| spemanig said:
His definition for a home console was correct because it was interpretive. Doing that for handhelds has to take into account its pocketable form factor and is designed specifically and exclusively to be played in your hands. Even if you take into account extremes like the 3DS XL or the 2DS, it's just an iterative spin off of the OG 3DS, which was designed to be pocketable. The Switch is not that. It was designed from the onset to not have the form factor or the industrial design of a handheld or a home console, because it's neither. The three use cases are docked, kick-stood, and being held. There's not a doubt in my mind that the design philosophy of the Switch revolves around the middle use case, because that's the only one that hasn't existed before. That's what the Switch is. That's its intended use case. Everything else revolves around the fact that it's not a situation-agnostic use case. It can't be the only use-case because that would be inconvenient in too many scenarios. You have the dock for the first use case and the attached controllers for the third, but the second is what the Switch was designed to be used for. Not to be a handheld. Not to be a home console. Not to be both put together. It's something else. |
I half agree and disagree with what you are saying. I agree that you do need to be consistent in how you define what is a handheld and home console. I think you are being a bit rigid on the definitions of home console and handheld. I would argue, it is in practice that they are defined much more than it is the specs. It's the insistent labeling people have that makes this issue seem more complicated than it is. I say it's something that's both and neither at the same time. It wont fully realize one or the either, but will in practice accomplish what either one sets out to do.
So, what I want to say is that it doesn't matter what you call it. It can be a handheld, home console, or neither and it will still be correct. There aren't really hard definitions for the terms, which is why.
