After finally watching the video for it and reading a bunch of stuff, I have no real interest in the switch. My need for portable gaming is virtually non-existent. I understand that Nintendo want to separate themselves from Sony and Microsoft, but they already do that by having Metroid, Zelda, Mario, Smash, and Pokemon. All they need to do is build an overly powerful standalone console that can play both Super Smash Brothers and a non-dumbed down version of Grand Theft Auto. I don't get it.
Yeah I agree. The concept is cool but I have no need for this. They keep trying for the next WII and it's not going to happen. I think they should go Sega's way and just develop game. Can you imagine how much money they'd make selling Mario/Zelda/etc. on Xbox and Playstation? I would buy every mario and zelda game in a heart beat.
It's not like Sega have done so great.
They'd sell more games, but they'd lose out all of the hardware sales, plus spend more money in development for cross platform support and licensing and publishing etc. Plus, they don't release their main games that often, often once per generation. As it is they've been releasing a Zelda game once every five years or so. If they relied purely on software for money, you'd probably find either quality control would slip to get games out, or they'd start pushing out more shovelware and water down their IPs to make up the difference elsewhere. Basically, they'll end up like Sega, with characters and games that nobody cares about anymore. They'd make their money, but the appeal would wear off over time. I know Sega has never compared to Nintendo for first party games, but it would still affect them. Plus they could lose out on the people who don't want to buy an expensive new console to play a few casual family games.
I get Nintendo's approach; It doesn't make much sense for Nintendo to compete with Sony/Microsoft on hardware, because it prices them beyond their key demographic, and they won't win in an oversaturated market of 3 such similar consoles. Would people buy a Nintendo instead of those other consoles if it had the same third party games? Are Nintendo's exclusives going to be more appealing to the GTA demographic than the PS4/XBONE exclusives? Doubtful. And if you're going to buy more than one console, it makes no difference. Plus it's been proven basically every generation that the most powerful console does not win.
While I'm not a fan of the extra gimmicky direction of the Wii onwards, the Wii was a massive success for them, which wouldn't have happened if they'd released a console similar to the PS3/360. The Wii U made the mistake of not differentiating itself enough from the Wii aside from adding more expensive hardware with little to no gain from the player's perspective to justify buying another console, plus confusing buyers in the process. This time they're trying to make those differences more obvious, and do something different again. Like the Wii, it will be a risk, but if it pays off, it will probably pay off bigger than making a PS4/XBONE style console would. If it fails, it may very well send them the way of Sega this time.
I remember the reception to the Wii being much more negative at the time it was announced, and it went on to do extremely well. Generally people are a lot more positive on this, so I expect it will be much more successful than the Wii U. Also, the hardware is apparently easier for developers to work with than the Wii U architecture, and I would think at least as powerful as the Wii U, although not as powerful as the XBONE/PS4.