Could the Switch's success have been done earlier?

[curl-6]

Soundwave said:

curl-6 said:

Would a Nintendo version of this realistically have seen much success though?

I mean, Gamecube itself already sold poorly, I don't think making it semi-portable would have done much to change that.

I think it could have had some success yes, if they could have gotten it down into that kind of a form factor. 

The GameCube sold poorly because the market was oversaturated for the same kind of product ... home only game console. GameCube Portable would have massively differentiated the system and I think people would have been blown away with being able to play games like Metroid Prime, Smash Bros., Resident Evil 4 on the go, even 3rd party games like Madden NFL, SSX, various Bond games, Time Splitters would've become more valuable in that case IMO. 

The other thing is they could have integrated the Game Boy Player into such a device too so it could have played Game Boy Advance games too. 

Would such a device really be seen as a viable option for "on the go" gaming though? A device as powerful as the Gamecube would still be pretty bulky back then, and could've ended up in a similar position to NEC and PSOne as a neat little novelty without much mainstream appeal.