Why did Nintendo make their flagship console an underpowered handheld?

Because after the Gamecube's unfortunate failure Nintendo doesn't trust a retread of the basic, but competent hardware + Nintendo first party formula. The Switch secured the WiiU, 3DS, and Vita market automatically and is good enough, unlike the WiiU, to pull in PC/PS/XBOX owners looking for secondary hardware.

boy there sure are a lot of those threads tonight, what a weird coincidence haha

This. There are some Switch games that look absolutely goregeous. Mario Kart 8 is a good example, probably the best looking game I've played this decade.

Also, will Nintendo ever make a full N64 library port and/or a unibody smaller version?

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Already sold 35 million, not too shabby.

Why did OP make his flagship thread a consolewar shitpost?

good graphics haven't bring a good game in like 2 console generations now, who cares, graphics are good enough

>t-they don’t need it! I-in fact, I love inferior hardware!
Cope

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why did it already outsell the ps4 for lifetimes sales in japan?

why are there always 2-3 different people seething at the switch threads in the catalog at all times of the day?

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>Good posts
>On Yea Forums
Well I'll be damned, we CAN do better

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Because:
1. All consoles are underpowered, especially Nintendo ones. You might as well stop spending money trying to make a powerful machine and spend it on other features/gimmicks.
2. Nintendo already dominated the handheld market so you might as well go all in.
Why are you asking questions you already know the answer to?

Because they know it will sell anyway obviously.

>gb outsold snes
>gbc outsold n64
>gba outsold gcn
>ds outsold wii
>3ds outsold wii u
As much as I would've preferred a powerful home console, it's fairly obvious why they're focusing on the handheld audience.

I’ll bite. Underpowered by what benchmark?

Saying Nintendo isn't as rich as sony is like saying Notch isn't as rich as Bill Gates.
It's true but they're all billionaires anyway

This, at this point even the worst modern graphics still look amazing to me. I grew up with 16 bit graphics, 2 buttons and a D-pad, no backlit screens and literal BATTERIES you had to change out every few hours.
Fuck you, you spoiled motherfuckers, games are fantastic right now and you don't even know It

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This.

Not that user. You're right it is true but Nintendo doesn't have the captial to sell hardware at a loss to the degree Microsoft and Sony can.

This also.
Microsoft and Sony are literal tech conglomerates, they have multiple sources of income. Selling their consoles at a slight loss will not bankrupt them.
Nintendo can't do that. The game market is their ONLY source of income.

Anything stronger than an iphone LOL

Oh wait fuck that didn't say what I thought it said no fuck you dumbass. 4K 120fps or gtfo.

Shitch with shit graphics sucks!!!

>underpowered handheld
But it's the most powerful handheld on the market.

Then they should go third party. Oh wait, they have an army of fanboys willing to buy their overpriced tablets to extort, never mind!

why would you want them to go third party? Is it because you are pathetic fanboy for one of the other console makers?

im not a fan of extortion

A lot of it has to do with Nintendo's own internal resources.
Nintendo doesn't really have a diverse portfolio of revenue sources. So they can't really tank the cost of R&D like Sony or Microsoft can. They aren't as big as Sony (as a whole) or Microsoft, so they don't have the same negotiating weight when it comes to getting more powerful pieces of hardware to play around with, resulting in them having to build consoles with tech that's usually a generation or two behind the current top-line since that's all they can get their hands on at reasonable prices.
There are other factors at play, like how Nintendo makes games for Japan as the primary market, and Japanese people love handhelds a ton still.
There's also something to be said for what Nintendo's internal resources would gain from pushing hardware capabilities since cartoonish aesthetics don't gain the same dividends as realistic or detail-laden ones do from a big push in graphical capabilities

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Because nobody bought GameCubes

>ugh nintendo game suck i wish they'd go third party

Because it's ok when shitendo does it

Makes me sad to this day how poorly the GameCube sold.
Definitely the best console I've ever owned. It's such a good console.

Where in his post did he say Nintendo games suck? I agree with him. I fucking love Nintendo games. Having to use their shitty hardware is a drawback

This is the only correct answer. Any other answers are just snoycucks or nintendies falseflagging.

FUCK Skub

I don't think there's a lot for Nintendo to gain in the long-term from going third party.
A big benefit for Nintendo is that they can find ways to section off a portion of the market to look at their games in a different way compared to competitors.
When mainstream audiences look at big tentpole title games, they will usually look to graphical capability and maybe some technology demos. They'll also be very easily swayed by persistent advertising campaigns.
The benefit of Nintendo's console presence is it convinces many consumers to look at their games outside of these criteria, allowing them to produce games with more modest development budgets and MUCH more modest advertising budgets while making a profit comparable to AAA game sales

Allow me to introduce you to the Game Boy, it was always underpowered compared to its competition, but it outsold and outlived them all thanks to its game library.

TL;DR: The most powerful console very rarely wins.

It’s not about winning

I wish they would so they'd spare the wallets of battered and abused nintendo fans. I have enough money to be an idort.

It's about fun!

What handhelds was nintendo competing with? It's not a coincidence that the demand for handhelds plummeted with the age of smartphones.

Yes it is, if it wasn't we wouldn't be having this discussion.

As long as there is a serious handheld market Nintendo will sell hardware. If the handheld market totally collapsed than Nintendo might go third party but for now they are undisputed masters of that sphere and have found away to maintain a good foothold with the home console only market.

We all thought that too, turns out people still bought Nintendo handhelds despite smartphones, and I said Game Boy, not DS or 3DS.

>Game library

No, it won because the other handled were chewing the batteries like candies

They are competing with smartphones. It’s handhelds with actually games vs gachagarbage that the chinese play.

Aside from games
What is the difference between xbox, pc and PS?
Nintendo is the only one that understands that computing power =/= fun.
N64 - 4 player multiplayer
GCN - Did the same thing competitors did
Wii - motion detection
WiiU - Touch screen on console
Switch - Mobile gaming

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What worthwhile games were released on non nintendo handhelds during the gameboy’s original run?

>inattentive
>namefag
>videophile elitist
Yup, checks out

70 million 3DS sales compared to the 140 million DS sales. It's undeniable. Gameboy was popular because there was literally nothing else at the time to compare besides maybe tamagotchi

It's one handheld entertainment vs the other. It doesn't matter if one has better games or not. I don't need a 60-hour AAA game to entertain me in my trip to the dentist, my phone will suffice. Handhelds are 100% going extinct and there's nothing Nintendo can do about it.

>Mobile gaming
Bring back streetpass you fucking cowards, nintendo

oh, it's a handheld now? then Nintendofriends and Snoys should stop bragging and comparing unit sales then

It's cold here and I like playing games in bed, and being able to comfortably lie down as opposed to the lap-gymnastics of a laptop when prone is selling point for me, even ignoring first party exclusives.

I unironically and wholeheartedly agree. Console wars are cancer, buy both consoles and just have fun

Handheld gaming is still a thing, largely because of the better gaming experience and to a lesser degree because of the stable of handheld franchises. That reduction in the market is from normies opting to load their kids smartphones with games as opposed to buying them a handheld like they used to. Even still the Switch still has plenty of child users who use it as a handheld platform. The demographics could change in 20 years and the market might dry up for Nintendo but for the foreseeable future they have a pretty strong userbase to market to.

Games weren't really the issue. The Game Gear had some real fun games but that fucker was portable in name only despite being technical superior. I watched some old Nintendo training videos for the NA market once for the fuck of it. Their whole position on the Game Gear boiled down to side stepping its technical superiority and library by hammering on the point your kid needed a fuck load of batteries to keep it going and taking it anywhere was a pain. Shit worked obviously.

One reason is beccause Japan LOVES portable gaming. In fact they love it more than main standard consoles. And another thing? Nintendo is the only company that can SURVIVE doing this kind of stunt by making a semi-handheld hybrid. After all their platform is the only place where you can find Pokemon, Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda and new popular series like Splatoon. Not only that, but because of the decision to make the Switch a handheld of sorts former handheld Nintendo series like Fire Emblem are now by default upgraded to be placed in there giving even more options to gamers. Nintendo has the properties needed to survive given you will not see them anywhere else. And that pulls in customers. And with new games like Animal Crossing, the first MAIN Pokemon game for a "console", and Fire Emblem Three Houses? Nintendo is firing on all cylinders and the Switch is going to simply make a complete KILLING of profit especially because Switch games are cheaper to make than a PS4 game. Along the way you get sprinkled new games like Bayonetta 3 and Astral Chain. So basically Nintendo has their own allure and there you go.

You actually think gambling sims and p2w shovelware like candy crush or clash of clans in any way stand up to the games released on ANY handheld game system? Let alone the switch? The only thing smartphones have going for them is internet.

To a lot of people better quality games with a better quality experience does matter. Again this isn't immutable, demographics change but there are still millions of people who want a dedicated handheld platform.

ever heard of the 3ds ya dumbass? that shit sold like the cure to aids, no shit nintendo is just gonna release a slightly more powerful handheld. it was a genius business decision.

plus nintendo knows they dont need to make powerful consoles because niggas will always buy mario games....

Fare enough, but I’d still like you to name good game gear games.

>fun

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>Their whole position on the Game Gear boiled down to side stepping its technical superiority and library
>and library
>Games weren't really the issue
You just completely side stepped that user’s question about what games were worth it on anything non-Nintendo while still implying that the Game Boy had an inferior library, yet “games don’t matter?” Which is it? Every single handheld at the time could have come with a living AI friend for Timmy and a blowjob for his dad, but the reason the Game Boy won in spite of its “limitations” was BECAUSE of its great library.

To be fair now, MAIN Mario games are worth a play. It's "New" Super Mario Bros who are soulless trash.

I thought PiiU being shit and the honeymoon period with the Wii wearing off meant Nintendo would go back to normal consoles but of course not, they would easily dominate if they had a normal ass console that could also do third party like Xbox and PS4 except they would have the exclusives to back up the console and not have to do massive downgrades for third party

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last time they tried to make their console the most powerful of the market, it flopped hardly

compared to cell phones

lmao last time they made the most powerful console on the market they made the snes

>sega
>atari
fucking nintendo will shut down if it becomes third-party LMAO

It's not underpowered for a handheld. They also had to make it affordable, of course phones that are more expensive are going to be more powerful.

they're capable of making somewhat adequate games, I doubt they'd suffer the same fate as sega

>they would easily dominate if they had a normal ass console that could also do third party like Xbox and PS4
it's funny that you think this

imagine what they could make with good hardware if they can make it work on shit. thats the point, as well as third party support skipping them

Shining Force, Streets of Rage, Sonic, Prince of Persia. There are more but those were my favorites. Also not sure how you got I implied that the Game Boy had an inferior library. It had a stellar library

Interesting. I’ll check them out if I can.

See

Fuck off cuckmann

It's hybrid, but we were talking about the handheld part since OP specifically asked about it.

It's true, it's not like Sony or Microsoft now have any exclusives that could compete with Nintendo. Add third party and they pretty much won, but instead they are gonna miss out on most third party cause it runs like shit on the switch and PS4 is still the go to for multiplat on console

I mean, yeah. Technically they don't. They're making money hand over fist without having to take losses. Why would they need it, to satisfy some phoneposting nerd on Yea Forums?