By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Was Nintendo right to opt out of the graphics arms race?

Tagged games:

 

Was it the right decision?

Yes 74 88.10%
 
No 10 11.90%
 
Total:84
Chrkeller on 18 January 2026
Soundwave said:
Chrkeller said:

In terms of support, it won't impact the S2.  I meant right now the S2 is above or at the level of PC handhelds.  But the next round of handhelds will support FSR4 and have better chips, meaning it will be the weakest handheld at some point this year or next.  

And when the ps6 gets good upscaling, it can reduce rendered resolution and use power for other things.  I fully expect the ps6 to be built with upscaling in mind.  

In terms of fidelity, not releases, the biggest advantage of the S2 is upscaling.  This advantage will go away at some point via FSR4, which is quite good.

In terms of releases, I am not worried.  Silent Hill F runs on a 1070ti (2017 and 4 generations behind current) all the way up to a 5090.  Games are scalable.  Releases don't classify hardware generations anymore.  We dont live in the 90s anymore.

Edit

Nvidia deserves a ton of credit for the technology and Nintendo deserves credit for recognizing the importance.  Even with my 4090 I render at 1440p and upscale to 4k, versus native 4k.  The difference is massive.  I get 50% more fps.  Easily will take a game from 60 fps to 90 fps, sometimes more.

I doubt even in a year you'll be able to get much for $450 that is better hardware than the Switch 2. At $600-$800? OK, but that's not any different from any other console hardware. It was easy to get better hardware than the PS5 from day 1, a year++ after launch, no problem.

That's always been the case with consoles. The Atari Jaguar and 3DO was better hardware than the Super NES, good for the 10 people who owned one. 

Nintendo didn't accidentally get this performance, they designed a piece of hardware that would let them run next gen games and still be able to be sold at a reasonable cost. That's a notable difference from the Iwata-era, as the Wii and DS product lines were essentially aimed at casual gamers first. 

Frankly every other Nintendo console (as in the home console lineage) past the Wii brand be it NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Switch 1, and now Switch 2 has all been pretty decent hardware for its time. Wii was just a product line aimed for casuals that had about a 6 year run before it fizzled out then Wii U just flopped outright. Wii-Wii U is old news today, Nintendo has returned to making reasonably powerful consoles that can run the modern 3rd party games of its time for the mass market (millions of gamers) to enjoy. 

I know.  It is called sacrificing power for price, because it is a mass appeal product and not premium. 😉

Console hardware, including S2, will always be more bang for the buck compared to PC.  Volume discounts on hardware, taking hits and making it up via subscriptions, etc.  



“Consoles are great… if you like paying extra for features PCs had in 2005.”
Around the Network
Soundwave on 18 January 2026
Chrkeller said:
Soundwave said:

I doubt even in a year you'll be able to get much for $450 that is better hardware than the Switch 2. At $600-$800? OK, but that's not any different from any other console hardware. It was easy to get better hardware than the PS5 from day 1, a year++ after launch, no problem.

That's always been the case with consoles. The Atari Jaguar and 3DO was better hardware than the Super NES, good for the 10 people who owned one. 

Nintendo didn't accidentally get this performance, they designed a piece of hardware that would let them run next gen games and still be able to be sold at a reasonable cost. That's a notable difference from the Iwata-era, as the Wii and DS product lines were essentially aimed at casual gamers first. 

Frankly every other Nintendo console (as in the home console lineage) past the Wii brand be it NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Switch 1, and now Switch 2 has all been pretty decent hardware for its time. Wii was just a product line aimed for casuals that had about a 6 year run before it fizzled out then Wii U just flopped outright. Wii-Wii U is old news today, Nintendo has returned to making reasonably powerful consoles that can run the modern 3rd party games of its time for the mass market (millions of gamers) to enjoy. 

I know.  It is called sacrificing power for price, because it is a mass appeal product and not premium. 😉

Console hardware, including S2, will always be more bang for the buck compared to PC.  Volume discounts on hardware, taking hits and making it up via subscriptions, etc.  

Doesn't mean hardware can't be powerful, PC always has a huge chunk of its power unoptimized because of the nature of the platform, consoles will always push themselves to their limit better for a fraction of the cost. 

Switch 2 is a return for Nintendo to making good hardware, the Wii-Wii U casual era is definitely dead. It's not even like everyone and their grandma has $450 laying around anyway, that's pricey for certain segments of the market, it's just "reasonable" in the sense that it's reasonable relative to niche hardware like the ROG Ally X (which will sell a tiny amount of hardware). $450-$500 for Joe Average consumer is still pricey for a lot of people, inflation is up but most people's salaries are not. I don't think I'd say any hardware over $350 in this economy is a "budget buy" exactly. $450-$500 is definitely edging into a price range that is more in the premium range than "budget range". 

If Nintendo wanted to make a budget system this is definitely not the system they would have chosen. 



Chrkeller on 18 January 2026
Soundwave said:
Chrkeller said:

I know.  It is called sacrificing power for price, because it is a mass appeal product and not premium. 😉

Console hardware, including S2, will always be more bang for the buck compared to PC.  Volume discounts on hardware, taking hits and making it up via subscriptions, etc.  

Doesn't mean hardware can't be powerful, PC always has a huge chunk of its power unoptimized because of the nature of the platform, consoles will always push themselves to their limit better for a fraction of the cost. 

Switch 2 is a return for Nintendo to making good hardware, the Wii-Wii U casual era is definitely dead. It's not even like everyone and their grandma has $450 laying around anyway, that's pricey for certain segments of the market, it's just "reasonable" in the sense that it's reasonable relative to niche hardware like the ROG Ally X (which will sell a tiny amount of hardware). $450-$500 for Joe Average consumer is still pricey for a lot of people, inflation is up but most people's salaries are not. 

Bold part: I have never said otherwise.

As for the rest, preaching to the choir.  One of the reasons i predicted $400 and not $600, is because price is super important for consoles.  The ps3 floundered out of the gates because of price, and that is off the back of the ps2 

Nobody said the S2 is budget hardware.  Hardware doesn't come in budget and premium, there is an entire area between.  Which is where consoles play.



“Consoles are great… if you like paying extra for features PCs had in 2005.”
Soundwave on 18 January 2026
Chrkeller said:
Soundwave said:

Doesn't mean hardware can't be powerful, PC always has a huge chunk of its power unoptimized because of the nature of the platform, consoles will always push themselves to their limit better for a fraction of the cost. 

Switch 2 is a return for Nintendo to making good hardware, the Wii-Wii U casual era is definitely dead. It's not even like everyone and their grandma has $450 laying around anyway, that's pricey for certain segments of the market, it's just "reasonable" in the sense that it's reasonable relative to niche hardware like the ROG Ally X (which will sell a tiny amount of hardware). $450-$500 for Joe Average consumer is still pricey for a lot of people, inflation is up but most people's salaries are not. 

Bold part: I have never said otherwise.

As for the rest, preaching to the choir.  One of tbe reasons i predicted $400 and not $600, is because price is super important for consoles.  The ps3 floundered out of the gates because of price.  

Switch isn't $400 though, most people have paid $500 for the Mario Kart bundle which is like 95%+ of their hardware sales really, $450 with no game even is still ... I would say that is tip toeing definitely into "expensive" territory for a lot of people. 

It's just not ridiculous like $600-$800 would have been, but it's not that far off from $600 either. 

Definitely a different era for Nintendo, hardware wise, pricing wise, etc. 

SNES - $199 to N64 - $199 to GameCube $199 to Wii $249.99 to Wii U $299.99/$349.99, Switch - $299.99, Switch 2 -$450-$500

The jump to Switch 2 is definitely a much larger dollar jump than other Nintendo console transitions. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 18 January 2026

Chrkeller on 18 January 2026
Soundwave said:
Chrkeller said:

Bold part: I have never said otherwise.

As for the rest, preaching to the choir.  One of tbe reasons i predicted $400 and not $600, is because price is super important for consoles.  The ps3 floundered out of the gates because of price.  

Switch isn't $400 though, most people have paid $500 for the Mario Kart bundle which is like 95%+ of their hardware sales really, $450 with no game even is still ... I would say that is tip toeing definitely into "expensive" territory for a lot of people. 

It's just not ridiculous like $600-$800 would have been, but it's not that far off from $600 either. 

Not arguing this pont.  $400 is closer to $450 than $600.  That is just basic math.  



“Consoles are great… if you like paying extra for features PCs had in 2005.”
Around the Network
Soundwave on 18 January 2026

Nintendo going forward under Furukawa looks like it will be more about higher end pricing with better performing hardware, though their almost certainly has to be a budget/Lite Switch 2 model at some point (even if its the lowest selling SKU as Switch Lite is).

I don't think Furukawa or the new hardware designers at Nintendo really have any aversion to just taking things from Sony or MS if it makes them more money. Nintendo of the past would often twist itself into a pretzel to be different and dirt cheap, but that doesn't look like the new leadership is of that mind at all. 



Chrkeller on 18 January 2026

I always thought the "Nintendo = weak" was a myth. For their respective eras; nes, snes, n64 and GC were all good kits. Many argued the S1 was weak, but I always thought that was silly. The S1 in 2017 for mobile hardware was quite nice. Only time Nintendo went budget was the Wii.

I didn't list the Wii U, because I have no idea what Nintendo was thinking there. Wasn't cheap but power was low. The expensive screen controller was stupid. That never should have gone out the door. It was the only hardware I did not care for. Even the Wii was super fun because the Wii Remote was awesome.



“Consoles are great… if you like paying extra for features PCs had in 2005.”
BasilZero on 18 January 2026

Yes.

Graphics peaked and the gains between the generations of how big graphics improve is getting smaller compared to past generations.

Wish companies would focus more on performance.



Soundwave on 18 January 2026
Chrkeller said:

I always thought the "Nintendo = weak" was a myth. For their respective eras; nes, snes, n64 and GC were all good kits. Many argued the S1 was weak, but I always thought that was silly. The S1 in 2017 for mobile hardware was quite nice. Only time Nintendo went budget was the Wii.

I didn't list the Wii U, because I have no idea what Nintendo was thinking there. Wasn't cheap but power was low. The expensive screen controller was stupid. That never should have gone out the door. It was the only hardware I did not care for. Even the Wii was super fun because the Wii Remote was awesome.

Depends on the era, Iwata's era they were obviously chasing the casual pre-Apple iPhone market. Wii obviously did well, Wii U flopped. 

Yamauchi era (1983-2003 or so) and Furukawa era (Switch 2, even Switch OLED really, OLED is an addition really for enthusiast/tech users) are different for their home console line. 

Switch 1 was kind of a transition period where they just chose an off the shelf part (Tegra X1) probably due to time/cost. 



curl-6 on 18 January 2026

Yeah the Switch 1 was good hardware for its time and form factor; in 2017 you'd be hard pressed to find anything else on a handheld device that looked as good as BOTW, Fast RMX, Mario Odyssey, etc.