The release of the Nintendo Switch 2 (the imaginatively titled follow-up to 2017’s games console of the same name) is a big deal in a lot of ways. Its record-breaking sales are an endorsement of Nintendo’s insight, embodied in the original Switch, that the days in which ever-fancier cutting-edge hardware was the way to win the “console wars” are over.

Nintendo’s rivals, Sony and Microsoft, have long pushed the limits of what designing more and more powerful systems will do to attract customers. And both now appear to have reached them and face a race to catch up.

The Nintendo Switch 2’s success is an important moment in the life of the games industry. But more significantly, it is an important moment in the cultural and political life of the planet. Gaming enjoys a curious place in global culture. On the one hand, it is economically dominant, the biggest and most influential of all the cultural pastimes. On the other, it is continually treated and spoken about as if it were a passing fad. Even some people who do it every day are in denial about it — almost daily on social media I will see someone who sneers at video games while devouring the output of the New York Times’ games section.