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SvennoJ on 08 October 2025
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pikashoe said:
SvennoJ said:

They lost me, no longer day 1 purchasing Nintendo systems, and hardly having used Switch beyond Mario and Zelda. (Part of that was joycon drift, next to my kids misplacing the thing / always leaving it out of charge)

If you add a controller to a phone, does it become a console? Are phones hybrids since they can mirror cast to TV?
An iPhone is a hybrid too, mobile device first.
A laptop is a hybrid too, mobile device first.
Steamdeck is a hybrid too, mobile device first.

It's all about convenience for intended purpose. Switching the tiny cards is inconvenient when the dock is sitting in an AV cabinet, have to take the whole dock out to slide the Switch out to change the card. (And if it's not back in its box, goodluck finding it in a kids room ugh)

You pay extra for the tiny cards that now frequently don't hold all the data anyway, besides playing loading slower from card vs digital install. Discs are simply more convenient for storage, keeping track of, cheaper and more storage space. The tiny cards are purely for mobile use, inconvenient for console use.

Switch is a mobile device first, designed for mobile use first. None of the conveniences of a discreet flat box under the TV like Wii. Sacrificing BC for mobile play, no disc add-on. Wii plays GC discs and the original model has ports for GC controllers. Wii U plays Wii discs and supports Wii controllers. Switch sacrificed BC for mobile play first.

Switch enhances mobile play with console like features (easy dock) but sacrifices console like features for mobile purposes. It's focused on mobile play first, and that's where Nintendo's strength lies. 

I don't care about the lower power, but I do care about convenience in form factor and usage. Hence I play on consoles rather than gaming PCs or mobile phones.


Fact is, I have played way more games on N64, GC, Wii and Wii U than on Switch and Switch 2 is the first Nintendo 'console' I haven't bought at launch.

And if we take the best selling Nintendo console and mobile hardware, Wii + DS = (101 + 154) 255 million sales. Switch sits at 153 million. So by adding the console crowd to the mobile crowd, Switch hasn't managed to surpass DS sales yet...


All cementing the theory that Nintendo survived this long because of their mobile strategy. You see the same in BotW and TotK, shifting from long dungeon crawls to bite sized gameplay more suited to short bursts mobile play.

You are objectively 100% wrong. It is a hybrid end of story, no argument, it is specifically designed to be both. All you are doing is cherry picking points. 

There are games specifically designed to be played on a tv that are not playable in handheld. Which is game over for all of your arguments.

Botw was designed for a home console first. Totk has more long dungeons than botw. Generally large open world games are made for home consoles not handhelds. Both of these games show nintendos focus on the hybrid nature of the console being great for both long and short play sessions. Mario odyssey is another example of this with larger scale worlds filled with smaller challenges, you can either spend hours exploring an area or jump in for a quick fix and be satisfied either way. 

Whether you think I'm wrong or not is irrelevant. 

As a customer I see a handheld, I don't play on handhelds (tried, just don't like the small screen experience) and see extra inconvenience as someone who just wants to play on TV (or rather in VR). 

Switch I bought day one for BotW, which I played on my projector with the Switch awkwardly in the middle of the room on a box at the end of its hdmi cable since the left controller was losing connection with the Switch all the time. The dock was awkward to use, the controllers were awkward to use (I got the Zelda themed controller to play TotK, much better) and switching games was awkward with my aging hands disagreeing with the postage stamp carts. 

The perception is, it's a handheld first. Nintendo never released a Switch home console version, they did release a handheld only version. (Bought one hoping my kids would use that instead of 'disappearing' the og Switch, thing still ended up lost out of charge when I wanted to play something)

So since I have PC, PS5, Series X anyway to play any non Nintendo games, I have no incentive to buy the Switch 2 until the next Zelda / main line Mario comes out. There's literally no benefit to play on Switch 2 for me over any other platform.  

And that's what keeps Nintendo alive, great franchises you don't want to miss. There are Mario and Zelda versions I haven't played all the way through (64, Sunshine, Twilight, Skyward) yet still enjoyed them much more than the average game. That's Nintendo's strength, keeping you in with familiar characters, aesthetic and fun gameplay. Not because of the hardware, which can be more detrimental to the games than beneficial. (Waggle Zelda)

The only 'Hybrid' feature of the Switch to me is the ability to use a normal controller. Does that make it a true Hybrid? 

In the end it doesn't matter, I don't care about the handheld functionality, hence I don't care about it being a hybrid either, rather have a version made for the task I want it for.

So if Nintendo wants me to buy a Switch 2 before the next Zelda and possibly play more than just Mario/Zelda on it, release a Switch 2 home version. It's that simple. Don't need a battery or screen, do want the convenience of ports / game slot on the front, av connections on the back, sturdy little box for under the tv in its cabinet next to my other consoles.