Had Switch released in 2012? It would’ve inherited all the same problems as Wii U, just with a more novel gimmick. Software output still would’ve been scarce because the problem wasn’t entirely the dividing of labor between two systems, as much as it was Nintendo being caught off-guard by the demands in producing HD software. (IIRC this is what they were stating constantly during pre-release and early years of Wii U, as an explanation for the lackluster lineup of first-party software.) Marketing would’ve been met with the same issues. Etc.
Had Switch released in place of Wii? It probably would’ve been no different than what we ended up seeing. The novelty was already seen in the motion controls, and was enough to create a widespread shortage of systems for years. Had Switch released in place of GameCube? That would’ve been revolutionary for the time, but the success of the system would’ve entirely relied on how well it was priced. Nintendo knows how to sell handhelds, but prior to Switch, it was heavily dependent on economics. In place of N64? I have literally no idea how consumers would comprehend this lol but noting how detrimental the price of N64 was to sales, my guess is that it would’ve been almost entirely dependent on economics. (If OoT and Mario 64 wasn’t enough for N64 to go much further than even a third of PS1 sales, then hybrid functionality would’ve needed to be met with generous pricing.) SNES and NES is a similar story: likely would’ve been left with a Game Gear situation, where the battery would drain out within 30min, selling for an unreasonable price.
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