A reader hopes that Nintendo will make a Switch 2 Pro device as the opposite to the Switch Lite, with better graphics and no portability.
The reveal of what seems to be a Nintendo horror game this week, was one of the more intriguingly odd stories of recent months. As I write this, nobody is sure what it is or who is making it, but judging by the age rating information it definitely is a horror game of some sort and Nintendo themselves seem to be publishing it.
This is a very strange thing for Nintendo to do, even for a company that owes its entire success to doing strange things. But it does raise the prospect of Nintendo making more adult-orientated games and I would certainly encourage that. Not at the expense of their traditional games but in addition to them. I’d like nothing better than serious, or at least more serious and/or violent, games that maintained Nintendo’s famous level of quality.
But what I’d really like them to do is make a version of the Switch 2 that is not portable and dedicated to high-end graphics. As much as I’m interested in what they’d do with a shooter or a horror game what I’d really love is for a Zelda game, and all their other series, to have state-of-the-art graphics.
The Switch’s Zelda games are fantastic, obviously, but I can’t help seeing open world games on other consoles, like Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost Of Tsushima, and wishing that Zelda looked like them. Its graphics are the best in show so why shouldn’t its graphics be as well?
They do what they can on Switch but it’s an underpowered hybrid console, so there are clear limits, and even a modest increase, as you’d assume the Switch 2 would be getting, would be difficult. So, what I’d love to see is a deluxe version, a Switch 2 Pro if you will, that was the opposite of the Switch Lite: it’d not be portable, it’d be more expensive, and it’d be more powerful.
Nintendo want to keep costs down for the Switch 2 and I get that. It’s a mainstream console, that they want to make tempting even for casual gamers. But given they’re so well off at the moment, why not invest the money needed to make an alternative hardcore machine for older fans?
My understanding is that the PS4 Pro was only around 10% of PlayStation console sales, so these things don’t have to sell billions to be profitable (it must have been profitable or Sony wouldn’t be about to announce a PS5 Pro). Make it an expensive luxury that people know what they’re getting into it for and I’m sure there’d be plenty queuing up to buy one.
The problem is backwards compatibility with the normal Switch 2, and I don’t know what to say about that, especially as we don’t know how powerful the standard model will be yet. But there’s a huge range of performance and graphics options on PC, so I don’t see why it couldn’t be similar on console.
I’d also be happy if some games were Switch 2 Pro exclusives. Maybe that could be the more adult-orientated ones, as Nintendo could assume the high price point was another means of keeping kids away.
I feel that since PlayStation and Xbox have dropped the ball this generation that Nintendo needs to show more leadership of the games industry, including expanding into areas they don’t usually deal with. They don’t have to, it’s not their fault the other two have messed up, but I’d like to see them do it, just because they seem much more level-headed and committed to gaming as a concept, rather than just as a means to make money.
I doubt they’ll do anything I’ve just outlined but then maybe that’s for the best. Never doing what other people think or ask has been the bedrock of their success over the years and they’re probably right not to change.
By reader Gifford
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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