Just under a year into her new role as president of Nintendo of America, Devon Pritchard is ready to share elements of her master plan for the beloved Japanese gaming company. At the center of its strategy is the relative youth of Nintendo’s Switch 2, which undeniably places the company ahead of its competitors in terms of game consoles (Xbox and PlayStation) which are still stuck at the end of the life cycle of their older models.
“We’re just at the beginning of what Nintendo Switch 2 can do,” says Pritchard, who took over from longtime Nintendo of America executive Doug Bowser in January.
Compared to its first-generation predecessor, the Switch 2 features improved graphics and better processing power, enabling new play styles. “This opens up a number of different ways for developers to create experiences that can only be found on Nintendo Switch 2,” she explains.
Devon Pritchard at the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit presented by EY held at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles on September 17, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California.
JC Olivera/Variety
The Switch 2’s more powerful capabilities are one of the reasons Microsoft’s Activision is bringing the “Call of Duty” franchise back to Nintendo consoles for the first time in more than a decade. This fall, it will launch “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” on Switch 2, in addition to its releases on the Xbox and PlayStation systems – a clear signal that Nintendo’s latest console can hold its own in fast-paced action games.
Sales of the Switch 2, released in June 2025, have exceeded more than 23 million units to date. Nintendo has released hundreds of titles for the platform, ranging from first-party hits like “Mario Kart World” to third-party games like “Resident Evil Requiem.”
“We’ve always said Nintendo is for kids ages 5 to 95, and that continues to be true,” Pritchard says. “We want to provide diversity in terms of the types of experiences you can have on the game system, and that’s really important to us.” Some players are excited about the role-playing game “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave”; others want to talk about the comfortable “Pokémon Pokopia”. “So we want to make sure that we are a platform where people can come and have different types of creative experiences and have fun,” she says.
Is the Switch 2 tent big enough to accommodate “Grand Theft Auto VI” (with its M rating for adult content and themes), due out in November and the most anticipated game title of the year? The console certainly has the power to host the M-rated “GTA 6,” but for now Pritchard won’t say if the title will come to the platform.
“This is going to be a conversation between Take Two and Rockstar, but nothing to announce from me at this time,” Pritchard said.
Alongside his plan to get the most out of the Switch 2’s lifecycle, Pritchard hit a milestone at Nintendo that’s already setting his team up for success: the 40th anniversary of the “Legend of Zelda” franchise. This moment will be marked by the release of a remake of the beloved “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” (which is the only major game brave enough to face the November launch window for “GTA 6”), a series of live-action concerts inspired by “Zelda”, and will culminate with the debut next April of the live-action film “Zelda” made in collaboration with Sony. But Nintendo walks a fine line with an anniversary of this magnitude as it seeks to appeal to both diehards and newcomers.
“I think it’s really a celebration of ‘Zelda’ and the ‘Zelda’ universe in its entirety,” Pritchard says. “It’s Link, it’s Zelda and all the other characters. I think it’s more about how do we create a celebration that everyone can come to and join and connect to this world?”
It also means the company has the potential to update Universal’s Super Nintendo World locations with limited-time “Zelda” tie-ins – but Pritchard is aware of how that could affect the established “highly immersive experiences” that are already packed with Mario and Donkey Kong rides. For Nintendo, it can’t be additive if it’s not organic.
Pritchard says, “Whether it’s a theme park or movies, everything we’re going to do will be deliberate and thoughtful about the experience you’re having. »
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