When I first saw the NS announcement my thoughts were: Cool! That's a great concept for making a gaming convertible tablet. I was feeling happy for Nintendo.
However thinking some more, I feel like the concept would be good for a game convertible Android tablet or iPad, but now for this to be the future of Nintendo; for Nintendo to place their console and handheld eggs in the NS basket seems bad to me.
First let's talk about NS as a console. Since the Wii, Nintendo has tried to differentiate from PS and Xbox by introducing unique ways to play. The success of the Wii game controls concept made Wii a huge success without needing to compete with Sony & MS on specs and network features. Wii U also tried to focus on unique features rather than competing head-to-head: ability to play without the TV on, use of the tablet as 2nd screen, asymmetric play. We all know what happened there. NS in a way feels like the ultimate embodiment of Wii U: you can play on TV, you can play on the tablet, and you can pair up with other local tablets.
That's one thing that concerns me... as a home console it seems positioned very similarly to Wii U. There aren't more unique ways to play, in fact there might be fewer ways to play since the tablet needs to be docked to play on TV. Power wise NS seems like it will still be behind PS4/XB1 and may struggle to get some games, and more so when the PS5/XB++ come around. In conclusion, I'm not sure NS is a good home console, and I hope they have something else planned as their real next-gen console.
Next let's talk about NS as a handheld. It looks like NS will be very powerful for a handheld; it's a big leap from A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. That's great for core gamers like myself. However power comes at a cost, and raising the price tag of the handheld higher than 3DS seems bad for sales. Battery time may also a bummer. In addition, to make NS games work both in docked and tablet modes - it could mean that touch controls are limited or non-existent. This means some types of games from 3DS won't work on NS (and there's no backwards compat anyway). In conclusion, I'm not sure NS should replace the 3DS line.
Really the reason to think NS is good for Nintendo is the hope that the sum is greater than it's parts. As a gamer I hope NS does well, but my hope is that NS is a 3rd line for Nintendo, and they still focus on dedicated handheld and console lines.
