As a note, if you have one copy of Witcher 3, everyone in your family can get a free copy of the remaster just by loading the original onto their Switch 2 and playing the original on loan their own account.
Some Switch 2 Editions are free upgrades, others cost a small upgrade fee (usually around 5 to 10 percent the price of the full game, like 5 quid for small studio or indie games). These usually add higher resolution graphics, remaster content, and Switch 2 features like mouse controls.
As for why Nintendo went with a mainly vertical upgrade rather than focusing too much on the lateral is because there was no business case for it. During the NES to N64 era, lateral advancement was pretty normal in the industry. The more vertical focus began with the PS2, where consoles and physical interface largely resembled their previous generation except for the power. Nintendo’s strategy has always been to capture new users in a fresh and untapped market. The only time they haven’t done this is in their handheld lines when they had no real competition. Gamecube was kind of a vertical upgrade from the PlayStation much more so than the N64, and so that’s why Nintendo flubbed there. Switch 2 has no real competition in its niche, and so Nintendo’s job here is to make that niche more attractive than other niches (namely Playstation style home consoles, tablet gaming, and to a lesser extent: mobile and notebook PC) or at least attractive enough to get in addition to another niche (namely all of the above plus desktop PC… I think VR is a kind of in its own little world right now… for now).
Bottom line, it’s risky to follow up with a big new lateral change, it could fail much like the Virtual Boy and Wii U did. And considering Nintendo so thoroughly owns the hybrid console niche which has been shown to be as high as 160 to 170 million potential sales (depending on how new markets receive it) making a vertical upgrade is the logical and (from the perspective of fiduciary responsibility) the correct choice.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
