Should Nintendo focus more on having powerful hardware?

[Withywarlock]

13 hours ago, Kane99 said:

But they survived so far on gimmick ideas, like the motion controls of the wii and now the joycon/ switch hybrid console. But they make their money on said gimmicks. 

I don't entirely disagree, but I think we're understating just how good and smooth Nintendo's first party games run. You'll not play a recent Mario game that ever dips under 60FPS and looks awful. I'd even go as far as to say Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS surpassed the GameCube's graphical fidelity. I won't go into every point I made in this post but I'm happy to discuss this further if anything new comes up!

2 hours ago, runswithspatulas said:

why can't they offer more in hardware for a console hybrid? is there not enough room inside of it for the needed parts or what?

It's just a guess but probably heating issues. The Switch has already had a number of cases of overheating even before the UK's 2022 heatwave when Steam Deck buyers also received warnings about the system shutting down in high temperatures. Simply put, the more powerful hardware the more power needs to be drawn upon and that generates a lot of heat. In a system the size of the Switch with a single (but apparently very good) fan, it's going to struggle.

Fortunately there are third party cooling solutions should that be a problem, but if it does get to the stage where it's a problem, contact the manufacturer and get it repaired (Nintendo are pretty good for free replacements).

Other than that, my guess would be cost efficiency. The better the hardware the greater the cost for the end user, and given we've not got a Switch Pro yet it might be a sign that Nintendo don't see value in it. I'm sure there is value in a more powerful Nintendo console, but how many people will put their money where their mouth is and buy this more powerful console hybrid if it comes into fruition? And will it be enough to catch up to their competitors?

[runswithspatulas]

4 minutes ago, Withywarlock said:

I don't entirely disagree, but I think we're understating just how good and smooth Nintendo's first party games run. You'll not play a recent Mario game that ever dips under 60FPS and looks awful. I'd even go as far as to say Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS surpassed the GameCube's graphical fidelity. I won't go into every point I made in this post but I'm happy to discuss this further if anything new comes up!

It's just a guess but probably heating issues. The Switch has already had a number of cases of overheating even before the UK's 2022 heatwave when Steam Deck buyers also received warnings about the system shutting down in high temperatures. Simply put, the more powerful hardware the more power needs to be drawn upon and that generates a lot of heat. In a system the size of the Switch with a single (but apparently very good) fan, it's going to struggle.

Fortunately there are third party cooling solutions should that be a problem, but if it does get to the stage where it's a problem, contact the manufacturer and get it repaired (Nintendo are pretty good for free replacements).

Other than that, my guess would be cost efficiency. The better the hardware the greater the cost for the end user, and given we've not got a Switch Pro yet it might be a sign that Nintendo don't see value in it. I'm sure there is value in a more powerful Nintendo console, but how many people will put their money where their mouth is and buy this more powerful console hybrid if it comes into fruition? And will it be enough to catch up to their competitors?

The overheating is definitely an issue. Especially with games like Fortnite. Those little fans don't always work like they're supposed to either.

[NightmareFarm]

9 hours ago, runswithspatulas said:

why can't they offer more in hardware for a console hybrid? is there not enough room inside of it for the needed parts or what?

They spent a lot in manufacturing the portability function of the console and making the portable tablet as powerful as possible which drives the price up. They could spend even more to make the dock bump up its power to rival the current playstation and xbox but the price would be like $700 or so which is way too expensive, especially for nintendos standards since they like to keep their prices down. 

[Justin11]

Every gaming hardware company have their own concept, and Nintendo chose their own concept and built their own hardware so portable like mobile phones, so every of their user will have that flexibility to play games anywhere.