As a business strategy, Nintendo is going with the Hybrid + handheld form factors, which has been having an interesting effect on the market.
So, with my own family, we began with the one Switch which we used as a home console. Now we have five Switches in the home, and everyone uses it as a handheld most of the time. In households with older children than mine, I can see this happening eventually to quite a large degree. Not to mention the office dynamic where people are picking up Switches based on their own co-workers habits (even now that we’re out of office, there are still people wanting to be part of the fun).
The volume of game releases for the Switch is still increasing, and people saying that “Switch has no big games left” in some words or other are completely full of shit. No one knows what Nintendo has up their sleeve, or what game experience the market will be looking for in 2-3, Animal Crossing is a prime example of how Nintendo can make a series blow up, and they already did this with Breath of the Wild. While Nintendo has been known to cut off successful consoles prematurely in the past (like they did with the SNES and Wii), the Switch and this Nintendo is far more adaptable and seeking long term success strategies rather than short term bursts before burning it all down and moving to the next crop. There’s a better chance than ever before that Nintendo will opt for sustainability and advancement this time around. We’ve seen them branch, I think next year they build.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
