Mythoclast
Member
Probably since the N64 or GameCube, Nintendo has released considerably weaker consoles than its competitors, Sony and Microsoft. One can argue that give their release cycles and hardware approaches, they are not even competitors anymore. Doing their own thing has worked considerably well for them for the last 10-15 years.
They pioneered the hybrid handheld/home console system. But more recently, Steam Decks and other handheld PCs have shown up, offering considerably more power and the ability to install pretty much any software you can install on a regular PC. Now even phones are catching up being able to offer console-level AAA experiences.
Nintendo is Nintendo and they will always have Mario, Zelda and Pokémon, and those will always sell a ton.
But with the rumored Switch 2 having allegedly similar performance to a PS4, when phones and other handhelds can already do that, and this is not even the beginning of the generation, I'm concerned that Nintendo will have to just rely again on first party software to thrive. The difference this generation being that they have significantly more competition from handheld PCs and phones.
Hope they've got something up their sleeves instead of just a slightly more beefed up Switch that is already outdated on release.
They pioneered the hybrid handheld/home console system. But more recently, Steam Decks and other handheld PCs have shown up, offering considerably more power and the ability to install pretty much any software you can install on a regular PC. Now even phones are catching up being able to offer console-level AAA experiences.
Nintendo is Nintendo and they will always have Mario, Zelda and Pokémon, and those will always sell a ton.
But with the rumored Switch 2 having allegedly similar performance to a PS4, when phones and other handhelds can already do that, and this is not even the beginning of the generation, I'm concerned that Nintendo will have to just rely again on first party software to thrive. The difference this generation being that they have significantly more competition from handheld PCs and phones.
Hope they've got something up their sleeves instead of just a slightly more beefed up Switch that is already outdated on release.