I couldn't see it clearly before, how could Nintendo begin their next console mid console race.  I personally thought it was going against the grain entering so late in the game, which would eventually end in their demise over newer consoles that is the PS5 and Xbox4(at least in sales.)  But that's no longer how I see it.  Nintendo had again innovated within their company so quietly, and so seamlessly without much notice not this year, but around 6 years ago.  What am I getting at?  At least for me, I think the Switch Pro, whatever it's going to be, is going to compete on par with PS5 and Xbox4 in terms of sales, (which is really what counts in every generation -.0). 

So Nintendo did this thing that makes you believe that consoles matter, or at least the name of it.  They're doing something in the console market that's not easily defined, although Sony has been perfecting the craft for over 24 years.  They named a console, but then took out what it's intended to do.  It's something like the 3ds, after awhile the 3d aspect of it was taken out and it was just a Nintendo handheld device, but more powerful than what it was for in the first place.  Switch now is the 3ds.  Except that it sells lots of consoles, but you're not dividing console sales between mobile and home consoles, it's under one flag called Switch...in September.  That rumor about there being another handheld replacing the 3ds; it's the switch Lite, i mean, it doesn't play on TV its a handheld.  And they kinda did this thing where it's so quiet, that there isn't an uproar or backlash with it being another DS, without the DS history.  They kinda gave us the old bait and switch, along with a whole industry that is not even mentioning it. 

So now they had opened themselves into a field where they would still command a whopping lead over their rival console generation, continue to sell competitively well with Switch Pro against Next Gen consoles, made us buy another handheld console along with their home console combo(you know you people who are going to buy a lite because you think having a Normal switch and lite switch make you think you're cool), they are hiding their sales of hardware with what is technically a combination of mobile and home hardware.  Also, the 3rd party are there, which I am guessing and hoping Nintendo can continue to do with next gen games that come out for ps5xbox4.  I'm sure not every game, but games like wolfenstein 2 and 3, DQ Builders 2, mortal Kombat 11, and they're even selling.  I mean, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is performing well, still early but could track 3rd selling switch game all year and as of this moment it is currently an exclusive.  Then Nintendo did what it was never able to do, which was to shed it's Nintendo is for Kids company(which deserves its own thread). 

This move of entering the generation late is not primarily the reason why they are succeeding, but it sure does make me feel foolish for thinking it was a bad move on their part when they had first announced it officially.

Bravo Nintendo, you bastards.

Nintendo found a good concept, again.

The Wii was cheap and had that motion controller, that suited alot of casual styled games.
People loved it. The Switch has detactable motion controllers (joy cons), that allow for people to enjoy that style of play again.

Ontop of that, its solves there issue of supplying software to both a handheld and a Home Console.
Instead of it being Split between two systems, they've figoured out its best to make everything able to run on both.
A hybrid solves this issue beautifully.

Now all Nintendo need to do, is to not forget it.
Nintendo love to "redesign the wheel" for no apparent reason, instead of sticking with what works.
(ei. innovation for the sake of innovation, instead of actual needs behinde it)

I want to see a Switch 2 release, with a newer ARM Soc, both in terms of tech inside (than the Tegra x1) and a chip thats 7nm.
Thats all Nintendo needs to do to keep being succesfull going forwards.
Keep the same design, and just mirgainal improve on everything where its possible (due to hardware advancements).

Hopefully Nintendo isnt asleep at the wheel, or decided to pull something stupid.... and Next console from them, is a Switch 2, at around 2022-2023.

(yes I want them to keep the same name, and add a number! Switch + 2 = done! No more Wii vs WiiU situations with confusion)

They where forced into it, from the WiiU situation.
I think its more like a happy co-incidence tbh, that just worked out because they once again made resonable design choices in hardware (they dont always).

But even then, they wheren't ready for it... They extended the Wii U's life beyound what it should have been (it had years of droughts).
And they even had to rush the Switch to market (they had to skip some quality controll, remember the issues with the joycons?).

Totally agree with you.

Also, if Nintendo could add extra power to the dock of Switch 2, for example a second gpu that works in SLI with the other gpu in the portable hardware, that would be totally awesome! Switch 2 would have a significant boost in performance when docked.

Among other things, they already have a patent for this.

Not going to happen with the current Switch, it's a technical impossibility.

Switch 2 it could be possible... But I highly doubt it, unless they unbundle the dock... Costs are what keeps multi-GPU's out of the console realm... You don't just need a duplication of the GPU's themselves (nVidia is far more stringent on this front too!), but you need a duplication of DRAM, Power Delivery and accompanying components and so on. - You essentially almost double your bill of materials... And that is before we touch on the issue of SLI/Crossfire/Multi-GPU scaling/framepacing/microstutter and other idiosyncrasies as well.

It is better to go with a single large SOC and power gate half the chip so it only activates whilst docked... Or go with a smaller chip and drive up the clockrates.

Switch 2, meh. I hope the next switch is Super Switch.

I doubt their was much strategy to the release other than the Wii U failed spectacularly and 3DS sales were slowing, so it was time to release. Where Nintendo played it smart was seeing the dwindling handheld market, acknowledged that they couldn't compete head on in the home console market, so combined their efforts into one hybrid platform. It was a different enough experience that it really isn't in direct competition to the PS4, so each ones sales aren't really affected by the other.

Except they really aren't competing. Xbox's sales problem has to do with failing to appeal to consumer's with HW and SW, not because of the Switch. PS4's are still pretty damn good for a console that's been $299 for the last 2 1/2+ years, and will improve once it gets a price cut this year. That has nothing to do with the Switch. On the same token, those consoles don't seem to be harming the Switch when they have sales/price cuts.

You might want to look up those numbers, again, cause the PS4 outsold the Switch by ~4M units in that FY. This past FY it also outsold it by 850K units. In terms of sales and profits, they are hardly #1. Well, unless you're speaking of globally in Japan.

Personally I hope the next console is called Nintendo Switch Advance. That would be a really cool throw back.

Pretty much this. In FY16, 3DS+Wii U had only shipped 10 million units of hardware and 75 million units of software and things were only going to get worse if Nintendo waited a few more years to release new hardware to coincide with the next PS/XB consoles. We would be looking at Nintendo hardware/software shipments withering away to nothing while suffering huge losses.

He said Nintendo, not Switch.