Game news Nintendo Switch: revolution or discount console? We are talking about it !
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As the console turns 6, let’s take stock of the Nintendo Switch, is it a console that has revolutionized video games or a console that has never been at the level of the competition? A central question of this new episode of JV Débat to find in video of this beginning of article.
The Nintendo Switch, a one-of-a-kind console.
The Nintendo console (which at the time was codenamed Project NX) has irreparably marked the history of the Japanese firm, but also the history of video games in general. The Switch, announced in 2015, arrives in March 2017 worldwide, and it has stood out with an atypical concept. The machine is a portable console that can be put in a box to connect it to a TV, so it becomes a home console. The Switch is therefore designed to be played everywhere, alone, with everyone, at home, with others, on the beach, in the park, in transport, etc. Nintendo’s strategy has worked like this since the development of the Wii, that is to say, to think of video games around a solo gaming experience, with friends or family, very different from the competition. Nintendo therefore never wanted to race for graphics or the race for the most powerful console, preferring to focus on creating new ways of playing around motion gaming with accessories such as the Nintendo Labo or the Mario Kart Live game. : Home Circuit for example. The Switch is a machine that innovates in the way of playing while offering a classic way of playing on all consoles. Nintendo is therefore developing its catalog around its iconic licenses: Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pokemon, Smash Bros, etc. While developing a catalog around multiplayer games like Nintendo Switch Sports or Amrs. Indie games are also increasingly honored by the firm of the mustachioed plumber, which takes advantage of the hybridity of its console to operate ports of games initially released on DS to finally adapt them to the big screen like the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon episode.
Hybridity becomes the watchword of the Nintendo Switch, which tries to offer an experience dedicated to the living room, but with the machine in the hands. It is this hybridity that seduces and works, Nintendo’s latest financial report demonstrates it well: since the start of its operation, the Switch has sold nearly 123,000,000 copies, overtaking the PS4 and especially the GameBoy, it becomes the 3rd best-selling console in history (there remains the DS and the PS2 to exceed). Some games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have not left the top sellers for years. After the Wii U disaster, Nintendo managed to recreate the success of the Wii or their various handheld consoles. The firm has capitalized on the two forms of consoles it has developed to create a concept that is still a hit even after almost 6 years of operation.
Unique, but not at the level of the competition.
The Switch was born at the end of the 8th generation of consoles, it will have seen the end of the latter to be fully exploited during the 9th generation. She will also have observed the performance of the PC which improves constantly and much faster than their cousins the consoles. In short, the Switch is KO standing against the opponent : a battery that does not last long in portable mode, the problems of Joy-Con Drift still present, a non-optimized online mode, wobbly communication from Nintendo, a machine that ventilates to the max while trying to do run graphically demanding games (in portable mode, the console is boiling while running The Witcher 3 or Breath Of The Wild) etc. Additionally, the Switch’s OLED and Lite models didn’t help fix the machine’s technical issues. The Nintendo Switch is the subject of this debate led by Fkz with on the one hand Antistar which defends the Switch as a technical revolution in the world of game consoles and on the other hand Nagla which defends the idea that the machine of the Japanese company cannot be a revolution given its performance against the competition.
- To find out more, do not hesitate to watch the episode of JV Debate at the start of the article.
