Not true.It's consolidating their Handheld and console audiences under one roof. That's as red ocean as you can get. They consolidating not branching out.
Switch goal is targeting people that have little time to play games due to a busy schedule (which means in Ads you we'll see a bunch of young adults and above).
This is achieved through the versatility offered by a modular design.
Nintendo guessed that a subset of the audience who have little time are old gamers who now got a family and a full time job which find increasingly difficult to enjoy their hobby.
Retro/lapsed gamers were targeted from the beginning, it's evident by games like Bomberman, Street Fighter 2, Seiken Densetsu Collection, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Doom.
All iconic franchises from the '90s with a multiplayer component (the latter is important because Nintendo always pushed for local multiplayer but due to Switch versatility the chance to setup quickly local multiplayer sessions increase).
To understand Switch success one shouldn't ask "what it is" but "why" (its mission) and "how" (its execution).
Wii / DS success can't be explained simply citing the touch screen or the Wiimote because those alone wouldn't have worked.
Back in the early '00s Nintendo saw potential in the audience who had difficulty or were intimidated to play with traditional controls ("why") therefore they lowered the interface barrier by introducing as default control schems more immediate control interfaces and of course designing games around them ("how").
Chasing the Wii / DS audience (lower input barrier) is not feasible anymore for Nintendo today because that space is occupied by Smartphone gaming and Nintendo has no intention to compete directly with a market based on F2P or $0.99 because Nintendo is a premium videogame brand.
Thus Nintendo is going in the opposite direction, they are chasing the audience that are used to the standard controls (and that recognize Nintendo standard button as seen in the new company motto below) but offer the convenience to play a game session whenever and how one would like based on his life style.
As I've written above, Nintendo goal with Switch is to set itself apart by offering convenience to play anywhere and anyhow one can/likes.If that were true they would not have made an effort and a big deal out of a late port of Skyrim, which is exactly the samey western-cinematic AAA game u speak of.
To prove this mantra Nintendo need to set apart the Switch from other gaming devices through the software output.
In particular Nintendo need to set apart Switch from ubiquitous devices like Smartphones that are in everybody pocket.
This is achieved by offering:
- Engrossing experiences like BotW and Skyrim that aren't well suited for Smartphones.
- Arcade-like experiences that need twitch reflex and physical controls to work properly.
- Local multiplayer experience (yes, ideally how Switch works not only could help how to maximize the play time in the daily schedule but also could facilitate to setup quick local multplayer sessions).