popular opinion : The Switch 2 was finally announced yesterday , and while it ’s been great to see Nintendo at last move on to something fresh after the original Switch ’s near eight - year lifespan , those who were hoping for a more radical change , similar to the Wii , have n’t been paying attention to Nintendo ’s trajectory over the last few years .
Even before theSwitch 2was officially unveiled , I was surprised to see a handful of articles noting dashing hopes off the back of theCES leakswhere producer Genki brought a design mock - up of the console to the show . One clause went so far as to decry the admittedly similar design as being “ perfectly un - Nintendo ” .
I will take on that if this was the Nintendo of 10 age ago then yes , it would have been unusual to see the company put forth a cabinet that does n’t sway the boat too much , but the present daylight Nintendo is in a very different place than when it assay to push edge with touchscreens and motions check .
In fact , there are two key reasons as to why Nintendo has played it safe for the Switch ’s follow - up , and why I in person think that it ’s the correct conclusion to make .
All eggs in one hybrid basket
From the late 1980s , well up until the turn of the 2020s , Nintendo operate on a two - pronged approach where its consoles are worry : a cabinet to play in the home and on your television , and a lesser powered portable equipment for playing game on the go .
It was an established scheme that gave Nintendo a second more wiggle way for experiment , not just in make more than one opportunity for winner , but also in call for to clear tell the home console table from the portable one , and to take to gamers why it was worth possess both at the same metre .
For example , the Nintendo DS featured two screens , one of which was a touchscreen and required a stylus to interact with , which created a unique gameplay grummet that was very unlike to the very approachable motion control condition - led gameplay of the Nintendo Wii .
When theNintendo Switchcame out , the company effectively ended this approach all in all , deciding to merge the two construct into one equipment that could be used both at base and on the go . As enceinte as that is from a consumer perspective , it puts far more insistence on that singular console to win .
Even the original Switch had something of a buffer as the Nintendo 3DS was n’t discontinued until 2020 ( three years after the Switch came to marketplace ) , but with the Switch 2 , Nintendo is now amply pinning its hope on one cabinet , and after the disaster of the Wii U – the last clock time Nintendo tried a drastically different gameplay concept – why take the hazard ?
The implications of Nintendo Switch Online
When it became seeming that the Nintendo Switch would not be utilising the same ‘ Virtual Console ’ storefront from the Wii and the Wii U , I , and many other sports fan like myself , were up in coat of arms . In the prison term since the console table ’s launch however , we ’ve had theNintendo Switch Onlineservice issue forth into issue , showing a rarified instance of Nintendo looking to adopt a certain degree of modernity .
Just like Sony and Microsoft before it , Nintendo has hopped aboard the subscription model bandwagon where drug user pay on a monthly or annual cornerstone for admission to online drama and retro titles , while a more expensive ‘ enlargement Pack ’ tier grants you access to even more classical plot and a handful of downloadable content .
While Nintendo Switch Online is , admittedly , a lot cheaper thanPlayStation PlusandGame Pass , it ’s still a decorous tax income flow for Nintendo , and one with the potential drop for more contented to be summate , alongside the inevitable terms rises that we ’ve come to expect from these digital service . To keep it going however , consistency is central , and while it might have been fun to imagine a Modern Nintendo Switch with treble - screens , it would have been at odds with how one currently accesses the NSO service .
I like the melodic theme that I bang exactly what I ’m getting with the Switch 2 . Its predecessor has been a Godsend whenever I ’ve been traveling and I ’m looking forward to have a more feature article packed version of that experience . While it ’s pitiful that Nintendo ’s most off - the - wall days are probably behind it , I ca n’t blame the party for wanting to do whatever it can to weather the current ( and very turbulent ) economical storm .
