Accountability Is Key

I have a question to ask. As of the time of this blog, there still has been no word on when the successor to the Nintendo Switch will even be REVEALED, much less given a release date. So many people have reported on when they thought the device would be revealed based on their "sources" and their best guess estimates based on prior Nintendo behavior. There is nothing inherently wrong with that in general, but, it is a potentially dangerous strategy to use when Nintendo is involved because they do not operate in our universe. The laws of logic and physics don't seem to apply with Nintendo. They do things that in no way, shape, or form make a LICK of good sense, and yet, somehow it works.... WELL. It really makes you look bad, or less credible as a journalist, blogger, or YouTube content creator when you try to predict what Nintendo is GOING to do. That is a practice best to be left alone. That's not what I want to talk about though. What I want to talk about is the "aftermath." Someday, the successor to the Nintendo Switch will be announced. People have made up in their minds what they think that is based off of leaks that have been "confirmed" as real, and based off of rumors and conjecture from people that have leaked information before on Nintendo-related rumors that panned out to be true. I think at this point, all of us have an image of what we think it is going to be. We have an image of what we want it to be, and we have an image of what we think it needs to be. My question is this. If the successor to the Nintendo Switch falls short in ALL of those categories, or for anything that you want or expect it to have, how are you going to respond? Are you going to be upset? Are you going to the apathetic and say, "Eh, whatever. It's better than what I have now at least." Or, are you going to say, "I don't care if it IS weak-sauce! NINTENDO ALL THE WAY BAY-BAAAAAAAH!!" Undoubtedly, there will be people that have any one, or combination of those responses. There is no right or wrong answer here. Let's just say for the sake of argument that this device is only as powerful as a PS4, when DOCKED. If Nintendo had revealed the successor the Nintendo Switch in 2022 and it released in 2023, I think a lot of people would be fine with that. Still lacking in power, but it would be more reasonable based on the time-frame. It's pretty much what people were expecting the fabled "Switch Pro" to be. We are only 2 months away from 2025. We have heard absolutely, NOTHING..... You already have powerful hybrid-devices on the market right now, with MORE powerful successors on the way for each of them. You also have new entries from other companies on the way to jump into the hybrid-device pool. The market is quickly becoming saturated with hybrid-devices. When the Switch released in 2017, it had no competition in it's arena. For five years, that platform stood undisturbed. It was like Nintendo was standing in a hot, burning, sweltering desert with a bunch of thirsty people crawling around in the sand looking for water and Nintendo had big, huge coolers full of fresh, ice-cold water. It worked, and Nintendo quenched the thirst of a lot of people ALONE for 5 years. Then, in 2022, Valve showed up and opened up a larger cooler with water and treats. Then, ASUS showed up with water and different kinds of treats. Then, Lenovo showed up. Then a bunch of other people showed up all offering comfort to those in this hot, burning desert. Maybe some like the taste of Nintendo's water better than Lenovo's water. Maybe some like the taste of ASUS' water better than Value's water. The point is, now, they have a choice. Everyone is doing good business, but no one company has all the marbles anymore. It wasn't because of Nintendo's 1st-party games that the Switch did so well. It is because it was something that the industry needed to bring the casuals back that left Nintendo after the bottom dropped out from the Wii and only ONE COMPANY was doing it, or doing it properly. Nintendo. I know it's hard for Nintendo fans to see it any other way, but casuals don't have that connection to Nintendo IP that they do. They see a device of practicality, and for THAT purpose made the purchase. Sure, they have a couple of 1st-party Nintendo games here and there, but that isn't why they bought it or what keeps them there. It is no longer a "Blue Ocean" strategy just to have a hybrid-device. It is "Red Ocean." It is "normal" to have a hybrid-device of some kind. Just as normal as having a set-top box used to be. Now, the set-top box is becoming the anomaly. Not every hybrid-device is the same in terms of features and design, but the overall concept of having a device that can be played at home or on the go remains constant. Just like all smart phones aren't the same, but the base concept of being a pocket computer/telephone is universal. While Microsoft and Sony do not have a hybrid-device as of right NOW, there are strong indicators that either one or both will have one within the next couple of years. Sony has already dipped their toe in the water with PS Portal. It's not a stretch to say that they are seriously considering a full-on hybrid-device and wanted to use PS Portal as a trial to see if their install-base would be interested portable gaming again. We saw in the FTC leak that Microsoft was indeed planning a portable device. I wouldn't hold my breath on that ever coming to fruition as they seemingly cancel every good idea these days and replace them with stupid ones, but it's still possible. It is fair to mention that as hybrid-devices became more popular and normalized, the sales of the Nintendo Switch declined in tandem with that. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but as I stated earlier, now people have several choices whereas before for five years they only had one. The Nintendo Switch was responsible for turning people on to the hybrid-gaming aspect, but many people that have no interest in Nintendo IP and only bought it for the hybrid-functionality aspect have graduated into more powerful hardware that can be used for more than just gaming. So, whenever Nintendo does reveal this thing, it can't just be a "better" version of the Nintendo Switch if they want people that are perfectly content with the Switch they already have that aren't interested in Nintendo 1st-party IP to fork over $400 dollars or more. That may satisfy some, but the vast majority of people will be over that pretty quickly once the "New Car" smell is all used up. As comedian/actor Eddie Murphy once famously said in his 1987 stand-up movie Eddie Murphy: Raw....

**paraphrasing** ~ If you are starving, and someone throws you a cracker, you are gonna think it is the most delicious cracker you ever had in your life! If you've had the same crackers everyday for a year, eventually you'll be like, "Hey! I just got some regular, old crackers." So, my point is that with all this secrecy, subterfuge, tantalizing and teasing, and them dragging this thing out longer than they ever have in their entire company's history with no tangible information regarding the device at all other than the fact that it exists, the "Nintendo Switch 2" has become an idol. I want to make this point abundantly clear. This is NOT about comparing the Switch successor to the XBOX Series X or the PlayStation 5 in terms of power, graphics, or performance. AT ALL. I'm also not saying that it has to exceed everyone's expectations whatever they may be. The RUMORED specs might not be what we want necessarily for a 10th-generation device, but, I haven't heard any complaints about them thus far. Even tech heads at Digital Foundry and Moore's Law Is Dead seem to be fine with the RUMORED specs, as am I. Something that is around XBOX Series S (which is what the RUMORS say and is why I am mentioning it here) power-level when docked? I can work with that. Realistically, you can't ask for much better than that for the price point that Nintendo will probably want to stick with. Of course we don't know what the price-point will be, but it is hard to imagine Nintendo selling a piece of hardware over $400 USD. Then again, they just told us that they want everyone to buy a digital alarm clock for $100 bucks.............so, there is that, too. What I'm asking is if this thing is under-powered based on those RUMORED specs and this thing is BARELY as powerful as the PS4 when docked, after all Nintendo has put their fan-base through, will you hold them accountable, or will you make excuses? REMEMBER, there is a very public record of many people saying that they wanted a more powerful Switch. When the RUMORS came out regarding the Switch successor using DLSS 3.1, Ray-Tracing, Universal Flash Storage, and having anywhere between 12-16 GB of LDDR5X RAM, NUMEROUS Nintendo fans said there were excited about that. Not only did they say that they wanted that, but that is ALL they wanted. No crazy gimmicks. No weird form-factors. Just a Switch with "more power." I'm right on board with that. What if it doesn't have that though? Sometimes people will voice their displeasure at FIRST, but then a week later they will go back to making excuses again as to why that was the "right" thing to do, and even go so far as to attack anyone for even having a different point-of-view about it. You can't on one hand champion Nintendo for "possibly" giving something that is decently-capable to give you games that at least feel close to what you see on everything else, but then turn around and say that "power doesn't matter" if you know you AREN'T getting any. Not only is that hypocritical, but that is going into the 'Fox and the Grapes' territory. He wanted the grapes really bad, but when it was clear he could not reach the grapes, he acted like he never wanted the grapes in the first place. I'm not saying that IF the successor to the Nintendo Switch is weak-sauce that people shouldn't buy it. Like I said earlier. A lot of people will be upset if that happens, but then will buy the console anyway. Not making an excuse for it. Just saying that it's better than what they have. If it's at a good price, and you have the money, why not? It's very rare that any console just hits a home-run with features, performance, game line-up, price, etc. I mean, what's the biggest gripe for the PS5 and XSX? Lack of 1st-party games. Some of it is due to hardware constraints. MORE of it is due to the greed of companies choosing to pad their own pockets rather than hire the manpower necessary to get games done quicker. That's the true motivation, in my opinion, behind PS5 Pro. These companies don't want to pay employees right, treat employees right, or hire enough employees to be able to use the PS5 the way it needs to be used. So, they "begged" Sony to make a more powerful machine so that the work can be done easier to give us games that the regular PS5 is more than capable of doing, but FASTER. Even Nintendo has stated that game development will take much longer and be more expensive for THEM AS WELL. So, it's not just a high-end console issue. I'm just trying to see how many people will keep that same energy if Nintendo lays an egg with the successor to the Nintendo Switch? When Sony does bogus stuff, we call them out. When Microsoft does bogus stuff, we call them out. When 3rd parties do bogus stuff, we call them out. People are welcome to whatever opinion that they wish, so here is mine. You have the Steam Deck, Ayaneo 2, ROG Ally, Lenovo GO, and many other hybrid-devices more powerful than the Switch as it is. They all have more powerful successors on the way. They do much more than just play video games. They are priced competitively for which each device does and offers respectively, and Nintendo comes in the room and says in 2025, here is our next-gen, 10th generation console, a portable XBOX One that is a PS4 when docked....... C'mon now. How to you justify that? I'm NOT saying that this IS going to happen. I'm just curious as to what the response will be IF that happens. Nintendo fans care a lot about 1st-party IPs. Casuals do not so much. Hardcore gamers did not make the Switch successful. Casuals do. In fact, casuals are the reason why every 100+ million console seller got to that point. The original Sony PlayStation had ZERO fan base and beat the every-loving breaks off of the Nintendo64 despite the N64 having far superior, genre-defining 1st-party content. How did that happen? The casuals. How did the PlayStation 2 completely destroy the Dreamcast, GameCube, and XBOX? The casuals, who used the PS2 as an all-in-one entertainment device. So, I end by saying that IF the RUMORS are true about the Switch successor in terms of the specs, this is all a moot-point anyway. Those specs are just fine. They will keep for at least 3-4 years, and Nintendo can always do a mid-gen refresh if necessary. HOWEVER...... After all this time of waiting when they could and should have released it two years ago, they give you something that is far weaker than even you expected even in the worst-case scenario, will people call out Nintendo on this or make excuses for it? It's a simple question. Will you say "yay" or "nay?" No explanation is needed as to why. It's your opinion, and you are entitled to it. If you say "yay," stand on that, and move on. "If you say "nay," stand on that and move on. It's not a big deal. I'm just saying. If Sony can get dragged, if Microsoft can get dragged, and if 3rd parties can get dragged, Nintendo is not beyond reproach. They can get that work, too.