Opinion: Nintendo only needs Nintendo
The Nintendo Switch turns two years old this season, and what is most startling about this anniversary is how little it’s changed in the meantime.
In some ways, the Switch currently sits at a different gaming arena compared to when it found in 2017.
Nintendo is Regarded as a haven for quality indie games (‘Nindies’, as they’re warmly referred to) while competing consoles from Sony and Microsoft, which for so long’ve focused on creating a fully-fledged multimedia entertainment system for the home, are cottoning on to the necessity to reevaluate that heart experience of matches consoles and matches.
You can see this issue in Sony’s weakening immunity to cross-play between different gaming platforms, or Microsoft’s established acquisition of growth studios to ensure more first-party titles.
There’s Now a glut of players and streaming devices available for your living room, while our smartphones can play and stream nearly anything consoles can do outside from demanding AAA matches — and even even that’s changing. Anyone buying a console in 2019 is doing this for the games themselves, not its ability to perform Netflix or even Spotify.
By Contrast, the Nintendo Switch has turned into a constant, gradually expanding its library of games, but being exceptionally cautious to not mess with its winning formula: fun, interactive names which live around Nintendo’s quality standards. But sticking to your guns will always draw fire for not following mainstream wisdom.
Things to expect from the brand new Nintendo Switch version this season
Is that it?
When the Switch first started in 2017, much of the criticism around the console based around what it could not do. The Change was a’Zelda machine’ with just one AAA match at launch — how many was it meant to have, nobody can inform — and didn’t have a fully-fledged online support. It seemed like a tablet, but couldn’t do anything of the things a tablet computer could do — such as run Netflix, YouTube, or desktop apps.
Nintendo has made some small concessions in this direction, firstly with a video program for US streaming website Hulu. The deficiency of additional mainstream streaming services might seem odd (though an exclusivity contract with Hulu appears likely). YouTube made sense also, to get a console centered on teenagers fixated on the Google-owned movie stage.
An abrupt expansion of the Switch’s abilities has also come in the kind of comic e-readers. The Inkypen program Started on Switch back in late 2018, with the similar and possibly unnecessary inclusion of Izeno that February. Both are comic book readers that are devoted to indie and global publications, offering a vast range of content but missing a few key areas for comic books lovers — DC and Marvel, anybody?
It’s hard to say with confidence why Nintendo could not or would not bring Amazon’s more recognized Comixology support Into the console instead. However, the pattern emerging is of a publisher unwilling to let third-party software overpower the experience of owning a Nintendo Switch console.
The slow trickle of NES titles to the Nintendo Switch Online Support — two or three a month — reveals an unwillingness to distract in the newly-released names hitting the ceremony, or give you everything in one go.
If Nintendomobile console Becomes best-known for seeing Netflix series or studying the hottest Batman Metal comics — rather than playing with Zelda, Mario or Metroid — it’s not servicing the key use of the Switch as a games machine. While this may frustrate players utilized to all their devices behind the very same platforms, it also permits the Switch to keep some individuality — and not compete directly with the tablet or standard home console market.
The release of Nintendo Labo kits reveals a company willing to experiment with the kinds of play on offer, as do the rumors of VR capability for the Switch Down the line. And I’d assert Nintendo is innovating in the ideal locations, instead of creating the Switch’s homescreen look like each other smartphone, tabletcomputer, or smart display available on the market. Do we actually want a complete roster of Android or iOS apps for the console?
I’m Not saying I wouldn’t like to see that little Netflix icon appear in my Switch’s home screen one day. But if Nintendo refused to give it to me personally, It would probably be a better way to keep me playing.
