The Nintendo Switch Is Whatever You Make It

So, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime had to come out today and explain what the Nintendo Switch is. 

"At its heart, [Switch is] a home console that you can take with you on the go."

Or, could it be that the Switch, at its heart, is a handheld that you can dock to your TV?  See, it depends on what you want it to be.  Because it's a hybrid, you can bend it both ways.  If you play it mostly at home, it's a console.  If you play it mostly on the go, it's a handheld.  I think Reggie's further causing confusion by trying to assign the Switch's identity.  It kind of defeats the purpose of being a hybrid when you're trying to tell people what it really is.

If someone put a gun to my head and told me to make a call, however, I see it more as a handheld that seamlessly docks to the TV.  Why? Because it's an extremely weak console in comparison to the PS4 and Xbox One, and barely a step above the Wii U. It kicks the crap out of anything in the handheld market, though.  This is why I see it more as a handheld than a console.  Reggie and Co., however, are trying to assert to console gamers that the Switch has their best interests in mind, but they also don't want to dissuade  3DS gamers into thinking that the Switch is the 3DS's successor.  I feel it is.

I feel it's the successor to both the Wii U and the 3DS.  It's the successor to the Wii U because, according to Reggie, it's a console at heart.  It's the successor to the 3DS because with all its power as a handheld, Nintendo has no need to make a new one.  What point is there to make a more powerful handheld when an undocked Switch serves that very purpose? Reggie states that they'll continue to have a console and handheld market because of different price points, but I don't believe that.  The price for Nintendo handhelds have been going up since the original Game Boy. The current iteration handheld, the Nintendo 3DS, is going upwards of 200 dollars, well over 300 dollars for out of print special editions.  People are willing to pay two to three hundred dollars for a 3DS... If you have 300 dollars, might as well buy a switch... Now you don't need to buy a Nintendo console, because you already have one.

This should be painfully obvious to anyone who doesn't need a corporate figurehead spelling it out for them. The future of Nintendo's console and handheld market will be merging into one. This is how Nintendo will operate from now on.  Their new market will be hybrid gaming, meaning that if you're a console gamer or a handheld gamer, whatever Nintendo game they release, they will have you covered with just one version.  The Switch facilitates that, and it's not what Reggie says that defines it; it's how you use it. Always at home? Switch is a console.  Always on the go? It's a handheld.  Do both? It's a hybrid.

It irks me that Nintendo is screwing up on the market front again.  They did this with the Wii U, trying to tell people what the damn thing actually was.  They're doing this right now with the Switch!  Tell your consumers it doesn't have to fit in a box!  It's whatever you want it to be.  I mean, hell, the bloody name of the machine is "Switch".  You can "switch" between whatever you want.  Please Reggie, do something you haven't done for your consumer base in a long while... give them some credit.