NintendObs Thinks: What really is the point of Nintendo Switch OLED.
Scripting the new console strategy Nintendo will be rolling out for the foreseeable future.
There is a core reason why the launch of Nintendo Switch was so dramatically different, not to mention the unprecedented scale of its marketing, than all the other console launches from Nintendo before it. With every one of their platforms, for better or worse, Nintendo would always disregard their competition, and in recent history would downplay the achievements and contributions that Sony and Microsoft have indeed brought to the world of console gaming. With Nintendo Switch, for the first time ever and all the way down to the name of the hardware, Nintendo acknowledged the successes of PlayStation and Xbox’s then-current-generation platforms and explicitly made the case for players to just switch to Nintendo’s proposition after taking into account those of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
For the first time, Nintendo was playing this console wars game with the recognition that there are other systems in the arena, and that instead of this fact being something to ignore in order to focus on their own vision, this multiplatform reality had to become worth considering and including in the design of their console and that of its promotional campaign. Nintendo recognized that in 2017, the framework of power defined by 2013’s PlayStation 4 developed into the way to go, so they took it as a base to produce something of similar capabilities that not only could be portable and fit inside the pockets of a winter coat, but could also be sold at that sweet and now vindicated pricepoint of 299.99 only Nintendo could suggest for their full package.
This understanding lead to Nintendo dropping the right platform at the right time with Nintendo Switch, and bears its share of responsibility for the ongoing success of Nintendo’s console. They waited for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to be widely adopted. Then once every developer (who may or may not have received incentives to do so) became used to their degree of fidelity so much that it would even be more cumbersome for them to return to prior graphical processes, that’s when Nintendo brought their offer into the mix and diverted all of that anticipation and consumer spending to Nintendo Switch, at the critical period when its competitors were to enter the second half of their own lifecycles. That’s why, as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will take the time and the funds they require to reiterate this same situation, Nintendo has concocted the exact platform they now need to stall in the meantime with Nintendo Switch — OLED Model.