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Hynad on 26 December 2018
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Shiken said:
Hynad said:

Pemalite isn’t twisting words and definitions. He’s actually applying the meaning of said words and definition as they are.

The Wii U is a hybrid console, even if it has limitations that the Switch doesn’t have.

It is portable in a much more limited fashion than the Switch. Requiring the main console to function and serve as its wi-fi hub. But there is no denying it is still portable. 

The way you argue about it, one could do the same with the Switch and say it isn’t a hybrid. It’s a portable, because similar to the Wii U Gamepad’s off TV feature, it requires a dock to function. If the Gamepad doesn’t make the Wii U an hybrid console, then the dock doesn’t make the Switch an hybrid console either. After all, it does no processing, stores no data, and is unplayable away from the portable unit.

The gamepad is nothing more than a wireless controller to a home console with a screen.  The distance is no different from a PS4 or X1 controller.  It is by definition a controller that allows for off screen play.  You cannot play it without the home console being within the same range as any other home console.  Did the concept help with the conception of the Switch?  Probably.  But that does not make it anything more than a console with off screen play?  Not at all.  The Vita/PS4 remote play is more of a portable hybrid than the WiiU will ever be.

 

What makes the Switch a hybrid is that you have one device that either boosts performance when docked to the TV or downscales as needed for handheld mode.  The device itself functions differently depending on how you are using it.  You use the same games, save file, etc be it at home or on the go (the WiiU cannot even be played on the go as the range is no different than any other controller). It takes the same resources and alters how they are used based on if it is being used as a console, or a portable device.  This makes it a console/portable hybrid.

 

But you are free to believe what you want.  If you think playing a game with the same limitations as any other console with off screen play makes it portable, so be it.  Either way it will not change what it is, a home console.

The range of the wifi connection with the console doesn’t make it not portable.

I can leave the Wii U in the living room, go into another room, with the TV out of sight, yet keep playing remotely via the gamepad’s screen.

I can turn it on even if the main console isn’t in the same room, and start playing right away.

That’s portable enough in my book. 

So yeah, what you are saying will not change what it is, a hybrid.