John2290 said: I was pondering this in another thread earlier today. The thing is though, do they actually need to? Is there an audience for the third party games and would it matter to first party development the rest of this gen. Hmm. I don't think the endeavour would be worth it for them. |
If I were them I would prioritize a cheaper handheld-only Switch and a TV-only Switch to compliment the current Switch and offer more choices to people (not to mention it would also replace the cheaper 3DS/2DS line) first before working on a Switch "Pro".
On the other hand, an eventual mid-generation upgrade can help extend the life of a platform. We have not only seen this with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X but also with Nintendo handheld revisions like GameBoy Color, DSi/DSi XL, New 3DS/New 3DS XL/New 2DS XL. I think being, for example, able to run handheld mode games at the same level as the current docked-mode and docked-mode games with better performance would be a pretty good reason to upgrade (not to mention Nintendo typically throughs some other quality of life stuff in with their revisions usually) for existing users.
On the topic of the audience for third-parties on Switch, I think there is clearly an audience (I think its important to note that just because some games do not sell as well on the Switch as other platforms does not mean there is no audience for third-party titles overall on Switch). Maybe not with regards to Western AAA games so much, but there are quite a number of indie and Japanese developers that could benefit from this. There are number of Japanese devs, for example, that have taken advantage of the additional processing power in the New 3DS (not to mention this applies to Nintendo themselves as well). I should mention that for third-parties a hypothetical Switch Pro would likely not increase support, but it would allow existing supporters to make better performing versions; and overall it helps keeps the platform relevant for longer and hence their games (not to mention first-party as well) will sell for longer.