Soundwave said:
There is the distinct possibility Nintendo may stradle the line between successor/Pro model in the early days of the Switch 2 too, meaning it can function basically as both.
Really from Nintendo's POV, Switch 2 *is* a Switch 1 also (as backwards compatibility is almost a given), so they lose nothing if someone buys a Switch 2 instead of a Switch 1, it's better for them if consumers buy a Switch 2 because it will allow that consumer to buy games for the next 6-7 years of Nintendo's software pipeline, which is obviously the name of the game.
It's only really a distinction people on boards like this make (ooooh Switch 2 is gonna kill Switch 1 .... but from Nintendo's POV it doesn't really work that way, it's like saying iPhone 14 is going to kill the iPhone 13 ... but since they share the same software ecosystem, this is not really any kind of "net loss" for Apple if you buy the 14 instead of the 13, they win either way, getting a 14 is a bigger win for them because they want the newest model to sell the best).
There also probably is an argument to be made that releasing a successor while brand momentum is still quite high is a good thing and not a bad thing. I mean if the 3DS or Wii U launched a year or two earlier, they both probably would have sold a fair amount more (or if Nintendo had just released the Wii U without the dumb controller gimmick and just called it a Wii HD in 2009 or 2010 when the Wii brand had greater brand momentum it likely wouldn't have been such a struggle to sell it). |
This is how I view it and why I think we will see a bunch of cross-gen titles over the first couple years. Nintendo can call it Super Switch and sort of be ambiguous about whether it’s a successor or an upgrade.
If it’s a big success than of course it is and always was meant to be the successor and development eventually shifts exclusively to it.
If for some reason it doesn’t take off as they had hoped than they pivot to treating it like a premium revision (Gameboy Color/New 3DS) and get to work on a different successor.
