Topic: Handheld / Console

so let's face it: the switch is basically just a handheld and not a console. no matter how you turn it around, all the hardware for computing power is portable and therefor it is a handheld. this is not a console. it is powered by a battery and all the parts are designed for portability first.

with that in mind: the WiiU is nintendo's last real console. i highly doubt that they will go back to produce a console again.

are you sad about this? i mean handheld gaming is very different nowadays and a lot more capable than back in the gameboy days. but i think it is kinda sad that we will probably never see another nintendo home console again. still excited for switch though

it's both....and people have said the Switch even does better with the dock. Anyways who cares?

well we still don't know if the dock adds any computing power to the device. i dont think it will other than some upscaling from 720p to 1080p but that should be it.

i care, because this means nintendo admits that they have been defeated when it comes to home consoles. this is meaningful for the gaming industry. the biggest and oldest player is changing to a new tactic to survive. the industry is chaning a lot these days. and it's for the worse in most cases.

As cliché as it sounds, everything changes and the game industry does need a change. Focus nowadays is in shiny high rez graphics and trying to make consoles PCs, at which they fail miserabily.
Nintendo's strengh has always been the handhelds, and with more people that have long commuting types, trips due to business, or value mobility, there is a business niche that Sony and Microsoft aren't attending, and they won't necesarily want a tablet or cell phone to play.
My point is, change like this isn't bad. It just opens new posibilities.

Portables are always better anyway.

The whole premise of this thread is ridiculous. I have nothing more to say than that.

I don't think they're changing their tactics to survive. I think they're doing what they've always done. Nintendo takes existing technology and uses it in a new and interesting way. I wouldn't at all be surprised if they wanted to make something like the Switch instead of the Wii U. But mobile tech wasn't there so they went with the next best thing. A console that streamed to a semi-portable display.

Now the tech is there? This concept is for the first time possible so they're going ahead with it. I've said before that this is where consoles were headed regardless of who moved first. Nintendo are just getting betting on it big and early. As Nintendo has always done.

The whole point of the Switch is to blur the lines between home and handheld. While portable, it can still be used at home and will have access to console-style AAA titles. I wouldn't say Nintendo have been defeated - instead they're just pushing the market in a direction which they believe it is willing to go. Similarly, but contrasting, Microsoft and Sony are pushing their home consoles more towards PC-like experiences.

Also, you are assuming that all future Nintendo devices will be portable, which we simply do not know.

a handheld by definition is a console....

Are you asserting that this will be the last line of hardware Nintendo ever produces?

No, no I don't think that's the case.

Comparisons to Apple products have been the norm since Iwata talked them up a few years ago, but the more we know, the more it looks like they're actually emulating Microsoft here.

This is a dock accessory for the Surface 3. It turns your portable device into a desktop device. It's a solution that precedes and resembles what the Switch is trying to do.

Microsoft has since released or announced the Surface 4 (hybrid), the Surface Book (traditional high-end laptop), and the Surface Studio (all-in-one desktop). 3 different products to suit 3 different purposes within the same hardware family. Apple, Microsoft, and Nintendo all recognize that different consumers have different needs and want different things. I think it's silly to assume that Nintendo doesn't have any plans beyond a single hybrid portable device.

And even if they didn't, I'm fine with it. This is more or less what I wanted anyway. It's portable. I can play it on the TV when I want to relax on a couch. It's got all of Nintendo's first party offerings, and its 3rd party offerings will probably resemble what was on 3DS and Vita, little bit of PS4 thrown in. It's my kind of device.

I don't see it as a handheld or a console. I see it as a platform. Take away how the handhelds and consoles display and are powered and what you have is a box/device that runs games. It is only how we apply them that defines whether they are a handheld or a console.

The Switch is actually 3 things. A Handheld to those who only get to play games during their travels, a Console to those who prefer to play games at home or a Hybrid to those who want to play on the go or at home. It is our state of minds that determine what the platform is.

For me it is a Hybrid. For some of my friends it is a Handheld and a few look at it as a Console.