If Nintendo If you don’t learn from the past, the Switch 2 could mutate into a total commercial disaster. A possible successor to the extremely successful hybrid console, which only offers technical improvements, would in my opinion have the potential for a flop that threatened the existence of a hardware manufacturer. You don’t need to be a genius or use a fortune-telling bullet to make such a prediction. A look into the past is enough.
Nintendo consoles – flop or sales hit?
If you look at the hardware sales of Nintendo consoles, you quickly realize that all devices that are more or less just one improved technology of the predecessor offered, sold worse. From the NO proud 61.9 million copies were sold, the technically improved SuperNintendo only came to 49.1 million devices. With the Nintendo 64 dared to jump into the third dimension and invented the analog stick, the Gamecube with only polished graphics sold much worse.
The Wii serves as a drastic example. The concept of motion control turned out to be a tremendous success. Nintendo sold 101 million devices, but almost shipwrecked with the Wii U. The successor offered with the screen controller an immature feature and otherwise just a little prettier, higher resolution graphics. The result was a catastrophic result of 13.5 million units sold.
The handhelds were similar. The GBA sold worse than that game boythe 3DS halved the sales of the NintendoDS. If a switch (buy now €325.00 ) 2 should be limited to scaled 4K on TV and 1080p on the built-in screen, I personally (and arguably most of the Nintendo audience) would do the same a shrug acknowledge.
New console from Nintendo: What does a Switch 2 have to be able to do?
Of course, I would like a Mario Kart 8 that also runs in 4-player couch co-op at 60 FPS. And with a Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the outdated hardware of the switch should groan properly. However, a successor console has to offer much more than slightly drilled technology: namely real innovation!
Just spinning around: How about if the Switch 2 as modular system is designed? There is a core unit without a screen, which contains the entire technology and a module slot for backward compatibility to Switch 1 accommodates. This core unit could be plugged into a dock to play on TVs and monitors.
If mobile gamblen wants, it would be possible to do this core unit clamped into a controller device together with your own mobile phone in order to hold a handheld in your hands. Apart from the extent to which my solution (rather: spinning) would be technically feasible, it would offer a decisive advantage: Nintendo could Screen “save” on the Switch 2.
This might make it possible, without a significant increase in production costs, better mobile technology to block that thanks to the core unit could shine either on the big screen at home or on the smartphone. It remains to be seen whether my future vision will ever become reality. However, Nintendo needs to come up with something innovative that makes a Switch 2 stand out from both the external and internal competition stands out and is also cheap to manufacture.
