Forums > Modern Gaming > What d'ya mean the Switch isn't next gen?

It seems to be that while some techheads are busily being disappointed by resolution, framerate and other particulars, The Rest of Us gamers are quite happily enjoying the Switch for its stand out qualities.

I'm sure Jason could have his word about this, as he's had much more experience with the Switch than I, but I've had a few interesting thoughts of my own on the matter. Of course it's an open invitation to say why you like the idea, or don't, of what the Switch offers. Totally open discussion.

Please limit judgements to light-hearted humour, but then... I'm not aware there's any other kind around here.

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Basically the Switch was an answer to the marketing addage: "Find a need and fill it." With so many mobile gamers in Asian markets, how much sense does it make for Nintendo to try and provide to players who subsist on games dependent upon Gatcha, MMO and the flexibility of less than rigorous curation?

Also, the stunning realization of the reason for Nintendo's tactic of shipping the Switch like packaged bread to retailers at launch. They cleverly let us define what owning the Switch would mean to us. It's not a "Mario" or "Motion" system, locked down by the perception of its pack in title.

Graphical fidelity is not a non-issue for Nintendo just because they're willing to allow games that sub-par the resolution expectations of modern gamers. The entire industry knows that experience is king, the only question is what experience?

Sony and Microsoft have invested heavily in the Destiny of High Resolution Gaming, and are locked in while Nintendo can casually roll out a Nintendo Switch+ that improves battery life and baseline performance without kicking owners of the first iteration out of the park. All the while, computing performance continues to eclipse the past. So, what will they do?

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For your consideration.

Look, the only time I'm not wrong is when I'm right, so...

A console "generation" just means that it's the next set of systems the various console producers made available to the marketplace. In the old days, that often meant higher specs would come along, particularly since we were looking at jumps from systems like the Atari 2600 to the NES to the SNES and so forth. But now that we're at the current state, even the Switch can do about as much as developers need to make games look amazing. A huge technical improvement was never part of the definition, and a system can be "next-gen" without putting everything that came before to technical shame.

In some respects, Switch does more to justify its existence than something like the Xbox One, because it offers new experiences and ways to play and has people excited about games all over again. The thing about Switch for me is that it offers so many, many ways to play. If Nintendo eventually decides just to make a Switch 2 or whatever that has better horsepower and battery life but otherwise is almost completely unchanged... I'd be all for it. But I'm not worried about that yet. Right now, I'm too busy enjoying great games.

And here's something to remember: a lot of developers, even on the PC side, don't need all that extra horsepower and don't use it. With the rise of the indie game, technical specs are less and less important all the time. You still need the most hardware can allow to keep pushing Call of Duty and Madden forward, but beyond a few established AAA franchises, most developers can hardly afford to justify the more powerful hardware.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2