Gadgetory

something we've talked about a lot this year is the possibility of Nintendo releasing some new kind of switch now when we talked about this before it's mostly been the idea that maybe they're working on some kind of switch Pro with better graphics better battery life something that's just all-in-all more powerful but a lot of rumors lately and something a lot of people been discussing is that it actually looks like Nintendo might be working on something that's in the opposite direction a cheaper more affordable switch mini now before we get to whether or not this is a good idea let's break down what exactly a switch mini would entail and I think the leading logic we need to use here is that Nintendo would want to make something that is more affordable now of course making a smaller switch also just make something that's more portable but don't think that's really the lead goal I think the lead idea is to make something that's going to be lower in price tag for a lot of people because I think a big sales strengthen in Tendo has it in the past is making affordable system options like the DS line and even the original Wii so what would it take to make a cheaper switch something that's maybe in the 150 to 180 dollar region well of course making the smaller strives results in a smaller screen but I think they're all supposed to be the focus in the idea of making something that is overall weaker than a switch now I don't mean that they should make a system that is weaker not going to run games as well but instead they make a system that is only able to run games as we know them in portable mode there's a lot of power the switch isn't using when it's portable and it saves for when it's in dock mode so if they want to make a dedicated smaller handheld version certainly a way to cut down on cost is make something that's just strong enough to run what we normally see in portable mode another big change would of course be moving away from traditional wireless droid cons but instead just have traditional controls be part of the overall unit now of course you could still use other joy columns with this conceptual system if you bought some other ones or you already had a switch you could still use them with it but there were just already be once attached to the system that you're not having to pay extra to get wireless functionality or and that kind of stuff now the upside of this is once again makes it cheaper and it could afford them certain choices they can't get away with on joy cons like having a d-pad on this side the downside is if you don't end up buying any other droid cons or anything you do limit some of the control options in certain games a lot of them do rely on some motion controls it will also make sense for some like being able to aim a weapon using the tilting function on those system itself any game that requires more nuanced motion controls just wouldn't really work here these two major possible changes open up a lot of questions about what other kind of features could be added or removed from the system for instance like I said if the droid clones are permanently attached why not have a d-pad and if it's designed to be a smaller portable system it might be designed only for handheld mode in mind and therefore might not even have a kickstand which I'm kind of okay with the most interesting question though is what happens to the switches main feature its namesake the fact that it switches between portable and TV modes because so far while talking about this possible switch meaning we've really been thinking about in terms of just being a dedicated handheld but does it actually have to remove the ability to connect to a TV I mean obviously there would be certain limitations but the necessarily mean has to have the feature removed entirely you know the couple problems it could have are pretty obvious first off if it is a smaller switch in design it probably wouldn't be able to fit in current Nintendo switch docks after all if it's a smaller design everything's gonna be brought more in the sticks and buttons are gonna get in the way of course they could maybe just have a giant gap between the screen and controls but then that would just look bizarre and maybe not the best idea the other issue is once again if they weak in the system the word only really supports the quality and performance level that we see in handheld mode it's not gonna actually give us that TV mode performance which depending on the game is either not that big of a deal or absolutely awful the obvious issue there of course is that we're not going to get a very good resolution on a big-screen TV if you're taking something that is 720 and just upscaling it to a modern television it doesn't always look very pretty and not even all games achieve 720p resolution when in portable mode on the switch titles like xenoblade particles to would just look honestly terrible and this is a problem we've seen other companies experiment with for instance when PlayStation was messing around with the PS Vita one of the products that released was the PlayStation TV a very small console that would allow you to play your Vita games on a television at the exact same video quality though and you're seeing these games that look great on a Vita screen all of a sudden upscale large screen TV and it just doesn't translate at all and in the case of the switch resolution isn't the only problem there are some games that also just run at a worse framerate when in handheld mode and so if you're getting both at reduced resolution and worse framerate on a big-screen TV it kind of hurts at the same time though is it really the switch if it can't switch at all I mean is the name switch mini even appropriate should Nintendo come up with something else including such golden titles that have been suggested by people around here at the office as the stuck because it's only in portable mode or the new Nintendo DS doesn't switch and then there's another possible issue with a switch mini that I think Nintendo needs to figure out which is how they handle their account management now for a lot of people you're obviously either going to stick with your regular switch or maybe you picked the switch mini because you've been waiting for something that's a cheaper alternative or maybe you're getting it for a kid or something but there's going to be that small percentage of people who I think would be interested in the idea of owning a regular switch they keep docked and used as a home TV console and then maybe buy switch mini to have a more portable option when they're on the go the thing is with how Nintendo handles a cancel switch is right now you run into some problems when you do that see currently you can attach a single new to no account to multiple switches but only one switch can be the primary switch which opens up certain limitations on the other switches namely if you want to play a game that you own digitally you have to be connect to the Internet initially to be able to make sure that yes you own this game you can use it and in the case of something you want to share with family members only the primary account will allow other users to play games that you own digitally so in the potential situation that you own both a regular switch you use at home and you switch mini that you use on the go which of those would you actually want to have be the primary account because in the case of having it on the home TV great other people can use it and they can play whatever games you own digitally but in the case of the one you have on handheld you can't actually play any other digital games if there's no internet which kind of defeats the purpose of a portable system on the other hand if you have it be your primary account on the portable one well now only you can actually play games on your home switch unless other people are buying their own games separately but hey you're at least has all your games now there's also the issue of how fluid would be constantly switching between these two systems because if you want to make use of Nintendo's which cloud saves way you have to be a Nintendo switch online member which makes sense but then there's also the issue of how those saves are handled so you can have it automatically backup your saves on your primary account but on any other account you need to download or upload the saves manually so every single time you want to go from one switch to another you need to make sure you're on the right save file you have to back it up if you haven't already you might have to download it it just ends up throwing the rental thing it's kind of a similar issue that Sony has with PlayStation 4s but obviously you're not constantly switching between them because it's like different home units in this case it's actually on the go or at home despite these issues that I think Nintendo is going to need to address if this Nintendo switch Mini is real I do think the concept is a really really good idea and it's something that makes a lot of sense for a Nintendo now don't get me wrong a switch Pro also sounds really cool and that is something that I would make use of but at the end of the day I don't think that's the right call for Nintendo as far as actually tapping into a larger audience yes the switch has already been selling well and I'm sure there are those people out there that are saying I don't want to buy one yet until they make one that supports 4k or has smaller bezels or better battery life whatever yes all valid things that I think there are people out there that want but ultimately would result in a more expensive to produce system for a smaller number of people out there I think something that Nintendo is more interested in trying to recapture is kids sure the switch has probably already sold to a lot of different families but in a lot of cases is probably being treated as something that's used for the whole family people need to take turns it's something that's mainly just used on the TV so on so forth as opposed to something like the DS where for a hundred twenty bucks here's a small cheaper personal handheld that one kid can have and so if they made a smaller affordable switch that was sitting in that same price range that opens up a lot of potential sales they currently are not seen it also allows Nintendo to do things with a cheaper system that they are doing with a switch currently for instance color variety the Nintendo switch has a lot of different joy Kong color options and they do have different bundles for that but as far as the main switch body itself goes it is a basic plain black system even with special edition systems it's primarily just a black main body where it's the switch mini could tap into stuff they've traditionally done with the Game Boy in da sign where we see a whole bunch of different colors I mean imagine if all the joy come colors we have right now turned into full handheld systems that'd be really cool whether or not any of this is true we honestly don't know it's been a lot of rumors but Nintendo has been very very tight-lipped on it and it's kind of given the standard responsive like we have nothing to talk about regarding anything we're releasing this year now it's very possible that they just have no new system this year at all and we've all just been grasping at a bunch of straws but if they do have a new system in the works I think of mini is much more likely than a pro