It was March the 3rd 2017 when we got to play the new system from the fine folks over at Nintendo, The Nintendo Switch, and it was instantly hit, as console that would go nowhere, a console that would flop at the gates, a system that was simply SHIT, Loo Roll had a better chance. Media wrote essays about the product, well not writing an essay as such but they certainly felt like one, long-winded and full of shit, no wonder Loo Roll has a better chance, clean up all the garbage mainstream media was saying about the system. Not everyone will remember what was said about the Switch, before and after launch, of course, Zelda was praised for being amazing, but the system was still hammered for being ‘underpowered’, how was it going to compete with the PS4 or Xbox One, or how was the system going to get these AAA games we love to buy and play to run on it, if there was a chance.
It is now 2018, the console has sold over 15million units by April, seeing Nintendo’s profit increase by 500%, helping drive one of the best years for the company in recent memory. So why I am saying, that there will be an upgrade when Nintendo has said that it is not on their to-do list. Let’s take Xbox and PlayStation first, both of their systems have had upgrades and alterations, PS4 Pro and XBox One X, allowing the system to push games on their systems to all new heights not possible on their old revisions.
Now we should look at the 3DS, even that had a GPU upgrade and some games required the New 2DS and New 3DS to run, otherwise, the game would not play, this pushed out the older models. You would have thought gamers would whine and cry over this sort of tactic, but nothing, they just rolled with it and picked up the new system if they wanted to play one of the games built for that system.
Now we have the Nintendo Switch, a system that has the Nvidia Tegra 1 chipset inside with some slight modifications to it, a very old chip, that at the time we where all hoping Nintendo was going to go for the Nvidia Tegra 2 chip instead, more power, better performance. With the system doing so well and basing this on the 3DS sales, their mobile gaming system, you would think Nintendo would be on the ball, thinking the same, and wondering should we do an upgrade at some point, it does make sense.
They could easily use Nvidia Max Q Technology and push a Nvidia 1050ti or even a Nvidia 1060 into the system, or the new Tegra 3 mobile chip instead, all would give a massive boost to the system, this would also open the floodgates to AAA games. This is one of the main disadvantages the Switch suffers from right now and gamers whine about more than anything else, I want my next COD, Battlefield, Assassins Creed, Star Wars game etc, and the Switch does not offer me this, so the system is irrelevant and not worth my hard earned cash, which is fair comment.
So with Nintendo Upgrading the system and making the system fully backward compatible it would draw in many more gamers that just don’t see the system as a worthy purchase right now. Just think you could be playing the next Assassins Creed, or Cyberpunk 2077, GTA and many other games, which as of now would not see the light of day. Being able to play these games, anywhere, at any time, with anyone, for me, this is all I want in a gaming system. I don’t want gimmicks like a Total Entertainment System, I just want a gaming system for gaming and maybe a browser.
I know many would say, nope never going to happen, but just look at the cost of the Switch, and the Cost of the 3DS. 3DS is around £179.99 to around 209.99 and Nintendo Switch is £279.99, as long as they can either keep the price around the same, based on the prices of GPUs going down (hopefully) or making the price a little higher based on the extra performance you are getting. The new systems should sell, just as good, or even better, this, of course, would be based on how much more performance Nintendo decides to push in inside the system.
I personally would not mind paying, say £299.99 for a system that is portable and static and have Tegra 2 rocking inside would prefer a Tegra 3 though, Max Q could offer even better performance but costs would go up a little too high for gamers, and they would have something else to whine about.
So let’s hope they treat their new flagship console like they do the 3DS and bring out a new system, and if they do it is a reasonable upgrade and worth every penny they are asking for it.
This is pure speculation, as I have no idea what Nintendo is thinking or doing, they have remained unchallenged in the 3DS market for years, yet they have made system revisions as well during that time, include a GPU upgrade, so I say why not, as somepoint Nintendo Should offer up a NEW Nintendo Switch.