Key partners have development kits ahead of a planned launch…
From article:
According to multiple people with knowledge of Nintendo’s next-gen console plans, the company is likely to release new hardware during the second half of 2024, to ensure that it has ample stock available on day one and to avoid the kind of shortages seen with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Although specific details on the console are being kept closely guarded, those VGC spoke to indicated that the next-gen console would be able to be used in portable mode, similar to the Nintendo Switch.
Two sources VGC spoke to suggested that the console could launch with an LCD screen, instead of the more premium OLED, in order to bring down costs, especially considering the increased storage needed for higher fidelity games. The current Switch comes with just 32GB of internal memory, while many current-gen PlayStation and Xbox games are over 100GB.
This is exciting of course, but alas, I haven't touched my switch since I got a steam deck. There's a few Nintendo games I would want to play but I'm not sure I'll buy a new console for them.
Pikmin 4 just dropped. Super fun! I don't know where else you'd play that. I haven't even had time to touch LOZ TOTK, but that's life stuff. There's plenty to play on Switch. And there's reason to play on the lighter package as well.
Right. But that argument assumes you just don't want to spend money. I didn't assume that. It's weird you'd go out of your way not to support those that make the games, and be proud of that.
Because it's a mobile console with 10 year old hardware? Of course a new desktop PC is going to have better graphics than a very old mobile console, even talking about integrated graphics, because the Tegra X1 has integrated graphics as well.
It was underpowered when the Switch released, yes, but I'd wager that it was a good choice for the application when Nintendo started designing the Switch.
Couple that with the (not unreasonable IMO) expectation that there would be successors to the X1 that they could hypothetically put into the Switch and release a higher-perf revision with minimal changes, I can see why they chose it. Unfortunately, Nvidia dropped the X1 line and that (again, purely speculative) scenario never manifested.