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Hardware Will Nintendo Stick with the Hybrid Nature of the Switch, or will they split their handheld and console divisions again?

I think one of the most interesting and unheralded things about the Switch being a hybrid is that it obscured Nintendo finally abandoning the home console space. There was no wailing, no gnashing of teeth, no opinion pieces. Because you could still plug your shiny new "hybrid" handheld under your TV and call it a home console. (Which is, to be fair, magical.)

But it did signal the definitive end of Nintendo home consoles, and all the advantages dedicated home consoles bring. And they're never going back.

Further, as tech progresses there will be diminishing returns, graphically, from tech advances. As this happens, the disadvantage of having handheld tech will decrease. Which is to say that the delta in discernable difference between home console graphics and portable graphics will shrink. Nintendo is in a really good spot where they are. With DLSS on a Switch 4k, they should be able to output visuals that all but the most dedicated pixel peepers are satisfied with.
 
Heron said:
I think one of the most interesting and unheralded things about the Switch being a hybrid is that it obscured Nintendo finally abandoning the home console space. There was no wailing, no gnashing of teeth, no opinion pieces. Because you could still plug your shiny new "hybrid" handheld under your TV and call it a home console. (Which is, to be fair, magical.)

But it did signal the definitive end of Nintendo home consoles, and all the advantages dedicated home consoles bring. And they're never going back.

Further, as tech progresses there will be diminishing returns, graphically, from tech advances. As this happens, the disadvantage of having handheld tech will decrease. Which is to say that the delta in discernable difference between home console graphics and portable graphics will shrink. Nintendo is in a really good spot where they are. With DLSS on a Switch 4k, they should be able to output visuals that all but the most dedicated pixel peepers are satisfied with.
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Apple is also “abandoning” the “home” hardware in the same sense, i.e., even a mains powered iMac runs on the same hardware that’s in a MacBook that’s in a iPad and that’s just a slightly more powerful derivative of what’s in an iPhone.

And it’s plenty powerful for what needs to be.

There’s still some advantages to being “at” home. More cooling space, no worry about battery life means less throttling and in practice, better performance, if only slightly. We also see that with the Nintendo Switch itself.

It’s a brave new world. Evolution of mobile hardware, diminishing returns on the high end, etc, means that the convenience of hardware and software unification trumps the performance advantage of power hungry hardware. This couldn’t be said 10 years ago. And the tendency is to keep closing that gap.
 
Well, as far as I'm concerned, I dropped the whole "performance matters" thing as far back as the SNES era because I found some of the "most technologically advanced" games to be boring and souless.

Videogames are entertainment just like movies and music. I dont go into a movie theater thinking "what projector are they using" or "what is the resolution of the movie?" Before I listen to a song I DO NOT research if the instruments in the song take advantage of the full spectrum of a CD (20hz to 20Khz). All I care about is whether is this song/move/videogame is good or not.

What I find most hilarious is that the same people who obsess over specs and resolution for games are the same people who have 100 different Anime on their PCs or on Blu Ray and very, very few anime series natively runs over 720p. That's why I think most (not all) of these "spec obsessions" are caused by clever marketing/brainwashing. :LOL:
 
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I hope they stick with it because I don't see myself buying two separate devices again.
 
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Seeing developers talk about theb it more effort needed to put into the Xbox series S with the X makes me think there won't ever will be a power increase unless it is a launch of a new gen product that easily plays everything from the current switch.

So my answer is no I dont expect it.
 
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Theyll stick with it for sure aslong as the hybrid models keeps selling as well or close to the switch numbers Nintendo won't go back. Theyll ofcourse innovate on the switch line or add new features to spice it up.

When sales go down of the hybrid models theyll ofcourse try something new but i doubt thatll happen anytime soon. And they can always release a switch lite like model or a tv docked only model if needed.
 
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The cost implications from merging were so great that moving back to the traditional spilt hardware business would be nonsensical IMO.

Besides, the Switch is selling like hotcakes. People are also now used to the portability and accessibility that Switch provides and in doing so, Nintendo has carved a out a neat new niche for themselves where they can thrive. Throwing way all that to back to the way things were seems pointless.
 
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I'm good with buying an all in one console like the switch more then onwing two completely different ones
 
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I think they will, mainly because they don't want to go back to having 2 different architectures to develop for, with how expensive and how much time to make a game takes, however, I don't rule out the possibility of them bringing a home console to the market that uses the exact same chip that the hybrid uses and maybe adding some stuff to be able to upscale the image more cleanly, I think that is definitely a possibility, just like they have a handheld only device.
 
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I hope they continue with hybrid concept for their next system. It's perfect for somone like me who prefers handheld gaming but also wants to game on the big screen from time to time.
 
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One of the advantages of the Switch for Nintendo was that they didn't have to split development resources between two platforms, which introduced quite the strain on them with WiiU and 3DS. There is very little reason why they should go back, honestly. Also they managed to carve out a segment of the market that they can occupy without much competition at the moment.

Personally, I'd like them to continue iterating on their hybrid concept. I love the versatility of the switch, and a more powerful one with some improvements to the joy-con is all I need.
 
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I could see them releasing niche products such as a home console only with some different feature, the same way the switch lite doesnt replicate the full Switch esperience. Sales demonstrate that people like having the option to switch from handheld to tv. It would be interesting to see how much would a home console sell to further understand the Switch’s success: is it the hybrid nature, the catalog or a perfect mix of both?
 
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maniacmaison said:
I could see them releasing niche products such as a home console only with some different feature, the same way the switch lite doesnt replicate the full Switch esperience. Sales demonstrate that people like having the option. It would be interesting to see how much would a home console sell to further understand the Switch’s success: is it the hybrid nature, the catalog or a perfect mix of both?
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The only way this happens, is if they mandate 100% library parity.

Sure they could release a home console with an arm cpu and a much more powerful geeforce but I don’t see it happening.
 
SphereSeeker said:
I would like them to just continue down this route. More powerful hybrids.
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Yes. But what if Nintendo finds and idea that could become a HUGE hit, but it requires a stationary console to work? You think they should abandon the idea? The way I see it, they may do another stationary console BUT not by itself. They will integrate the Switch with it somehow.
 
My hope is that hybrid is here to stay forever, but Nintendo continues to experiment with input methods with additional peripherals like Ring Fit Adventure. Like the Wii U asynchronous multiplayer seemed like a great idea for some games dedicated to the concept, but not really something you needed for the vast majority of their franchises. Going the peripheral route helps with putting guardrails on these ideas so that not every developer feels “pressured” to using it.
 
Aquarius said:
Yes. But what if Nintendo finds and idea that could become a HUGE hit, but it requires a stationary console to work? You think they should abandon the idea? The way I see it, they may do another stationary console BUT not by itself. They will integrate the Switch with it somehow.
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The only way I see it from preventing development resource splitting is allowing some sort of remote play to exist on the switch or its successor to work with this stationary console. idk what exactly they could do thats a huge hit unless its a push into vr.
 
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The one change I could potentially see Nintendo making, if the technology supports it at a price they're willing to pay, is to replace the dock with a Chromecast-like device, and juts stream from the handheld.
 
I honestly can't see Nintendo ever returning to regular stationary consoles since the hybrid feels like the culmination of Nintendo's efforts in the gaming industry. It plays up to Nintendo's strengths in portables while also being strong enough to run games that could have only be feasible on a home console back in the day. Everything from this point on will just expand on the groundwork laid out by the Switch.
 
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Sam Albro said:
The one change I could potentially see Nintendo making, if the technology supports it at a price they're willing to pay, is to replace the dock with a Chromecast-like device, and juts stream from the handheld.
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batman-hmm.gif


This could work.
 
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They're going to most likely stick with the hybrid model while continuing to improve on the hardware & graphics among everything else. There's no going back to the old "one system & one handheld" routine.
 
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As most people have said already, hybrid is the way to go for the base console experience for Nintendo. Being able to play HD portably is amazing, especially if the performance and resolution are maximized.

It would be nice to see an HD home console (just like how there was the switch lite experience) that plays the same games but at native 4k and/or better performance, just like the relationship between xbone base and xbone x or x series s and x series s.

But there's enough developer profiles already and adding another could be a hassle for Nintendo
 
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It's a mistake to think that Nintendo could not leverage once again two parallel console lines in the future however I don't think the differentiation aspect will be simply TV console/handheld console as in the past, what I believe is that in the future Nintendo will try once again to revolutionize the videogame business with new concepts that might not be possible to incorporate in the hybrid line and to do so it might be wise to offer an established and safe proposition (the hybrid line) along side a new platform ("new" as in conceptually new).
 
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I'll be disappointed if they go back to a separate handheld and console. It's so nice having everything consolidated in one unit that I can take anywhere.

That said, my disappointment wouldn't stop me from picking up both.
 
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Sam Albro said:
The one change I could potentially see Nintendo making, if the technology supports it at a price they're willing to pay, is to replace the dock with a Chromecast-like device, and juts stream from the handheld.
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No joke I thought the Switch was going to do this (back when the only things we knew about it were from rumors).

My theory was that the biggest flaw of the WiiU was that the handheld unit was tethered to the console unit which made it a poor portable device. I figured for the Switch, they would do the opposite and just have the console stream to the TV which would allow their device to be dedicated handheld first and foremost.

I still really like the idea because you could start having dual screen gameplay again. Stream the "main" gameplay onto the TV and the handheld unit displays the map screen, inventory, etc.

In hindsight, the WiiU gamepad was pretty magical because it was very low latency and had virtually no input lag.I'm not sure about how bad latency would get streaming from a portable console to the TV and at what I would assume would be a more demanding resolution to broadcast.
 
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