Minor revision
In the end it turns out that it’s always good to be wary of rumours. After all, they can be completely or partially wrong. Perhaps they had an untrustworthy source at Bloomberg and like-minded people, or internal information about a Switch overhaul and a possible successor was mixed up. Whatever happened, the new Switch model unveiled this week isn’t what many had hoped for.
I can still understand that there are people who are somewhat excited by the unveiled overhaul. Gamers who play a lot in handheld mode will soon be treated to a much better screen. Finally, they can also say goodbye to that boring, small stand that offers no firmness at all, because the new Switch is equipped with an adjustable wide stand. Those are two great excuses to buy it. However, as someone who has their Switch in the dock to play TV games 99.99 percent of the time, there’s little reason to pull out the wallet.
Disappointment…
So the disappointment is tangible on the internet and I can fully live there, partly because I also experience it somewhat myself . Nintendo can’t help it, because it’s not their fault that those rumors came up. In part I can blame myself and my colleagues, because we have also posted the rumors online – of course always with the footnote to readers that it has in no way been confirmed by the Japanese company.
That people had hoped for a more powerful overhaul has a lot to do with the currently available models of the Switch. It is quite a technological tour de force, in the sense that it is a very flexible, hybrid system. Compared to the competition, those graphics on your brand new OLED television look a lot less impressive.
pico bello
thanks to the unique and well-fitting graphic styles they but games like The Witcher 3 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 are logically subject to a
downgrade
versus the same titles on other platforms. Not to mention the many third party games that don’t appear on the system. A much more powerful Switch could have partly solved that. At least that was the hope.
downgrade
versus the same titles on other platforms. Not to mention the many third party games that don’t appear on the system. A much more powerful Switch could have partly solved that. At least that was the hope.
Yet an at least as big – if not bigger – part in me is relieved because of the announcement. It simply removes a few headaches, for Nintendo as a company and for us as gamers. In any case, it is never smart to divide your market share. Imagine if there were games that could only be played by the so-called ‘Switch Pro’. It had shattered the Switch’s massive target audience. As the New Nintendo 3DS has proven, developers are not at all motivated to release games exclusively on a powerful revision – after all, the original version of the console is in many more living rooms. Almost only Nintendo itself has made one or two attempts on the New 3DS.
Anyway, Sony and Microsoft have proven that a ‘mid-gen refresh
‘ of course almost flawless can expire, with games that run on both versions of the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but simply look nicer on the more powerful variants. That would indeed have been a nice side effect on a new Switch, but then we would have had to pay a lot of money for it, if we had already beaten the scalpers. And was it worth it, given that we have no idea when a real successor is planned?The fact that the OLED version of the Switch doesn’t have much to do, gives me confirmation of what I’ve suspected for some time: we can expect a real new Nintendo console in 2023. Probably the Switch 2, or whatever bizarre names the company is considering. Such a ‘
clean cut-off
‘ moment, where a line is clearly drawn between different generations, I personally find much more exciting than small upgrades. A really new Switch with a new chip in it could possibly offer much more possibilities in terms of graphics and gameplay. Then I’d rather wait a little longer for that, instead of now experiencing the current Switch games in a 4k sauce. Patience is a virtue, especially with Nintendo.
Every Saturday a column appears on Gamer.nl that (usually) deals with current events. Also read:
Every Saturday a column appears on Gamer.nl that (usually) deals with current events. Also read:
