Nintendo would have to have consolidated portable and home console systems into a singular library anyway, regardless of Sony or MS. It's not possible to have bespoke libraries for completely different systems (ie: Wii U and 3DS) as you get higher up the visual ladder.

Understanding that, Switch 2 is a very good overall hardware result. It consolidates Nintendo's handheld and console lineages but also allows them to run modern 3rd party games that are on the PS5. The newest IP installments of Madden NFL, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, mainline Assassin's Creed, NBA 2K, FC Soccer, are on Switch 2 or coming, with Final Fantasy, Indiana Jones, Borderlands, Call of Duty, MS Flight Simulator, Forza, and Halo apparently arriving soon as well. And these are the same versions of the game as on other platforms just with tweaked settings, it's not like the Wii or something where they made a completely different version of COD to make the game work on the system, it's not even really like Dragon Quest XI on Switch 1 which was massively retooled. 

Nintendo hasn't had 3rd party support that strong since the Super NES.

Nah this is what gave the Wii its momentum, $249 price and Wii Sports.

Advertising was everywhere









Then Wii Fit added on to the momentum.

$249 is one of those psychological price barriers. $350 sounds twice as expensive.

The Wii could have had better specs if they wanted. Just 5 years prior to the N64 to GameCube transition was a massive increase in processing power and that was still $199.99 day 1 in 2001. 

They went bargain basement on the Wii and DS specs IMO because they were hedging their bets, the Wiimote and DS were experiments and if they failed I think Nintendo was quickly going to release a Game Boy successor that would've matched/exceeded the PSP in specs (hence all the "DS is actually our third pillar and not actually the Game Boy successor" talk early on) and they probably would've made a different home console too. 

In that scenario around 2006 or 2007 I think Nintendo would've released "Game Boy Next" and it would've had better than PSP specs.

That said even internally it seems like all of Nintendo's brass did not agree with the decisions being made. Miyamoto for example has said not making the Wii HD capable was a mistake. They miscalculated how quick HDTV adoption was going to be, they thought people would stick to SDTV sets for longer than they did. 

Upscaling tech like DLSS is basically what puts things to bed as now a game can be less than 720p and be upscaled absurdly to like 2k in the output so in future gens the fidelity path is going to be a more even playing field for all platforms, the was always going to come a time where the leaps were going to be smaller than hoped for to the point even Nintendo's conservative approach will catch up but the upscaling tech brings that forward significantly.

Uh, I think you took my comment about Sony making Nintendo's marketing campaign a little too literally...

But since we're here, I notice that in none of the ads you posted do we see the price being advertised front and center. All of the graphics and the classic "Wii would like to pay" commercial you've posted all just echo what I'm already saying: Wii sold because of Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the potential of motion controls.

The GameCube was constantly $50-100 cheaper than its competition throughout its lifespan, possibly even $150 because I can't remember the price of the original Xbox in 2004 and 2005. How come that extra $50-100 wasn't a psychological barrier in that generation? I have already said this, but no one has addressed it.

Now I want you to imagine those same graphics above, only replace the SD screenshots and jagged polygons of those games with your imagination of them running in 720p widescreen and looking crisper, sharper and more vibrant. Imagine how much more of "hardcore" (I don't miss the days where that term was thrown around ad nauseum) gamers would have been on board from the start if Twilight Princess launches in HD with better visuals, and Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart and Metroid Prime are built from the ground up for a beefier console that was true generational leap that made jaws hit the floor the same way every new Nintendo console used to. Imagine Capcom thinking that it not only has to get Resident Evil 4 with pointer controls on this box that people are headlocking each other in stores to get, but it also now gets Resi 5 and 6 with pointer controls. Imagine GTA 4 and 5, the Arkham games, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Final Fantasy and more all being possible for this console to handle if their respective publishers see its success and decide to get a piece of the pie.

Do you think that's not worth an extra $100-150 to people? If you think not, then why were the other two consoles worth their price tags yet still sold 46+ 80+ million consoles respectively?

I think you people are looking at the 100+ million Wiis sold and thinking that's the be all, end all, forgetting how hollow that number really is when third parties struggled to sell most exclusives that weren't casual party games, and the last couple years of the Wii's life were relatively comatose.

There's no need to call others/their opinions dumb. Let's keep this civil please.

It was 100% the right decision, although Nintendo made the choice too soon and got lucky with the Wii gamble. Hardware has hardly been the limiting factor since the 7th gen, although hardware improvements have made it easier to create open world games and other games that didn't work out too well before. Anyway, it was the correct choice, because it creates a terrific advantage in terms of development costs. Of course increasing development costs must be hitting even Nintendo and will probably continue to do so, but Nintendo has more time to deal with it than the others.

It was definitely the right move. Considering the only generation Nintendo lost since then. Was the Wii U verses the PS4. Every other time Nintendo was the market leader would suggest they did something right.

Wii and DS were successes, Wii U was a flop, 3DS was technically not a flop but I do think was a bitter disappointment for Nintendo (going from 150 million+ to half and having to panic price cut and incur the first losses in Nintendo history had to sting bitterly). 

Switch and Switch 2 are really not part of the same lineage as the Wii/DS ... that's the start of a new hardware epoch for Nintendo as it were. Switch 2 is definitely quite high end and can run current gen games, something the other consoles could not do and is definitely not priced as a budget device with vastly outdated hardware. Switch 2 performs well against PC handhelds that are $500-$700++. 

Not to the blue ocean Nintendo was addressing with the Wii. It wasn't marketed at early adopters, hence no HD capabilities.

Plenty ads with price as well





And it was impossible to get one at release


Sure $199 is better than $249, yet $249 feels far better than $299 and $349 the WiiU launched at.
XBox launched at $299 same as PS2. Gamecube launched at $199.

The lesson learned from that generation was marketing. The PS2 had all the hype, the thing is a super computer, emotion engine and all that nonsense. XBox put everything on Halo and it paid off.

The GameCube quickly got labeled a lunch box and already looked dated at release. The Wii looked sleek, futuristic next to he bulky foreman grill and 360 tower. Marketing was so good the Wii was sold out into 2008.

True, it wasn't great not even good for the hardcore gamer crowd, yet they snuffed Nintendo with the GC and moved to PS2/XBox, so Nintendo directed their attention elsewhere and watched MS and Sony lose billions on 360 and PS3, while Wii and DS were printing money...




Sony: Total Loss around $3.3 billion by June 2008 on the PS3.
MS: lost over $4 billion in its gaming division through the first Xbox and Xbox 360 generations, infamous Red Ring of Death (RRoD) repairs alone costing at least $1.15 billion

Nintendo sold the most, made the most profit, even had Dr Phil promoting the Wii, seems they made the right choice.

And in the end, the hardcore crowd still bought it for Zelda and Mario. I haven't heard anyone say, if only Super Mario Galaxy had HD graphics... Plus Nintendo repeated it again with the Switch, 720p while ps4 and XOne were going 4K...