Shadow1980 said: No. It's just that they don't need to make conventional consoles anymore. They've been doing their own thing for a long while now, and it's worked out for them for the most part (there was the Wii U flopping). People buy Nintendo systems mainly to play Nintendo games, and Nintendo is still popular and culturally relevant enough to where their systems and games will sell very well. The Switch line is essentially guaranteed to sell 100M+ units each generation so long as Nintendo has the games and the marketing savvy. |
This I feel is more important than specs at this point. There's very little chance Nintendo will ever be up to par with home console specs again, unless as you said they take a risk with it if Microsoft leaves the console business.
But an achievements system would be super easy. If Xbox 360, PS3, and Vita can do it then any system can in terms of specs.
Far more important than that is online. I should be able to play Switch games similar to PSN or Xbox's network with more robust and common dedicated servers, built-in console voice chat, easier friend searching and discovery, etc. It's wild that Xbox 360, a platform released in 2005, has had better online than Switch in probably every conceivable way. You could even make the argument that the original Xbox (whose Xbox Live launched in 2002) has similar or better online to Switch.
Nintendo usually caters well to core gamers that love Nintendo games, but they fall flat consistently if you are a core gamer who likes multiplats. Even Switch, which likely has the best core gamer third-party lineup for a Nintendo platform since the SNES, has clear limitations (largely horsepower but also online).
Lifetime Sales Predictions
Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)
PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 48 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million)
PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)
3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)
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