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Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]

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781 points HelloUsername | 9 comments | 16 Jan 25 13:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.721s | source | bottom
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nerdjon ◴[16 Jan 25 14:11 UTC] No.42725322[source]▶
Happy to see that Nintendo is treating the switch more like how they traditionally handled their mobile platforms instead of their consoles.

Iterating instead of throwing out everything with each new version. There is a part of me that is going to miss the, do weird shit and see what works, Nintendo that brought us some really fun ideas. But a stable Nintendo just being able to continue putting out great games has its advantages.

I am curious about the specs, but honestly don't care much. The only real issue the Switch had was being able to keep up with some of the games put on it with FPS but it still had beautiful games (like Tears of the Kingdom). So as long as it is actually a decent spec bump I am happy and have zero care to compare it to the other consoles (but I am sure people are going too and scream that it is "underpowered").

The biggest thing I am curious about, will it be OLED since that will be disappointing to go back to non OLED from the OLED Switch. And Price.

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bargainbin ◴[16 Jan 25 16:02 UTC] No.42727079[source]▶
They’ve got the weird shit covered still, apparently the joy cons in this gen can be used as mice.

Was heavily rumoured/leaked and this teaser video literally shows them gliding along a surface.

How Nintendo will leverage that functionality, who could honestly say, but that’s the genius of keeping a toy company mindset in an industry full of sports car company mindsets.

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adamc ◴[16 Jan 25 16:13 UTC] No.42727232[source]▶
That last sentence is worth an essay of its own. Everyone else keeps pumping resources into being photo-realistic blah-blah-blah without nearly enough attention to "is this fun"?
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danudey ◴[16 Jan 25 17:05 UTC] No.42727886[source]▶
I saw an interesting analysis years ago about whether or not the most powerful console 'won' in each generation (i.e. whether or not being the most powerful console of your generation leads to success).

Generally speaking, no, it doesn't actually affect things, and in several cases (e.g. the Game Boy, the Wii, and the Switch come to mind) the objectively 'worse' console (from a tech perspective) was more successful by a country mile.

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basfo ◴[16 Jan 25 17:47 UTC] No.42728431[source]▶
It's interesting how many people see the Switch as being in its own category rather than acknowledging it as the winner of this console generation (which I completely agree it is).

Most people think the “console” battle is between PlayStation and Xbox, and that PlayStation is the winner.

This is probably a big win for PlayStation’s marketing team.

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1. runevault ◴[16 Jan 25 19:04 UTC] No.42729450[source]▶
Personally I'd say both are true. They won the generation, but they did so by not bothering to fight directly with Playstation and Xbox. By basically ignoring them and having a distinct identity they won.
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2. dmonitor ◴[16 Jan 25 19:41 UTC] No.42729916[source]▶
This framing only highlights either

A. Sony has an amazing marketing strategy where they can paint their #1 competitor as not even a competitor.

B. Xbox has a terrible product direction, where they are trying (failing) to beat Sony at being Sony instead of looking at the gaming industry and trying to create a product people want.

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3. kridsdale1 ◴[16 Jan 25 20:44 UTC] No.42730648[source]▶
Regarding B, the Xbox has always primarily been a strategy to put the Windows kernel in to every living room.

From there, it’s made sense that they would use pc-tier components rather than phone-tier as Nintendo is on.

4. runevault ◴[16 Jan 25 21:01 UTC] No.42730857[source]▶
I wouldn't say A because Nintendo hasn't bothered trying to compete with them. If they bothered and Sony still managed to be considered a separate category I would agree, but Nintendo appears to not care about them.

However I do think B is true. The only time they were able to go toe to toe with Sony was most of the 360 era when Sony got cocky and built a machine that was too complicated to work with relative to the value developers got out of that effort. Once Sony stopped doing that they've dominated Xbox (mind you the whiff on being too early proclaiming the digital era made it far far worse).

5. Neonlicht ◴[16 Jan 25 23:58 UTC] No.42732515[source]▶
How is the Switch a competitor when it doesn't even play most games that you can find on Playstation or Steam?

I think Nintendo is- respectfully- in their own lane.

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6. timv ◴[17 Jan 25 01:08 UTC] No.42732952{3}[source]▶
The market penetration of the switch makes it harder for Sony to expand into the family/casual gaming space. That forces Sony to stick to the AAA lane (which is where their focus is) limiting their growth opportunities.

If the switch had been a failure, then a lot of households that currently have a switch (only) would have bought a different console and that would likely have been a PS5 (even if they held on to their previous generation console, and waited a couple of years until the PS5 price dropped below $500)

I have a PS4 and a Switch at home. The kids play the switch and occasionally play on the PS4. I can't justify buying a PS5 because there's only so much gaming time available, and family gaming is covered by the switch and my personal gaming is good enough on my PC. Take the switch out of the equation and that changes.

PS5 is winning the AAA console lane, no doubt. But Sony could have been making more money if they could also own a significant portion of the family console lane.

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7. runevault ◴[17 Jan 25 01:38 UTC] No.42733121{4}[source]▶
I don't know that the Playstation 5 really plays in that market when the cheapest version is $450, so nearly $200 more expensive than the switch. Keeping the price down is part of how Nintendo owns that market, on top of their first party game lineup and the like.
8. reissbaker ◴[17 Jan 25 01:39 UTC] No.42733132{3}[source]▶
The PlayStation also doesn't play most games on Steam. Exclusive games don't mean the platforms aren't competitors — back in the day platform exclusivity was even more of the norm than it is today, and yet the SNES and the Sega Genesis were clearly competitors, as were the original PlayStation and the N64.
9. DiggyJohnson ◴[17 Jan 25 17:19 UTC] No.42740656{4}[source]▶
Interesting. Yea if the switch didn't exist I could see a re-attempt at the PSP (or the Vita? whatever that thing was).