Nintendo seemingly won't tease the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 with another image of a super creepy Mario hiding behind a curtain, former staff have said.
The image was posted to the Nintendo of America X/Twitter account in 2016 as the company began teasing the NX, soon to be revealed as the Nintendo Switch. But something about a giant Mario peeping around a curtain didn't sit right with the internet, and it was naturally made fun of relentlessly.
Former Nintendo hosts Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang said on the Kit & Krysta Podcast that a mishap like that "won't happen again" as rumors surrounding the next Nintendo console ramp up.
Be among the first to discover #NX. Watch the Preview Trailer at 7am PT/10am ET! pic.twitter.com/R2QTzjyLUo
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 20, 2016
"This was very controversial," Yang said. "The person that had this idea was the former head of social. This person commissioned a photoshoot for the Mario costume character in the office to go... They basically staged a photo of the Mario costume character going behind the curtain and doing the thing.
"It caused some concern actually because, of course, Nintendo doesn't want to not manage people's expectations and this was too much in the zone of speculation. What could it be? [Is it] too much of a tease for something as big as a console reveal? So it didn't go over too well. Then, of course, it got memed into oblivion and people were kind of upset about it, honestly."
Ellis commented too: "You always need more assets than you think you do. And in this case, there was clearly no asset to pair with this news and nobody wants to put out a tweet that has no image with it. So it's like, 'Well what can we do?'
"There's always some spreadsheet. Here's every single asset we need, every single sizing, every single use. And I think in that case they must have just missed out, because why else otherwise would they be taking a last second picture of Mario in the shower," he continued. "They'll be on top of it this time. It won't happen again."
A full reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, for lack of an official name, has felt just around the corner for a while now. Photos of its design allegedly leaked in September which tech experts said were "almost certainly real," and developers are even starting to announce games for the mysterious platform.
Nintendo has said itself that a reveal is definitely coming before April 2025, but has otherwise only commented on the new console vaguely. It does expect to have plenty stock available for when it does release, however, and has also suggested that Nintendo accounts will carry forward.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
