By traditional I mean where you play in your monitor alone. No walking around, taking on trains, etc.

This seems like a common question, but not one I can remember talking about.

Nintendo has had great success since the Game boy with handhelds . Leave out some outliers such as the virtual boy (not really handheld, but thought I would mention), Wii U( again, you could not leave your house a far as I know) and I am sure a few others, possibly the game boy micro.

Now they have the Switch which has done amazing as both a handheld and a play on your television, unless you got the cheap version so I am told. I believe all my kids have the cheap version as they only seem to play in the switch itself.

Nintendo has never really went for top visuals, so that does not seem to be a draw for them or by visuals I mean pure power. Nintendo itself and some third parties have certainly made some very pretty games in the past and the visuals are not anything to be mad about, but hopefully you all know what I mean. They were not getting a game like The last of Us or the games that CGi used to post extensively about in the past.

So handhelds and the power that they currently have seem to be everything Nintendo and it's gamers want.

With all that being said, and I am sure I left much out of the conversation, I would say no, they currently  have no reason to ever go traditional again.

I think it might happen when the TV has been changed to something better. That is when the watching things at home has evolved so that what's considered a traditional console (hooking up to your main entertainment device) is something new.

It would be a mistake to do so.

GB, GBA, DS, 3DS, Switch - Average Sales 115m

Nes, Snes, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U - Average Sales 47m

If it wasn't for the Wii the top 5 selling Nintendo systems would all have handheld capabilities.

No. They united their home and portable software development teams. From a corporate structure perspective, they positioned to never go back.

Seems like a silly question and the answer is hopefully no - uniting all the dev teams under one system is the right thing to do. As far as "traditional" goes, that is entirely on the user. My Switch becomes portable and unplugged for maybe 2 hours of the year. The rest of the time, it is in its dock, tucked in a nice spot next to the PS5, and I use the Switch Pro Controller for games. Feels every bit like a normal console to me!

I think it’s probable that they’ll create a home console version of a Switch. But the Switch is basically the Macbook/laptop of video game consoles. While 20-40 years ago desktops were the primary way we used computers, and laptops were primarily for simpler tasks. since the MacBook Pro, that’s changed drastically. Now, professional work and such is done primarily on laptop. If you want a desktop experience, you dock your laptop the same as Switch for a home console experience. Or, in the past, by connecting it via cable to monitors or a hub.

But, Nintendo, if they wish to go the route of economy models has the option for handheld and home console versions of their console. But the Hybrid is going to remain the primary experience until technology changes - right now AR/VR looks like the next big direction, but 15 years from now we might be thinking something along the lines of “remember when we thought Virtual Boy and Sega VR was the future?”

Bottom line is I believe the foreseeable future for Nintendo is hybrid centric. Similar to how certain computer manufacturers have moved into laptop centric approaches.

Why would they? They dominate the handheld market (and now the hybrid market), whereas they've struggled for generations in the traditional home console market. Plus, putting all their eggs in one basket means more software, both 1st and 3rd party.

I dont really see the advantage of doing that instead of staying hybrid, consider its already proven immensely successful.

If the market demands it, so we'll see. I still think it's insane how Nintendo basically pulled a Sega, left the home console market, and not only did no one notice, they actually ended up releasing the (soon to be) best selling handheld ever lol.

It's without a doubt the greatest slight of hand in gaming history. Truly remarkable.

This topic gets made a couple of times a year on every forum. The answer is always no. Not in the sense of the power race. That will never happen again. They might make some sort of console again someday but it will be different. If it runs games native rather than a cloud box. It won't be as powerful than a Sony device using native power. Nintendo will stay in the Hybrid market for the foreseeable future.