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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Upgradable Switch?

I love the Switch, as do many tens of millions of gamers. So we all know the Switch 2 is coming (or whatever it will be called). My "dream" for the device is to make it completely upgradable and future proof. And I mean everything.

Instead of a Switch 3 coming out, every year or two they release parts that you can easily screw in and attach after you unscrew the old parts. Instead of buying a new $300+ console every 6 years, you spend $40 in year one on a RAM upgrade, $50 year two on a new chip, $60 year 3 on a new screen, spend money on resolution bumps, on battery, etc. These

are just example prices. The parts could be sold for cheaper than typical because of how many you will sell. Then we can constantly keep our Switch 2 up to date with tech, if we so choose, and know if we can play the latest games because of built in smart benchmarking features that will auto detect all hardware and put a red x or green check by any downloaded or eShop games, letting us know if we can play the game with our current configuration. If you bought physical, less convenient but you can return the game if you find out you can't play. 

Am I crazy or would anyone else love easy to replace parts to keep their device cutting edge to play the most taxing 3rd party games? Be like the N64 ram RAM upgrade but on steroids.

Discuss.



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Come at me people



Dulfite said:

I love the Switch, as do many tens of millions of gamers. So we all know the Switch 2 is coming (or whatever it will be called). My "dream" for the device is to make it completely upgradable and future proof. And I mean everything.

Instead of a Switch 3 coming out, every year or two they release parts that you can easily screw in and attach after you unscrew the old parts. Instead of buying a new $300+ console every 6 years, you spend $40 in year one on a RAM upgrade, $50 year two on a new chip, $60 year 3 on a new screen, spend money on resolution bumps, on battery, etc. These

are just example prices. The parts could be sold for cheaper than typical because of how many you will sell. Then we can constantly keep our Switch 2 up to date with tech, if we so choose, and know if we can play the latest games because of built in smart benchmarking features that will auto detect all hardware and put a red x or green check by any downloaded or eShop games, letting us know if we can play the game with our current configuration. If you bought physical, less convenient but you can return the game if you find out you can't play. 

Am I crazy or would anyone else love easy to replace parts to keep their device cutting edge to play the most taxing 3rd party games? Be like the N64 ram RAM upgrade but on steroids.

Discuss.

That sounds like a cool idea, if they planned it out in advance from the next base model as you have suggested.



The issue with this idea is that you have to make something the baseline, otherwise you cannot guarantee that anyone with any specific model can play any specific game. There were already issues with the New 3DS and the potential split in the market, which is why only a handful of physical games were actually exclusive to the New 3DS (Xenoblade, The Binding of Isaac, Minecraft, etc). Even when the N64 came out with it's expansion pack the vast majority of games did not require the pack (only DK64, Majoras Mask, and Perfect Dark). 

The second issue actually stems from the first issue. Since games would be made with a specific baseline to prevent a split in the market any hardware improvements that are provided wouldn't be as tangible. Of course increased RAM, CPU, GPU would help resolution, framerate, texture filtering...but games themselves would be limited to what the baseline could produce. Then you have the potential issue I'll call "The Outer Worlds" issue. That is, there might be a game like The Outer Worlds that is just complete dog sh*t on the baseline hardware. Maybe you think that is okay, but the people that are purchasing a Switch aren't quite as tech savvy as someone that might be building a PC. Seeing the quality of a game, calling to find out whats wrong with it only to find out that on top of the $300 console you just purchased it's recommended that you purchase a $50-100 upgrade or two for the game to actually run well. That's bound to give the average consumer a sour taste.



That'd just be a bad business decision. Obviously from a consumer point of view its comfortable, but releasing new consoles its were the proft is at.
Plus, upgrading ram, chips and screens? You expect casual consumers to keep up with that? Sounds like you want Nintendo games on your PC. Now theres an idea we can all get behind.

Last edited by Jpcc86 - on 27 August 2020

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That's kinda what separates consoles from PC. If you have a console, you never have to worry if the game you have will be compatible. If it says Wii on the box, it'll work on your Wii. If it says Xbox One, it works on your Xbox One.

PC doesn't have that luxury because of so many variations. You can buy a game but then you have to worry about minimal specs and that's the kind of problem you'd be creating with a modular Switch. We've seen issues like this on a smaller scale with N64 and the Ram Pak (certain games improved while other games couldn't run without it) and various console versions and peripherals throughout the years (GBC and GB) but what you're suggesting is basically a Sega 32-X and it would just lead to confusion.



I'm inclined to agree with the last three posters. People buy consoles so they don't have to think about specs and minimum requirements, and figure out how to upgrade hardware. If modular upgrades were sensible, then other console manufacturers would probably be doing them already instead of releasing entire SKUs that are essentially "Console 1.5" or "New Console Pro X".

The fastest way to scare away the masses is to make anyone other than the hardcore/enthusiasts have to do more work (both with their brains and their hands) to get to the fun. The fastest way to scare away developers is to make them have to do more work (both with their business decisions and their programming) to figure out how to put out games to as many as possible as efficiently as possible.



A modular console would be bulkier and cost more but the biggest thing is that the vast majority of people would not be interested. People always fail to realize that most consumers just want something that works and doesn't need any tweekin even if it is as easy as swaping a module. That's why the modular phone never went anywhere. 



You might want to read up on why google's endless attempts at making a modular phone failed miserably.



I think your idea goes too far. If Nintendo wants to do something like that, their best bet would be to make the Dock be useful and actually have a GPU inside instead of just a glorified USB hub with a fan. With USB4 on the horizon which should have similar capabilities to thunderbolt 3, it could in theory be do able. There will be a base version of course but they can add in options for stronger docks with stronger gpus in the future that can enable higher capabilities of the gpu.



                  

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