Nintendo is currently sitting pretty with the success of the Switch, but where do they go after the Switch? Do they make a traditional console again, or do they keep making a console-handheld hybrid? I’m not sure a second hybrid would be as successful as the Switch, and I don’t know if they can succeed with a traditional console.
Well, I thought the Switch was going to discontinue the DS portable line, merging everything into one line of machines. Home-console-and-mobile.
Does not appear to be the case. Perhaps their next console will do this?
Produce one console that serves as both mobile and full-home-console.
I still think the “pro” version of the Switch–something that is a part of the console cycle now–will coincide with Nintendo setting a cutoff point for the 3DS, and then, by the time we get to the successor, the lines will be completely merged. I would even bet that the successor might have a 3DS emulator running on it, for backwards compatibility reasons. (We already have PCs that can emulate it with higher graphics, so it’s doable.)
I’m hoping this pro version will allow playing on a big screen and the little screen at the same time, giving access to the touch screen for everything, and allowing the games that actually do depend on dual screens and touch to move over.
By the next console cycle, I would expect that, if Nintendo keeps a lesser line for cheaper handhelds, it will just be the Switch itself to be the budget handheld.
They would be dumb not to do all of this.
Great thinking BigT.
Thumbs up smiley!
I’d imagine that you could bring out an upgraded version of the switch that will unlock greater resolution or FPS while maintaining compatibility with the back catalogue.
It seems like the natural thing to do next is to release a Switch 2 or Switch Pro and just continue on, assuming that the Switch keeps its momentum. But Nintendo has a history of changing things up when it’s not obviously necessary. The first DS seemed like a fairly random branch off of the Game Boy line, and they could’ve just done a WiiHD rather than the WiiU.
They do like to produce budget or simplified versions of their systems later in the life cycle, like the Wii Mini or the 2DS. Maybe at some point they’ll sell a pure portable version of the Switch, without detachable controllers, and without the dock. Or a pure home version, where the “dock” is just a normal console without a screen.
For 3DS compatibility, it would be simple enough if you could attach the joycons to the top and bottom of the Switch, and play in portrait orientation.
Surely it’s too soon to say? The console market is a rapidly-changing one, and Nintendo has been pushing it in new and unexpected directions since at least the Wii. Maybe by the next generation, there will be no portable consoles, that market having been taken over by phones. Maybe they’ll all be portable. Maybe the consoles will be phones. Maybe it’ll all be wearable virtual and/or augmented reality. Maybe they’ll double down on the Labo model, where the console changes form for every game.
I have heard a number of people say phones will take over not only from handhelds,but consoles as well. I don’t think a phone will ever take over from home consoles because a large dedicated consoles using the current technology will always have advantages over a cell phone using the current technology as it will be able to produce games better in almost every area.As far as taking over from hand helds that is a possibility,but I think hand helds will always have certain advantages as well. Heck if a cell phone company gets itself together and challenges Nintendo Nintendo will just come back at them and be like okay we will make a hand held that plays games and is a better cell phone device than yours.
I think what will kill gaming as we know it is discreet, portable VR/AR gaming. Gaming that won’t require equipment beyond what you wear everywhere. I don’t think that technology is that far off, and once it happens you won’t have screens or keyboards or controllers, or a computer/console to go to. You just play a game anytime anywhere from your glasses or whatever tech is involved.