Gamers have been waiting for the ‘Switch 2’ for ages. It seems the upcoming handheld game console is on everyone’s lips. Everything got even hotter when Nintendo’s current president announced on a conference call that new host devices had begun development.
A recent article in gamesindustry claims that Nintendo’s upcoming hardware may not be able to replicate the Switch’s design but instead use a different one. As the source says, Nintendo needs a product that can take the company into a new era.
The market for the Switch has already reached saturation point. So simply adding a more powerful processor or other accessories would have a significant negative impact on the ecology of the new host. That’s why there is every reason to think that Nintendo will implement new ideas and improve the hardware.
In reality, based on Nintendo’s past development history, there is very little chance that “Switch 2” or “Switch Pro” will ever be released. Anyone familiar with Nintendo’s development history should be aware of the company’s extreme caution. If it loses patience with a development path, it won’t try it again.
The Nintendo GameCube (NGC), a fourth-generation video game console, was launched by Nintendo in 2001. At the time, the console boasted top-notch performance, but due to factors such as the timing of its launch and market decisions, it ultimately flopped horribly.
The NGC’s failure directly influenced Nintendo’s decision not to push performance to the limit in subsequent consoles. In fact, it could be argued that the Switch’s poor performance contributed to the NGC’s demise.
Before Switch, Nintendo released the Wii U host, which was an improved and optimized version of the Wii host. As a result, many casual users struggle to understand what the Wii U is, and some even don’t know the difference between the Wii and the Wii U. This directly contributes to the Wii U’s sales ranking at the bottom of Nintendo’s console sales history.
So, Nintendo has no motivation to release a system similar in design to the Switch in order to repeat the colossal failure of the Wii U era, given its somewhat conservative business approach.