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Soundwave on 14 June 2020
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Pyro as Bill said:
Soundwave said:

The portability is the star of the show, Nintendo's had really a miserable better part of 25 years now trying to sell a home-only console, it just doesn't work for well for them. When you make a a home only console people expect things like a modern online infrastructure, all the modern 3rd party titles, or you need a miracle craze like Wii Sports/Fit were. 

It's just too hard for Nintendo to manage that, the hybrid concept gives them the differentiator from the PS/XBox brands they need while integrating the market strength of portables which quite frankly has been their stronger side for decades now. 

If Nintendo wants to do something more along the lines of what you're suggesting, maybe a premium high end Switch that it more akin to a mini lap top could work. That could have a higher end chip and then in a couple of years the chip could be die shrunk to fit a more normal size handheld I guess. 

What you're saying is Nintendo can only win a home console race with a Wii-type gimmick and/or software that appeals to a wider/underserved audience?

Or until Nintendo fixes their online and/or gets the biggest/latest 3rd parties, they can't win without the casuals?

Is that fair?

They needed to do that stuff like 20 years ago in terms of better execution with a standard stationary console. Even if they did that now, Sony/MS are too far entrenched in that market segment. It would be like if Nokia tomorrow showed up with a really nice phone, as good as the iPhone ... well that's nice and all but it would still be too little, too late, most people still wouldn't want it. 

The hybrid concept plays to Nintendo's strengths and because it is portable, people give more leeway to things like online, release schedule, missing 3rd parties, etc. because no portable really has ever been great in those areas so it's not expected. 

But for home console, pretty much most people have owned a Playstation or XBox at some point and they expect a lot in terms of features, online, 3rd party software, etc. etc. etc. Even on the Nintendo end, there's really only one console that's ever had big success without 3rd party support and that was the Wii which collapsed pretty hard after its 3rd year on the market.