In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern. Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another.

If university lecture halls and offices looked a little quiet on Friday, it may be down to Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – the latest in Nintendo's long-running series of vast, life-absorbing adventure video games – has launched for the firm's Switch console to a chorus of critical praise. On review aggregation site Metacritic, it currently has an average score of 97/100, putting it comfortably in video games' top echelon. That makes it a game worth taking a day off work to play – or maybe even a week. If Mario is gaming's most recognisable face, the medium's equivalent of Mickey Mouse, Zelda is more like Indiana Jones – clever, swashbuckling and much imitated.

The Nintendo Switch console is about to make history, becoming the video game maker's best-selling console ever. But if you want to buy a new Nintendo Switch OLED model to help put it over the top, they are still tough to find. In the U.S., Nintendo sold 314,000 Switch OLED units during the month of October (the console was released Oct. 8), Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser said, citing sales data from The NPD Group. Overall, Nintendo sold 711,000 Nintendo Switch systems during the month. Nintendo sold 3% more Switch units in October 2020, he said.

With the latest and greatest new PlayStation and Xbox consoles in high demand, the video game makers at Nintendo surely must be ready to dump its nearly five-year-old Switch game system, right? Sure, Sony and Microsoft's new systems, released in November 2020, are lusted after and still nearly impossible to find on store shelves. But the Nintendo Switch is not always assured to be in stock, either. The Nintendo Switch has been the top-selling video game console in the U.S. for the past 30 months – yeah, you read that right, the leading unit seller for 2½ years – according to research firm The NPD Group. That surpasses the previous longest streak (21 months) held by the Xbox 360 having from August 2011 through April 2013, according to NPD. 'We need to continue to innovate':How charities are using NFTs as a way to fundraise The Nintendo Switch may not be as powerful as the newer Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, which play games in 4K and eventually could display 8K games.

Nintendo's Switch console is less powerful than competing consoles, but offers a more interesting gameplay experience. Nintendo's Switch console is less powerful than competing consoles, but offers a more interesting gameplay experience. When Gennadiy Korol, lead engineer at Moon Studios, booted up Ori and the Will of the Wisps on his Xbox, his eyes lit up. He and his team of developers at Moon Studios had worked tirelessly: coding, testing, and optimizing. Finally, after months of chugging espresso, a thing of video game beauty beamed back at him.

It's hard to believe it's been 35 years since the original Super Mario Bros game was released in Japan on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. To mark the epic 35th anniversary, Nintendo is releasing a handful of new Super Mario video games, including Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros., all of which are now available to pre-order on Amazon. One of the perks of pre-ordering these games on Amazon is that you're eligible for Pre-order Price Guarantee. This means you'll pay the lowest price offered by Amazon UK between the time you place your order up to and including the end of the day of the release date. Nintendo is releasing a handful of new Mario video games, including Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

Coronavirus-driven lockdown has been a boon for at least one industry. According to a quarterly analysis from market research group NPD, video game spending in the US, which includes sales on games and merchandise, hit historic highs in the first quarter of 2020, reaching $10.86 billion - an almost 10 percent increase over last year. Of that total about $9.5 billion was directly related to the purchasing of video game content, NPD reports. As noted by TechCrunch, the research firm says that lockdown measures are no doubt behind the significant uptick in sales. Nintendo's Switch console has been among the major beneficiaries of an increased demand for playing and buying video games'Video games have brought comfort and connection to millions during this challenging time,' NPD analyst Mat Piscatella told TechCrunch.

With Prime Day just around the corner, here are 5 products on Amazon that truly deserve their 5-star ratings AND a spot in your shopping cart. Has Amazon Prime Day become the new Black Friday? For the fifth July in a row, the country's biggest e-commerce marketplace – it now accounts for about 50% of all U.S. retail sales, according to eMarketer – offers aggressive discounts on several products, in a variety of categories. This year's Prime Day – it actually runs 48 hours starting Monday at 12 a.m. PT and through Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. PT – looks to be no different, especially if you're into video games.

Nintendo will launch a version of its popular Switch console dedicated to players who really prefer gaming on the go. The Nintendo Switch Lite will launch on September 20 for $199.99, the company revealed in a statement Wednesday. It will be available in three colors: yellow, gray and turquoise. Because Nintendo is emphasizing Switch Lite as more of a straightforward handheld gaming experience, it will drop key features of the standard Switch including a video output to play on a TV, and detachable controllers. All games supporting handheld mode will be compatible with Switch Lite, Nintendo says.

In a hellion cross-promotion, Activision Blizzard and Nintendo have partnered up to release a special edition Switch console for Diablo III exclusively at GameStop. The bundle will include the 2012 game, plus its two expansions, Rise of the Necromancer and Reaper of Souls. Included in the set will be a black and gray Switch console -- and dock -- featuring Diablo III artwork, a carrying case, as well as the standard trove of of items and accessories, like Joy-Cons, a grip and an HDMI cable. But it wouldn't be a third-party Nintendo cross-promotion if it didn't include some iconic, (and somewhat out-of-place) character cameos. These include items from The Legend of Zelda, such as Ganondorf's Transmog Armor, a companion Cucco pet, and a Golden Triforce Portrait Frame.