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[LarknThe4th]

That narrative has been around since the original Wii though, and in 14 years it somehow hasn't seemed to happen yet imo. Technology moves on, and keeping up with it doesn't seem to be the death sentence people like to make it out to be.

Oh I must have just imagined the shrunken catalogues of nearly every publisher that's actually still in business then

And whatever Frankensteins monster that they call games are still out there are riddled with Microtransactions to buffer the loss of income and make shareholders happy and milk their customers in the desperate hope of keeping that player playing only that game

This industry is circling the drain in so many ways it ain't funny

 

[Yoshi]

The events that played right after launching clearly showed it did.

Nintendo immediately fell into 2nd/3rd place, lost access to many Publishers who were once loyal/exclusive to them, and they even went on to bully other developers that further increased their pariah status in the industry (i.e Look up the story of Miyamoto and Rockstar games. Their falling out eventually lead to the creation of Grand Theft Auto which Nintendo systems almost never get).

How about sticking to a topic? The technological decisions for N64 are not the same field as the cooperation with outside partners. Nintendo screwed up terribly in that regard and did act incompetent on that issue.

 

[JordanN]

How about sticking to a topic? The technological decisions for N64 are not the same field as the cooperation with outside partners. Nintendo screwed up terribly in that regard and did act incompetent on that issue.

The fact they once teamed up with Sony to make a CD-based system but then they launched a cartridge based one right after is indeed on topic.

Nintendo arrogance or Nintendo greed, whichever you want to call it, was apart of their decision making process that lead to terribly performing hardware that alienated developers. They failed to react to a market that clearly wanted an easy to develop for machine with low publishing fees was the future, and instead opted for the medicore N64 tech to somehow steal away marketshare.

I also caught hold of a Conker documentary, and one of the Rare Employees said the company deliberately left their documentation in Japanese (took the programmer 4 weeks to completely rewrite custom code based around a foreign language. A privileged that wasn't shared with other developers who were given the hardware to work with) . They had no idea what they were even doing at that point.

 

[Griffon]

They might, but only once/if Sony/MS are defeated. As long as the market is served by those, Nintendo has no reason to go there.

 

[Jooxed]

Nah, I expect them just to make more powerful switches. It would be silly for them not to.

 

[Knitted Knight]

Just a dream. But a dream worth having.

 

[Hudo]

I really do hope Nintendo will do a more powerful version of the Switch, calling it "Power Switch". They already missed an opportunity with calling the Switch Lite "Lite Switch", IMHO.

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

I would be happy with everything 720 in handheld and 1080 in docker. I don't mind the art design it's the blur that hurts my eyes.

 

[LordOfChaos]

No, but I wish they did. I don't buy at all the argument that Nintendo games don't need power because of the artstyle. The artstyle works within the limits of the power, and sometimes is severely hampered again. I started BoTW again and remembered how unfortunate it is that it's covered in low resolution textures and low filtering quality, because there's some lovely art hiding under their underpowered hardware.

They don't even need to make it their main console. How about a stationary only device that just provides a lot more power for Switch games, automatically using the docked mode and higher clocks beyond.

 

[xiseerht]

There is no point when you see how well the Wii sold and the Switch. Why waste the money to please the vocal minority on social media.

 

[mejin]

No.

They can't compete with the others. They understood this in GC era.

Now they can have huge flops like WiiU and still launch a new device like switch in a single gen without any problems thanks to garbage hardwares. Even if its a failure they don't bleed money.

 

[TLZ]

The Switch was pretty premium though? Launched at 350€ and had extremely strong mobile hardware at the time.

Switch premium? Is this a joke mate? I like the games but the hardware sucks ass. Switches getting slightly bent, joycons losing syncing and unresponsive, sticks drifting and more. This is the opposite of premium. And this isn't extremely strong mobile hardware at all. If you want that you really have to pay for premium parts and spend a fortune. The thing is cheap for a reason.

 

[EverydayBeast]

4K graphics would look good on Nintendo games.

 

[Yoshi]

Switch premium? Is this a joke mate? I like the games but the hardware sucks ass. Switches getting slightly bent, joycons losing syncing and unresponsive, sticks drifting and more. This is the opposite of premium. And this isn't extremely strong mobile hardware at all. If you want that you really have to pay for premium parts and spend a fortune. The thing is cheap for a reason.

350€ is just 50€ less than the launch price of PS4 or Xbox 360 (also Xbox One after the Kinect was dropped). This is expensive. Of course not iPhone expensive, but expensive. And yes, the build quality is not premium, but neither is e.g. the launch Dual Shock 4's and that is regarded as a premium console here.

 

[Area61]

They should but they won't. But i wished they amped up their hardware once in a while including their gimmick stuff which makes them unique apart from their competitor.

 

[Happosai]

The SNES could display more colours than the Genesis, and the N64 could push FAR more polygons than the PSX. Both were the superior hardware at time of release.

I think it boils down to making consoles that aren't peak FPS/etc and how engaging the games are for the platform. It would likely ruin Nintendo's reputation to introduce something high-powered like the XBOX One or PS4. Can you imagine them doing that and then not having the software support to back-it-up? I think they like what they're doing because it's been successful sales-wise.

 

[jakinov]

But could you imagine Mario or Zelda on the PS5 or XSX? Sad to think these experiences will never happen.

Not never, just later.

 

[MP!]

partnered with nvidia they are in a better position than ever to do just that... but WILL they?
If they belive it good for business I bet they will.
They could easily Drop a $300-$400 TV only System that competes with the other 2 using Nvidia's DLSS for extra performance in higher resolutions... but it seems their strategy is to remain in the hybrid space... so who knows what would happen.

 

[Jigsaah]

Moore's Law's Impending End
Experts agree that computers should reach the physical limits of Moore's Law at some point in the 2020s. The high temperatures of transistors eventually would make it impossible to create smaller circuits. This is because cooling down the transistors takes more energy than the amount of energy that already passes through the transistors. In a 2005 interview, Moore himself admitted that his law “can’t continue forever. It is the nature of exponential functions," he said, "they eventually hit a wall."

Nintendo will eventually catch up. It's inevitable.

 

[Zog]

But could you imagine Mario or Zelda on the PS5 or XSX? Sad to think these experiences will never happen.

During the 360/PS3/Wii era people said 'imagine a Zelda game on the PS3/360'. Wasn't that answered on the Wii U and Switch? Next gen you may see a Zelda game on PS4/Xbox One level hardware and the generation after that....so why do you say it will never happen?

 

[Coolwhhip]

I know I'm pretty bored of the budget looking graphics on Nintendo consoles at least. There was something fun about wondering how great Nintendo games would look on a next gen console like the Gamecube.

 

[Zannegan]

I'd buy one if they did, but it just doesn't make good business sense for them at the moment. They're comfortable two gens behind (as a docked console anyway), and it hasn't hurt their software sales. Why raise the price of admission without proof that people will pay it, when their stuff is selling gangbusters at ~$300?

Your best bet for Nintendo to return to consoles is if they decide they want to stay within spitting distance of the competition, though why they would care with big third parties like Activision and EA completely ignoring their audience is beyond me. In that case, since a handheld would be out of the question (prove me wrong Microsoft), they might launch a moderately specced console using mobile hardware while keeping the Switch as their handheld. Then, after a few years, they'll launch a Switch-ing version of that new console and go back to business as usual.

Of course, this all assumes Nintendo is acting rationally and logically, which hasn't been my experience. For all we know they could be poised to launch a beast of a console next spring with multiple wireless AR headsets and hand-tracking as its core gimmick. There's just no telling with that company, which is what makes them so much fun to follow.