People wanted the Switch 2 so hard it ended up materializing as a trailer confirming it… as the Switch 2. No random numbers or letters this time like Xbox or the Wii U, it’s just the sequel to the Switch. Not that this would stop the confused mother demographic from thinking that this newfangled Switch 2 game will play on little Timmy’s Xbox which is actually a PS4, but at least they’re not taking chances with this one. And that makes it weird for a Nintendo console, because most of the time they’ve been coming up with interesting new concepts, regardless of how well they actually play out in the field, like motion controls or 3D screens or the whole tablet with buttons form factor with a dock for big screen, where this last thing eventually ended up being a focus of handheld PC gaming, including the dock thing even.
Instead of the whole “blue ocean” strategy they’ve held onto for a while, they’re just aiming for MORE POWER, which at least includes backwards compatibility with most games, and I’d guess that the excluded ones are probably at least the Labo ones as well as possibly WarioWare or any other gimmicky game that uses things like the IR camera on the end of the right Joy-Con as a required feature, since for the largely-similar new Joy-Con that’s one of the few things I didn’t see on there, unless I wasn’t overanalyzing the video like all the YouTubers who are all gonna be going over this video only for months. I would throw a rough guess out there and say this is likely to be about on par with a Steam Deck in terms of power, or possibly a PS4 Pro for those comparing with home consoles. However, as the current super HD console generation has shown, there’s not a lot of hype for just specs if there’s not many interesting games to utilize them, to the point where people are seemingly increasingly tired of whatever Call of Duty is now.
As far as games, there’s apparently some kind of Mario Kart. Whether that ends up being 8 Super Deluxe or 9 I guess we’ll see. There’s also the anticipation that Metroid Prime 4 will also be on there, possibly at launch, and possibly even exclusive depending on if there’s any merit to recent developments regarding people who pre-ordered games that don’t even have any specific release date. As well there’s the proposition that Pokémon Legends Z-A will also be on Switch 2 but possibly also be a regular Switch game, and the inevitable launch of Generation 10 will most likely just be on the new system. We’ll just have to see if the increase in power does anything to help their overly ambitious games of the past few cycles.
And of course the cost will be a big deciding factor. Given the state of everything I don’t see it below $400 at launch, but going up to $500 would be riskier given that’s PS5 territory. However their focus competition might be more with the handheld PC market in general, and that would still be a somewhat competitive price there, given a glance at the usual costs for even the lower-end Steam Decks and ROG Allys (Allies?) and whatever else. And from what I’ve heard, the other console parties are also looking into that market, though it may end up being more streaming-focused, like the PlayStation Portal thing that I keep forgetting is a thing. They kept putting cloud-based games on the Switch as it was as what seemed like more of an experiment or concession on the work of actually porting things to lower specs, but I don’t think those were welcomed very much, so basing a whole system around that is probably more just wanting to push units for base cost at a lower loss if any to make all the money through subscriptions. However, given my experiences with cloud gaming, wired connections are a must at the moment, so handheld stuff there isn’t the best idea in my book.