Global Hardware 15 December 2018

[OTBWY]

Intrinsic said:

Illusion said:
Great showing for the Switch. It's so nice to see Nintendo back on top even if it is just for a month. In the Wii U days, so many people were saying that Nintendo was finished in the home console business and if it were any other company, they would be. The Switch has got to be one of the most impressive turnarounds for a console developer in gaming history.

If we are being honest...... those people were not wrong. Nintendo "is" finished in the "home console" business. And nintendo know this too, that is why they made a hybrid.

They basically made a handheld (and yes, everything about the NS says its a handheld) that you can plug into your TV. I doubt the NS would have sold as well as its selling if it were a traditional home console. It sure as hell wouldn't sell as well as it has in japan.

But credit should still be given to nintendo, they took what they now know works for them   (handhelds) and focused their business going forward on it. More couldnt have been asked of them.

It's a home console that can be played portably, untethered. The console comes with the dock, not without it. Nintendo has been very clear what they think the Switch is and they referred it as a home console multiple times in their marketing, interviews etc. I know why certain people want it to be a handheld and looking at the rhetoric it's pretty obvious that this is said in order to make it seems that the Switch is not competing with the PS4 or Xbox directly, which is false.

The reasoning of the concept of it being hybrid is simple, they combined two development crews into one in order to have a more steady line of software. This way software teams are unified, but the software itself is also unified in the sense that games that are best played portably, can be played portably. Games that most likely are best played at home, can be played at home. Everyone is satisfied, consumers and developers.