Nikkei rumor: Nintendo Switch Mini Launches In Mid 2019, New Online Services Aimed At Core Gamers

[Nautilus]

 

zorg1000 said:

 

Nautilus said: 

ARMS is playable, dosent mean its the preferred way to play it.This is one game that being playable is not good enough, at least in my opinion.

But wasnt the entire point of making a handheld only SKU is to have a more acessible model for the more casual market?(What the user refered as the kids market)The games I just listed are some of the most casual there is, not to mention multi million sellers.Even if Lets Go is playable, you are taking away an important playstyle out of it, which kids or casual might gretly enjoy.And if you are one of them, and in order to enjoy those games fully, you would have to buy a 70 dollars pair of joycons and/or an 80 dollars dock, then you are killing the whole point of having a cheaper model.Assuming the mini dosent outright stop you from docking the system.

This Switch mini idea is full of holes.

None of these points matter because the hybrid version is still available, if people want to play games like ARMS or Let's Go in the way you described than they will get the version of Switch that allows them to play them that way.

A handheld version of Switch is for people who prefer handhelds and think Switch is too expensive, too big and has too short of a battery life to suit their needs. For people like this they dont care that ARMS and Let's Go have console exclusive features.

But thats the whole point.The arguments for a mini are mostly that Nintendo needs a cheaper Switch.Making a mini version, that is trying to be cheaper, is not going to give it a bigger batterry because: A)Better battery means more expenses with that aspect, so it goes against lowering the price and B)You are trying to make it smaller, thus you would have less space for a bigger battery.Since battery tecnology hasnt evolved that much in last years, the only way for you to make the Switch consume less energy is to have more efficient chips, which will in turn increase the manufacturing cost of the mini itself.

See the problem?If you make a mini thats too "simple" but cheap, you will have to sacrifice so much of it, including functionality and battery, for it to reach an acceptable performance(since it needs to run switch games) AND price.But if you make a mini thats "premium", then you are losing its affordability.Its a dead end no matter how you look at it.

And I mean, if you want a cheaper Switch unit for those that think the Switch is too expensive right now, just look at the regular Switch.Its bound to have a price cut this year, and if its already selling at this rate at 300 dollars, imagine at 250 with one or two games bundled with it.Not to mention that retail shops can make even better deals.I think during the holidays there was a facebook deal that was selling the Switch at 230 dollars if Im not mistaken.

And I dont think anybody thinks that the Switch is too big.As I have already read somewhere, portable devices have grown in size these past few years, and even phones are getting to a size which they are barely "pocket friendly".Tablets are selling like crazy, laptops sell like crazy, and the Switch is selling like crazy.

I mean, you shouldnt need to look any further than the Switch to see that its being accepted everywhere.The rate that the Switch is selling is almost Wii-like, if not more.But different than the Wii, the Switch is getting a far better support, both from first and third party.Not only that, but the software sales will keep encouraging more third parties to join the party, and thus keeping the Switch more relevant than the Wii ever was(in the long run), and thus having far better legs.

Its easy to say that the Switch is missing some kind of market, but what evidence that you have that supports it?Not only that, but the Switch dosent have to sell to the whole gaming market in one year.Until the Switch drops to a price low enough to reach those that dont have a high income, they wont sell to them.But doing a mini SKU isnt the answer to that.Its lowering the price of the normal console as the years go by, much like the PS4 is doing right now.

And honestly, never seen people complain, outside of one and two, that the Switch is too big.The audience that does think that is extremely small and honestly irrelevant, and if a mini does launch and if indeed is the perfect marriage between price and functionality, its going to sell because its cheap, not because its purely a handheld device.