For me, I view the Switch as a failure of a concept with how Nintendo operates. To me, the problem with the Switch is it wants to please everybody, but by doing so they'll please nobody. Making a portable/home console hybrid at a reasonable price with good specs and good battery life is asking for disaster. And what we got is what I'd consider mediocore as hell. Poor specs, poor battery life, and it's bulky as hell. If Nintendo focused on making purely a portable console, the could've made it less bulky with far better battery life. If Nintendo focused on making it purely a home console, they could've cut costs significantly by dumping the screen, then using that to put in better hardware and not have to waste time with the Joycons and just made the Pro controller standard. The end result is is a system that does nothing truly well and a lot mediocre to poorly. And I wouldn't even call its portability as something it does really well, as it's not exactly a small system. I doubt it'll fit into many jacket pockets, ignoring entirely pants pockets. And the battery life is not very good at all. 3 hours for Zelda? Not a fan. Would've been fine if they could've packed better hardware and a better battery but then it might be a $500 system. But Nintendo's not the kind of company that would sell a product that expensive.
I really wish they just would've focused on either making a new home console or making a new portable. Make it the best system they could create at a certain price point, put as many bells and whistles as possible and make it a true home console experience.
I'm sure Nintendo's idea is Zelda will carry the system for the first couple of months, then as games trickle out through the holiday season, like Splatoon through Mario, more and more gamers will be looking to buy the system. Unfortunately, I just don't see enough. Where's Star Fox? Where's Metroid? Where's Kirby? Where's Pokemon? I'm happier with the 3rd party support, but I just don't know if it's enough.
Essentially, the next 12 months are crucial for Nintendo, and I'm not exactly super excited. I am worried for them as a company. We're at a point where this may be the last generation of traditional home video game consoles. We could be looking at the PS4 Pro and Scorpio as the norm. We could be looking at upgradeable home consoles. This really feels like Nintendo's last shot at a home console. And if Zelda, for whatever reason, isn't the masterpiece we expect it to be, they're fucked beyond belief. I am almost positive it will be at least an excellent game, if not fantastic to masterpiece level, but if it isn't as good as we expect it to be, that's a big fucking problem.
