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Could Nintendo Switch last just as long as Gameboy?
- Thread starter onQ123
- Start date
Effigenius
Member
Nah. You could play a Gameboy all day. A Switch has to be plugged back in after a couple hours.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Nintendo released the final game that worked on the OG Game Boy (as a dual GB/GBC game) in December 2002. So for the Switch 1 to last as long as that, we'd have to see a Switch 1 game released in 2030.
I doubt it'll happen, at least in physical cart form. But who knows how long people will be able to buy new indie shovelware on the eshop.
I think Switch will still have the young kids market for a few years after Switch 2 is released.
Grildon Tundy
Member
Depends on whether the Switch's successor has backwards compatibility, and the length and availability of cross-gen (Switch-and-Switch 2), imo.
Trilobit
Absolutely Cozy
I don't think in this day and age that it will last as long as many games are bought digitally and so it's a cost for Nintendo to upkeep the Switch shop. Of course, if they make the Nintendo eshop work for both Switch and Switch 2 then I can see it having quite long legs. But I think Nintendo will want people to move on to the next console asap. Also due to the cost of updating firmware for two separate consoles.
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chokotoureiki
Member
They very well could, but then their profits would continue to dwindle which would make investors anxious.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
A totally trivial cost though.
PS4 is only 2 years away from being 13 years old with some games still selling just as good or better than they do on Xbox Series today , I don't think Sony mind the cost of keeping PS4 PSN going as long as good money is coming in & Switch has a even bigger user base than PS4 it's going to be hard to say goodbye to a user base of 140M+ unless the software sales drop like a rock in the next few years.
Fbh
Member
They probably could but there's also probably more money to be made by releasing new hardware, specially since Nintendo doesn't do the whole selling at a loss thing (not to mention all the $70 remasters of Switch games they can sell).
Also, while they are in a dominant position now I don't think opening up an an opportunity (even if it's a small one) for a serious competitor by indefinitely sticking with ancient hardware is smart.
Also, while they are in a dominant position now I don't think opening up an an opportunity (even if it's a small one) for a serious competitor by indefinitely sticking with ancient hardware is smart.
chokotoureiki
Member
Really? No wonder their eShop is terrible.
vodka-bull
Member
You could recharge a gameboy in the sun.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Yeah, Xbox closed the 360 shop this year, 11 years after the successor console launched. Sales of 360 games will have dropped off significantly over that time but it was obviously still worth running a decade later.
Nintendo doing everything as cheaply as possible, as usual, must be the reason why the Nintendo eShop is terrible though, of course.
tkscz
Member
Maybe but the Gameboy was an odd case. The Gameboy Color was technically a different system, basically like a Gameboy Pro. Eventually it received games that the original Gameboy couldn't run, this "extended" it's life. The Switch never got a pro version so I can see it lasting maybe a year or 2 after the release of the Switch 2.
Kokoloko85
Member
Nintendo also had home consoles then. Such different times
