Just think of it as a powerful handheld then. I mean Sony says the Playstation 4 is the best place to play, but Im not sure everyone believes that. MS says the XB1 has the best games, but again I dont think everyone agrees with that. The Switch clearly cant compete in many areas with the PS4 and XB1.

The bigget debate for the Switch
- 8th gen or 9th gen?
- A home console or a handheld?

Im quite sure we will never know the answer for that...........

What I think doesn't matter, What I think will not change how the general public think and how much the Switch sell.

People don't give a crap about the Switch being a powerful handheld if it can't handle the important third party games of this generation.

The Switch could be a toaster, if Nintendo decides to call it a home console that can burn toast, they better make sure it can compete against the PS4 and XB1, because toast is being advertised as a side feature, even if it is the best and only toaster in the market.

The general public seems to be fine with it. It will have many great games the other two consoles wont and will have features the others wont. It will also lack many great games the other two has and features they have. It all depends on what you want and care about in a console. It has all the important things the other two has though.

Good, but it's stilll a weak home console that lacks third party support.

Its lacking AAA third party support at this point, sure. Mainly because its not out yet and publishers are careful after the WiiU.

Basically I agree with your analysis. Especially the growing cost of AAA and therefore the stronger focus on a few blockbuster-titles reducing variety as a result. But, this doesn't necessarily put Nintendo or Switch in a superior position. There are two points, which could modify the trajectory and will be very determining for the future of the gaming landscape:

A) The gamestudios might find ways to migitate costs. Currently costs explode because more 3D-content has to be generated in higher detail. Which puts a lot of effort into 3D-modelling and textures. The main cost as in most businesses is the human labor. But there might be possibilities to reduce these costs. 3D-models could be generated more procedural for instance. There is a lot of work for creating these procedural algorithms, but it can work out. Think for instance your game needs a forest. You could have people modelling and placing the trees, or you build one algorithms to create a lot of in detail differently looking trees. You have only to work manually on places of importance. This could reduce cost and save the AAA-model.

B) There is a certain possibility that the market shape in favor of big publishers. Classical gamers want a lot of diversity and many different games. But by now we already have gamers that play one game on and on. Call of Duty, FIFA, Minecraft, Skyrim are examples. Multiplayer helps but isn't basically necessary. In this case these big games can bring in the money and the lack of diversity doesn't matter.

I think this topic is very interesting, I think the gaming landscape will change, but there is a lot of uncertainty how. It wold be interesting to have an own thread or even multiple threads (for different sub-topics) to explore these possibilities.

Looking at hardware it is a weak home console, that doesn't have to do with hate.

I think the Switch will do very well, doesn't mean i don't think it's hardware is very lacking. 

I also stated that for most of it's life cycle the Switch will be marketed as a portable device. 

I disagree, replacing web browsing or interacting on social media from PCs to smart devices isn't the same thing as a gaming experience. The first is just depandent on having the needed apps and the connectivity, while gaming has a multitude of other factors. 

Home consoles offer notably more then handhels in the departments of sound, graphical fidelity, controls, and ofcourse when it comes to the size of the screen. Their is a reason people watch movies on their TVs/Laptops then on their phones, that is because it isn't the same expereince.

The customer,who wants to play Call of Duty/Fifa or any mainstream game that isn't 1st party when they come back home after a hard day of work, isn't going to pick up a less powerful and more expensive console. The Switch can appeal to people to someone who wants a home console and who is interested by the added bonus of it's portability, but again that consumer is interested in the "portable" aspect. There are millions of consumers who aren't interested at all in portable gaming , and even within those how many are going to pay more for less powerful hardware?

The indie games being on switch doesn't make a difference because the also sell on PS4 and xbone, your typical fifa/cod player doesn't play indie titiles, but their are many "hardcore" gamers that do. With a couple of differences here and there the PS/XBOX crowd is basically the same one as the PC, where indie games and low budget games have flourished. 

The AAA industry or the basic console industry isn't at a different level of risk due to the Switch.

I project that the Switch will do very well, but i don't see it taking away a considerable chunk of the market from Sony and Microsoft. Instead i think it will broaden the gaming market, which in return help the home consoles. 

We've been hearing the "AAA developers will stop making expensive games" for 10 years now.

Wasn't the Wii supposed to get all these incredible awesome games because it was cheaper to program for? Then Wii U? Weren't developers going to bail on HD games in favor of SD games? 

None of this happened. What's happened is if anything Nintendo's developer base has eroded and many Japanese developers have chosen to abandon DS/3DS development in favor of smartphone development.

Look at companies like Square-Enix and Capcom, they support the smartphone more than the DS/3DS.

Meanwhile Sony still has basically all the same developer support that they've always had, in fact the PS4 has tons of mid-budget and small budget/indie games too because developers, more than the PS3 even. Why? Because they use x86 and low budget developers can easily make a game for PC and then have a PS4 and XB1 version of the same game so they are flocking to the PS4 in particular.