethora of reasons.

The last decade has been perhaps one of the bumpiest roads I’ve ever ridden with Nintendo. The DS was a seemingly unassailable piece of hardware that captured the imagination of so many different consumers. The software was imaginative and the hardware was approachable different. The Wii was an incredible experience because it was so accessible and had the promise of great games with new ways of playing.

However both systems struggled with their success. The DS and the Wii (and particularly the Wii), dealt with an incredible deluge of shovelware. Garbage games that were piled high into bins at electronic stores. For every Zelda there were 10-20 random mini-game packages that simply bogged the machine down. The attach rate of the Wii was seemingly abysmal as many of the systems were seemingly purchased to be dedicated Wii Sports machines.

Fast forward to the Wii U and the 3DS.

Nintendo’s successor systems seem to have a shades of the charm that worked for the Wii and DS. In the Wii U, a tablet that seems to offer the functionality of the DS with the graphics of the more modern game console. In the 3DS, a more powerful version of the DS that incorporates glasses free 3D in a time when consumers and marketers are obsessed with the technology. Yet, despite being two seemingly market friendly devices, both the Wii U and the 3DS fail to gain immediate traction.

The Wii U seems underpowered compared the event horizon that is the PS4 and Xbox One. The Wii U tablet doesn’t capture the imagination of owners of the system or designers of the games. Despite price cuts and a few excellent titles, the Wii U languishes in the shadow of its competitors. Nintendo themselves cannot produce software at a fast enough rate and third parties abandon the platform because of its low install base.

The 3DS struggled to gain traction and its 3D technology, while novel, didn't inspire purchases. After an aggressive price cut, the 3DS begins to show signs of life, but its 3D functionality is reduced from a selling point, to a talking point, to no point. The technology is seemingly so unimportant to its success that Nintendo actually releases a 2DS. A cheaper model of the 3DS with a redesigned form factor and no 3D functionality.

So where do you go from there? Apparently, you double down.

Enter the Switch.

The Nintendo Switch is, remarkably, a hybrid beast of sorts. Its design pulls from the Wii, the Wii U, and the DSes. Despite everything that has happened over the last 11 years, Nintendo seems confident that it was right all along and that the technology has perhaps finally caught up with their vision.

While it is being marketed as a home console, the Switch is seemingly a portable at heart. The portable tablet portion of the Switch powers it completely. When you want to play on your TV, you just slam the tablet into a docking station. This docking station provides constant power to the tablet, so the Switch seemingly increases its clock speeds and allows the system to run a bit faster than in portable mode.

The controllers which attach and detach from the tablet are clearly designed in the spirit of the Wii. They can track some motion, sense objects, have “HD rumble” and also serve as a small self contained controller. The tablet has a touch screen.

None of this is new ground for Nintendo. In fact, they are all very well worn. What worked and failed for the Wii and the Wii U are now together in one home. Can this possibly work? Time will tell, but there are clearly a few things that Nintendo can do to help make this system a success.

1. Provide owners with consistent 1st party software support.

If you’re a Wii owner feeling burned, you’re almost certainly not alone. Nintendo has a cavalcade of stars and their studios simply don’t seem to be able to produce software at a fast enough rate for their ravenous fans. Make Zelda, Metroid and Mario a priority. Sprinkle in Kirby, Donkey Kong. Make some interesting games with the Ice Climbers and the kid from Star Tropics. Do whatever it takes. Spend some of your money to get some more developers staffing your first party offices.

2. Price accordingly

This is going to be a hard one. The Wii U and the 3DS both could’ve really gone to be at least $50 cheaper out of the gates. It’s a hard business and nobody wants to take a loss, but it’s kind of a tough pill to swallow paying more for a Switch when it is demonstrably less powerful than the two other consoles it hopes to compete with. Even with the cool portability factor and the screen it is really hard to justify. Of course it’s going to sell out initially, but will it be enough to carry them? If sales trail off too hard and too fast the market is not going to react well.

3. Court indies

Nintendo’s indie games are not good enough. Look at Sony and do your best to do something like that.

4. Make your brand more than just Mario

It’s funny to think that the company that had a “Seal of Quality” to certify that games on its NES system were not garbage, let the Wii become a graveyard of garbage. Good, consistent first party support backed up with interesting and polished independent efforts will go a long way to making the Switch a great system to play games, not the only system to play Nintendo games.

5. Be online friendly

Gaming is a social experience and online multiplayer has become a big part of that. Nintendo’s online services are poor. While it works, it’s hard to compare it to Xbox live and PSN. It’s unnecessarily difficult to use, almost to the point of user hostility. It was perhaps excusable because it was free, but seeing as how Nintendo wants to charge for the service on the Switch it needs to better or cheap.

Also, the 1 month game rental is not an equivalently good value to the free offerings of Sony and Microsoft. Just let them keep the game.

6. Be user friendly

While Mario’s moustached face is very friendly, the business end of Nintendo’s relationship with its users is often as pointy as a stick. Having to purchase the same the Virtual Console game time and time again is not friendly, it’s downright mean. Leveraging your huge and coveted back catalogue should be a reason to keep people locked into your ecosystem, not a reason to never buy something again.

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At the end of the day, the Switch’s chances for success aren’t clear to me. I admit that I am excited by the system and the potential it shows. It speaks to me in a way that my Wii U and 3DS do not. I don’t think about my Wii U and I don’t use my 3DS much. The idea of bringing a decent console experience with me anywhere is pretty exciting.

What scares me though, is that Nintendo is doubling down on a currently losing formula. Their launch lineup is thin and their release schedule following it aren’t exactly a massive treasure trove.

This new console for Nintendo represents a new beginning for some old ideas. Its success is far from assured and the weight placed upon it by industry eyes seem to be exceedingly heavy.