Zelda - Breath of the Wild 2 - Tears of the Kingdom

Please understand...

Hey guys/gals, I hear Zelda 2 is happening? That sounds cool

I think it’s because it makes their hardware seem very expensive for what you are getting. When you consider that a series s is the same price as the base Switch or less than the OLED Switch..  I personally find the entirety of the Switch hardware design to be very unappealing (tiny controls, awkward length and weight as a handheld) and then when it seems like they are skimping out on the specs, even hobbling the chips they went with, as a value proposition next to the alternative consoles the last few Nintendo consoles really bite.

The thing is, it is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s also the reason why so much of he discussion about graphics or not being able to play Resident Evil are slightly missing the point. It is fundamentally a kids’ console and in that respect it is absolutely brilliant. 

I get your point - Nintendo consoles have always emphasised being toys more so than MS/Sony - but it's not as if the Switch doesn't have the variety of genres in its library to not warrant the extra horsepower. The fact that the likes of Resident Evil 7 and Guardians of the Galaxy are available through cloud gaming shows that there is definitely a demand for those type of games.

Sure, it doesn't necessarily need a higher spec console as most of the core Nintendo games still look great, but the same argument could have applied to the PS4/Xbox One. 

All of this switch chat and yet i'd be willing to wager (barring a Ninty implosion which is entirely possible) Nintendo is the more likely at this moment in time to continue selling good numbers into future gens. I say that because neither Microsoft or Sony have a USP after the power race reaches its peak. I've personally found the last 2 generations underwhelming. There just isn't the headroom for the way games look and run to wow me. Turning on my brand new PS4 was the most disappointing moment I've had in gaming and it never really raised the stakes over its life. This gen again is an incremental step rather than a significant leap. Gamepass certainly makes a good case and it's a service I very much admire, even if I rarely use it for reasons I can't quite work out. But how exciting is that over a longer term? What Is the hook 5 years from now? Sure it will be successful if the price point stays steady but what happens when Apple, Sony and Amazon jump in with both feet and the concept becomes overly familiar? Nintendo will probably still be knocking out interesting affordable toy like systems that are uniquely appealing. They won't take over the gaming landscape like that but they will comfortably exist in a very volatile market. Just look at Netflix, probably the most recognisable streaming service. Your kids know it, your mam knows it and your granny is logged in on your sisters account and it still struggles to balance content with profit

Absolutely, but will that IP be enough? As an aside, I don't think there will be an Xbox console. The fact that I can already stream gamepass to my phone tells me that. How these changes to the landscape are implemented and how accessible and compelling they are will define wether Nintendo and it's more traditional approach will be in a good position or a very bad one, where they may need to change dramatically. For me, I'm just not a lover of "the Netflix of games" as a concept and streaming needs to be a whole lot better which includes major infrastructure changes to deliver better internet service. Too much choice when it comes to games doesn't work the same as it does for movies and TV because games require more effort to try out. Its too easy to dabble for 5 minutes and then move on, potentially missing great experiences in the process. I'm sure there are quite a few people who feel the exact opposite but I still feel it devalues games and that there is a danger that gaming will collapse into a handful of huge online service games and become much less rich and diverse as a result

I'm possibly being a little pedantic right now, but would a new Switch be considered a mid-generation upgrade when the original one came out in the Xbox One/PS4 era? That would make Switch and Switch 2 different generations entirely, wouldn't it? Since we're up to Xbox Series/PS5 now...

Switch came out over five years ago. My feeling on it is it should be 1/3rd of the price by now.

Yes, it will. It’s still a large part of the driving factor of why you purchase a console, with the social side picking up the rest, and the importance of each tends to differ by age group (and the social side is becoming a little easier as we go more cross-platform). If you want to play Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, God of War, Mario, Zelda, Halo, etc, you pick your platform. PC will get a chunk of the best of most, but you’ll still miss out on a lot, especially Nintendo titles, unless you look at less legal means.

And there will be an Xbox for the significant future. At least until you get GamePass on both Sony and Nintendo consoles, but likely far past that too. GamePass is a core pillar of MS’s gaming future but it’s still very limited right now - it’s basically their 1st party IP equivalent, and you still need to invest in a MS platform, be it Xbox or Windows, to use it.

I know it was supposed to be more powerful than the GameCube but I always felt the Wii was barely an upgrade graphically.

I think you’re being a bit unfair there , SNES and N64 were more powerful than the consoles they came after, you can’t say that they weren’t current, GameCube was also more powerful than PS2, it’s only from Wii onwards ..

This what I had always assumed as looking at the specs there was nothing to indicate it was a x2 power difference as it never translated to that on the screen.

N64 was 64 bit, its competition was only 32 bit. That must be better because bigger numbers right?

(genuine question as I have no idea what XX bit really means or does.)