Why There Won't Be A Half-Gen Upgrade For Nintendo Switch
I love my Switch, I think I touched people's lives with it, I played it with my siblings, my cousins, nephew and niece, and so on. It's the kind of device that can give anybody something to enjoy and is the last great thing that Iwata left us before his passing. It's difficult to see how Nintendo could tap that, right now.
But, nonetheless, people including me are expecting them to release their next generation system, especially considering that we're transitioning mostly towards the 9th gen now. The Switch is sadly anemic and can't even touch a lot of graphically demanding games.
And with a heavy heart, after taking some time to consider and deal with the bad news itself, Nintendo will not likely release a new system anytime soon. Nor, will they release a half-gen system too, I mean, they did that with the OLED one. But that's a base model refresh, there won't be a Switch Pro version, much akin to a PS4 Pro for PS4.
It's not that Nintendo doesn't want to, even if it's their best-selling system to date. The Steam Deck and other handhelds are absolutely pawning them with accessibility and processing power. Sony is even thinking of coming back to the handheld market.
I've used my Switch well for over 2 years now. But it doesn't play every game. And it is, to me, an expensive outdated hardware. And there are emulators that provide more options to tinker with the visuals. Nintendo could have released their own Switch Pro, but there are several reasons as to why I think they didn't.
The Storage Model Isn't Ideal
Before the Steam Deck, M.2 SSDs weren't the considered options. Instead, it was opted that SSD expansion storage was doable for the Switch. There are actually SD cards that were faster than the internal storage inside, but those require people to fork more money. Nonetheless, over 90% of games released today can run fine on a standard HDD.
So, why can't the Switch do just that? Well, most of the games, including Call of Duty, are spaced from 20GB to over 100. Plus, a lot of these games require faster storage drives to load up high-res textures. Standard HDDs In PCs run close to 200MB/s, whereas standard SD cards go for 50MB/s.
Imagine actually running a highly powerful Switch model, enough to run games at 1440p 60FPS even, and the storage unit runs slow as heck. There will be performance issues due to bottlenecks, just by having slow read speeds.
The 9th generation systems have ridiculously fast storage devices, with speed going upward of 7GB/s as it moved away from HDDs. Heck, even the 8th gen had the option of allowing people to use SSDs instead.
Most of the AAA games I played needed to run on SSDs to be played smoothly. Especially right now with games from Destiny 2 to Last of Us remake. The texture models that load need fast data buffers, at times concurrently during gameplay, too. That's why loading screens are less found in games nowadays.
Plus, SD cards are stupidly expensive and frail. They cost the same as M.2 SSDs, yet doesn't have the cache, features or high read/write bandwidth that those do. It's like treating it as this big mobile phone, but without having cellular.
No Multi-App Feature
I hate this one part, and maybe it might have nothing to do with this topic, but the convenience of running support apps or switching between games is not entirely feasible here. Every app, including YouTube, cannot run without closing off the game apps. No thanks to the slow CPU.
It's a portable device, has capacitive touch-screen, and with the support of third-party stylus, people could draw on it too. Like, say I wanted to do something different, but not close my game entirely. Like using a drawing app or browsing on the internet.
What would have even be nice, is game apps being allowed to be suspended while switching to other games. This is something the PS5 and XBS are currently doing. Which is also attributed to the fast storage device too. It would really help a lot if a portable device had this much of capability.
And speaking of apps, outside of games, there's nothing much else to do. Not even Discord, Netflix or Spotify. The Switch eShop is almost a desert place for applications, and lot of reasons stated above are why.
Battery Life Wouldn't Work
The battery on the switch isn't a strong component, nor does it last well either. For running every game, it maintains about 4hr run from full charge. OLED version might run longer, but the point still stands. To fully use hardware with better specs, the power requirements would have to go up.
This would also mean increasing the 4330mAh battery size and 20W power draw too. That would also mean changing the way the Switch's body is designed as well. Which really makes it more ideal to use a newer generation system instead, considering the fundamental changes that would be involved.
I am sure tech has come a long way to be energy efficient, but we're talking about a more powerful system running games at higher resolution and visual fidelity. Steam Deck consumes 30W and that one has a sizeable battery in it. Yet with 6hrs of life. It's a bigger boy than the Switch, too.
Changes In The Controller
Alright, I'll level with you on this. While I do really like the Joycon controllers, I don't think outside their unique design and features, they are as good as the other controllers. Definitely not as good as contemporary controllers from other platforms.
It doesn't have analog triggers, and the haptics are barely noticeable for intensive experiences, especially playing online. This has maybe little in relations to playing with better visuals, but consider that these days, better visuals also needed better immersion too. Like, 3D Audio and Dualsense 5's haptics. There's a lot of room to cover, especially around those areas, before the new system is out.
There are other factors as to why Nintendo isn't releasing an upgraded system too, the cost factor wouldn't make sense in today's market. Price for parts have gone up, and there's a lot to work on regarding the technology implementation on a lighter form factor.
If Nintendo can pull this off, they can come back even stronger on the gaming market. I will gladly pay the premium if needed to be. I just hope that the Switch is retired real soon. It's too old now. There are people I know that emulates them, rather than buying on Switch. Plus the game prices 😨.
But that'll happen definitely next year, maybe an announced around the end of this year for hype and end to all the speculations going on.
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Nintendo has always played the long game with their consoles. Like you said: The price for parts has gone up, so there is no reason for them to upgrade or release a new console when not a whole lot has changed in the industry. Nintendo doesn't aim to have 'The Best looking graphics' or 'Yearly Released title 6', they just seem to want a console platform fit exclusively for their games and licenses.
I think by now a person knows what they are getting when they buy a Nintendo device, from any console era, and that is a solid thought that Playstation and Xbox have trouble delivering.
Thank you for your analysis on the Switch and checking out if there are any reports of an upgrade. It'd be nice to have an upgraded version but if it hasn't been announced by now than it probably isn't going to happen.