My view is simple. Graphics will continue to be pushed. Games are scalable. Games will look and run differently on various hardware. How people elect to game is their choice.

Nothing else to say at this point.

Show me any other 3rd party game doing gang busters on Switch. Aside from rise. If you want nostalgia why not play it on proper hardware, instead of something that looks like a n64 game, or is that the nostalgia part.

There's also the fact it's a survival horror game, and if you're not Resident Evil it's a tough genre to sell. The Dead Space remake also didn't do great numbers despite being a very good game.

Like I said, AW2 flopping has nothing to do with its graphics.

Budgets are not going to double/triple again like they have in the last 10 years though and that's a reality too. So "graphics will be pushed" ... not on 2x-3x the budgets the way it has been going the last 10-15 years. 

That isn't tenable. At 500 million you have to sell basically almost 30 million copies of a game to make any kind of reasonable profit, how many games per generation even sell 30 million that aren't made by Nintendo? 

And what happens if you have anything less than 100% hit rate and one (or gulp two) of your games underperforms? You could destroy your studio on that risk. 

Most 3rd parties are going to be stuck in the 80 mill-120 mill sandbox for their "big games" in the next 10+ years IMO and even that budget range is dangerous. Lots of studios will be shut down even in that range in the coming years, no doubt about it.

Not sure what to tell you.  You seem to require everyone to agree with you and I don't.

AI tools are coming hard and fast, which will lower development costs.

Exclusives are going away to increase sales.  

Graphics will continue to be pushed. 

You can kick and moan because I don't agree with your stagnant view.  I truly don't know what else to tell you.  

I can only speak for myself. But whenever there is a game I want to play that is available for the Switch, I prefer that version over PS5 and PC for one simple reason: mobility. I can play with the Switch just about anywhere. That's not just great when I'm travelling. I also play a lot outside, in my bedroom or whatever. I also own a Steam Deck an a Lenovo Legion Go, which are a whole lot more powerful than the Switch. But I would still get multi-platform games for the Switch, because those PC handhelds aren't really mobile. Sure, you can move them, but they are so ginourmous that you don't want to carry them around all day. My Switch Lite fits in my pocket. Literally. At home I use the Switch OLED, which is still a whole lot smaller and lighter than my PC handhelds.

Now I don't care about Harry Potter. But with my 38 years, I came to a point where graphics and power simply do not matter anymore to me. I grew up with Star Fox running at 4 fps or something. I played GTA 4 the other day and still think the graphics of this 16 year old game are amazing. Graphics have gotten to a point, where they are just good enough for me, even on the low-end. Which is why I don't even think about it anymore and just get the games for the platform I prefer simply for reasons of convenience.

I don't know if I'm in the minority with that approach or not. As I said, I can only speak for myself.

I think most big game coming out look stunning and pushing the hardware so far now it's a pretty safe bet . Then you got thr Korean developers really doing impressive work graphically. 

I wouldn't say AW2 is a flop ... Senua's Saga is definitely a flop, Starfield is a massive disappointment that quite probably was the straw that broke the camel's back and killed the XBox brand in a lot of way. Immortals of Aveum is a flop. Basically the two big Unreal Engine 5 games so far this gen have both flopped. Avatar I would say is a sales dud. Forspoken is a flop for sure. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a bitter dissapointment sales wise especially considering the prestige of the brand/legacy (FF7 is one of the greatest games ever made) and that it's the best reviewed Final Fantasy game in ages. 

Alan Wake 2 still struggling to break even is a disappointment I'd say, you'd expect a bit more from a game that even won GOTY awards, has so much hype from the gaming media, the tech media, etc. just goes to show all of those sources mean dick all for sales. 

Baldur's Gate 2 came out in like 2000 ... so like BG3 doing great with a 23 year gap and I dunno was D&D style games that popular the last few years? I know the Dungeon's & Dragons movie flopped, so it's not like it's that red hot in terms of popular culture right now. Not sure why BG3 has such success when AW2 has a lot of the same critical praise and is a far better looking game. BG3 is honestly kind of an ugly ass looking game, I know it's a CPU hog and all but still. 

Nothing wrong with that but if someone is a big Harry potter fan I would expect them to play a descent version cause the switch version is not even a true open world. It's cut back where it has load times, graphics look terrible compared to powerful hardware and frame rate is often dropping below 30fps with frame pacing if you are adult and don't love mobile gaming you really getting a butchered experience imo.

I think you don't get how out of touch you are with large portions of the adult demographic. 

A lot of your points are like a PS2 fanboy stuck in 2005, it's not 2005 anymore man. Nintendo's audience isn't the same as it was then, the Harry Potter audience isn't the same as it was then, gamers aren't the same any more. We're 20 years past that now, that's a life time in gaming demographics. 

The younger set are just flat out wild and don't give a shit about fidelity at all, my generation (that one that grew up on the NES to PS2) ... if you had put like a game with "last gen graphics" on the current console it would be a complete non starter, today you got teenagers playing Minecraft and not giving a shit. I don't even get how that is so popular but it is apparently.