Age of the Geek

By: 
Travis Fischer

Switching it up
     After literally years of speculation, Nintendo finally released the first solid details of their next-generation system, the Nintendo Switch.
     Previously known under it's development name, the NX, the rumor mill surrounding Nintendo's next system has been churning for years. Strangely enough, the rumors were pretty much all correct, starting with the new console's defining gimmick.
     The Nintendo Switch isn't just a home console, but a console/handheld hybrid. The main unit of the device is really just a portable LCD screen with some heavy duty hardware inside. You can set the main unit into a dock which transfers the main screen to your television, or you can snap on a controller accessory to each side and use it as a portable gaming device.
     The rumor that Nintendo's next system would be a hybrid always seemed outlandish. Nintendo has maintained a very profitable grip on the handheld market for decades. Why compete with yourself in an area you already dominate?
     But the rumor continued to persist, The more time passed, the more believable it became, if only because this is exactly the sort of decision Nintendo would make.
     It's never enough for them to just make a system that plays games. For ten years now they've had to be different. The Nintendo Wii had its motion controls. The Wii-U had its tablet controller.
     Now we have the Switch which, to be fair, is as close to a traditional console that Nintendo has made in the last decade. In theory, you could never remove the system from its dock and it would effectively function identically to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. However, performance is another matter.
     Once again, Nintendo remains behind the curve when it comes to graphical prowess. In a best case scenario, the Nintendo Switch will be almost as powerful as the three year old Xbox One, while still costing as much, if not more, due to the expensive LCD screen attached to it. That's a hard sell for anybody that isn't enamored by the novelty of playing home based video games on the go.
     Another seemingly unlikely rumor that ended up being true was that the new system will be cartridge based rather than disk based. This is a bold move for Nintendo considering their history with the format. In the mid-90s, when Sony entered the gaming market with the CD based PlayStation, Nintendo steadfastly held to their tradition of cartridge based games.
     Because CDs could store more data while still being produced at a fraction of the cost of cartridges, Sony's PlayStation was a much less risky choice for developers to make games for. Nintendo did eventually switch to a disk based system in 2001 with the Nintendo GameCube, but by then the damage had been done.
     The decision to stick with cartridges in 1996 was one of the turning points that lead to Nintendo's fall as the top dog in the industry. But times have changed. Solid state media has come a long way in the last two decades.
     And, of course, cartridges come with advantages of their own. Where disk-based systems require power consuming moving parts, and fans to cool those moving parts, cartridges use less space, less power, and are less prone to damage during everyday use.
     I've long ago stopped trying to predict whether or not Nintendo's latest scheme will wildly succeed or backfire spectacularly. I think there's little chance that their next system sees any more success than their last one, but who knows. This could be the one that catches lightning in a bottle again and takes the world by storm.
     I'll get one either way. I already have a PC for mainstream gaming, so all I really need from Nintendo is my Mario and Zelda fix. That's enough.
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and has a PC that does what Nintendon't.

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