Why I’m not looking forward to Nintendo Switch 2

Why I’m not looking forward to Nintendo Switch 2 – Reader’s Feature

by Markel

in Real Estate

Reading Time: 10 mins read

Nintendo Switch OLED Model — Increased power could be a double-edged sword (Nintendo)

A reader is concerned that Nintendo risks making a big mistake when it comes to its new console, which could end up being too powerful.

Within the next eight months the Nintendo Switch 2 will be announced, and the internet will go crazy. Nintendo fans will pick through every detail and make wild assumptions that they get upset about when they don’t come true. Meanwhile, Nintendo haters will start accusing the company of being greedy and lazy and all the other nonsense they make up when they get angry that Nintendo’s latest game has been critically acclaimed.

Nintendo would have to be awful for 40 years straight for their reputation to be downgraded as far as neutral, let alone bad. There’s just no arguing about the volume of quality games they’ve made across almost every genre. No one even comes close to them in terms of the ability to churn out classic after classic.

However, they are a company, like any other, and that means that not only is their primary goal to make money but they’re also prone to be carried along by industry trends. Not as much as other publishers, but no video game console is an island, and I am very worried about what dangerous new habits Nintendo could pick up with the Switch 2.

The big talking point this year (to understate the problem) has been that games take too long to make, with too many people, and therefore become a financial risk and too expensive. Everyone knows this gets worse every generation and yet no publisher seems to have planned for it. Somehow, it seemed to come as a surprise to everyone at the start of the year and the industry has been in meltdown ever since.

You probably already see where I’m going with this, but if the Switch 2 is more powerful than the current one – somewhere between a PlayStation 4 and 5 claim the rumours – then that’s going to cost a lot more in terms of time and money to make games for, and Nintendo already takes around five years as it is, and that’s on lowered powered hardware.

This isn’t me being paranoid either. Nintendo has already hinted that development times are going to get longer for them. Which worried me, as at no point did they describe this as a problem to avoid but a certainty that they just had to cope with the best they can.

For almost two decades now, Nintendo has been out of step with the rest of the games industry. The Wii was basically no more powerful than a GameCube and ever since they’ve been a generation or more behind. Rather than a problem they’ve used this to their advantage, since it means they can continue to make games using simpler tech, which is quicker and cheaper.

Just as importantly, it means they have to ensure their games are fun to play, because they can’t expect them to sell just because they have good graphics. They have to be great games because they can’t rely on the technology to be the reason you buy them.

I’m really worried that the Switch 2 is going to end this, as Nintendo gives into the temptation of better and more complex graphics and takes their eye off everything. Not only that but they may be tempted into charging the same for their games as Sony does, which they’ve also hinted at.

I dread to think that they might even start to make live service games, which they’ve already dabbled with in the past. It may seem unlikely that they’d go all in on them, like Sony, but you would’ve said the same about mobile games too, until they started making a bunch of them.

Add in all the penny-pinching and arguments that are bound to arise if they make remasters of Switch 1 games and I am not looking forward to the new console at all. Maybe Nintendo will avoid all these problems and prove me wrong, but if they do it will be one of their most impressive achievements yet.

By reader Ashton Marley