RolStoppable said:
No, the technology wasn't there yet. You have to remember that Switch was deemed underpowered at its launch and at the same time its battery life barely crossed the line for passable when it came to home console games. The storage capacity for game cards was insufficient to make a Switch-like device and an optical medium would have been shit for portable hardware.
Additionally, it wasn't so long ago that graphics have reached a point where hardly anyone cares about them anymore. Originally, Nintendo's handhelds in terms of processing power were two generations behind home consoles (SNES vs. GB, launched in 1990 and 1989). The gap was closed to roughly one generation with the Wii and DS and it took ~15 years for that to happen. Or in other words, a hypothetical hybrid in 2006 would have featured graphics between the levels of N64 and GC which wouldn't have been good enough.
2017 (or late 2016 as originally intended by Nintendo) was really the first opportunity to make it work because processing power, battery life and storage medium weren't advanced enough before that time. The key to Switch's success wasn't that it was a handheld that can connect to a TV, it was that it is a home console that you can take on the go. |
I totally agree with the way you said that. And would the technology/cost available prior, be able to accomplish that? I say probably not, because the Switch itself barely got a pass.
