Reggie admits Switch was a "Make or Break" product after the poor performance of the Wii U

[Illusion]

I actually agree that the Switch was "make or break" for Nintendo to continue producing dedicated home console hardware. Of course, the company wouldn't have gone out of business if the Switch was another fail like the Wii U, but let's face it that Nintendo would be out of the hardware business after such an event. It isn't just about the money a company has in the bank but it is also about investor confidence. Nintendo is a publicly traded company and we all forget that the Wii U was such a disaster that Iwata took a 50% paycut just to appease the company's panicked investors. If the Switch did as poorly as the Wii U did there is no way that Nintendo would have support from its shareholders to try a third time. The view would have been that the ship has sailed on Nintendo making its own home consoles and that the Wii was just an outlier in the trend of Nintendo's continually diminishing success in the home console market.

It's a different question about whether Nintendo would still be making dedicated handhelds. Nintendo has had a strong history of success with handhelds, more so than with home consoles. That said, handhelds have always been a secondary market for Nintendo and the 3DS really wasn't all that successful after around 2014 either due to the smartphone gaming fad. I suspect that if the Switch failed, Nintendo probably wouldn't be making dedicated handhelds anymore either since the Switch would be seen as a second rebuke of the dedicated handheld market for Nintendo.

In conclusion, I agree with Reggie that the Switch was make or break for Nintendo at least in the hardware business. I am sure that he had inside information about this as well regarding the scenarios that the company had battle-planned as contingency in case the Switch failed. It just makes me more grateful than ever that the Switch succeeded. That said, it is also important to acknowledge just how major the Switch has been for Nintendo.  The Switch isn't just Nintendo staving off defeat, it has been a major course correction that has effectively put Nintendo back on the top of the market and has completely changed the trajectory of the company's future.