Opinion: Switch is a handheld home console – and that comes at a price

Much furore has been had over the Nintendo Switch especially regarding it’s price, and it’s not hard to see why. Comparing the Switch as a home console, to other home consoles – Switch is more costly than any of it’s competition (PlayStation 4 Pro notwithstanding) and offers less raw power for this price. I’d argue that this point of view isn’t the best way to judge this machine’s value though. Switch is a handheld first, console second, and it’s price reflects this.

Everything about Switch is built around portability. The technology inside comes from a collaboration with Nvidia’s mobile division and eschews the typical PC-like specifications of rival machines for a setup similar to a tablet. Compared to typical console hardware, Switch is relatively bleeding edge technology.

Rather than take mid range, affordable existing hardware and package it nicely into a budget friendly box like rival consoles, the Switch focuses on mobility first and power second. Everything you do on a Switch must be possible in a portable form factor. While you can dock the machine for output to a television, there is no extra hardware available when doing so aside from the promise of consistent power. You can’t have a portable system with the graphical capabilities of the Switch and fairly compare it to regular consoles. It would be fairer to compare to a tablet like an iPad mini, as it’s hardware bears more similarity.

Not that you could really be blamed for thinking of the Switch as a console first, Nintendo sure seemed to push this angle during their presentations and in their general marketing. I suspect this is in an effort not to seem like they’re replacing the still successful Nintendo 3DS line but everything from Nintendo’s continuing support of the 3DS (and a complete lack of scheduled game releases after Zelda for the Wii U) give an impression that the Switch will take the Wii U’s place as a home console while the 3DS sticks around as a handheld.  I strongly suspect this will not be the case in the long term, and it seems to have coloured people’s expectations of the Switch in an unfavourable way.

Looking at the Switch as a console first simply belies what the machine actually is. It could be argued that some people will use it mostly as a TV connected console, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is a piece of mobile hardware that can optionally connect to a television. Looking from this perspective, the price becomes more reasonable for what you get. Yes, you could argue that an iPad mini is similarly priced and more capable as a general computing device, but you can’t deny that the hardware is of similar calibre. Really, the Switch seems to be the answer to something often complained about when it comes to mobile gaming. So often a mobile game is described as “Great, but touch controls suck.”. Switch gives you powerful mobile hardware like a tablet but with a clear focus on games and traditional input methods so more traditional and in-depth game genres are possible.

Maybe my personal bias is showing here, but Switch is everything I have wanted out of portable game machines for years. It’s powerful, has traditional buttons so I can play the kinds of games I enjoy, and I can quickly and easily connect it to a television to enjoy those same games on a big screen. Sony have tried this idea a few times but never quite succeeded. The PSP Go could connect to a TV through Component cables, and be connected to a Dual Shock 3 controller to play PSP games comfortably on a television, but the PSP Go was hampered by myriad issues that saw it never gain traction in the market, and this method was clunky at best.

They tried again with the Vita and games allowing for Cross-save between Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 but in reality the act of uploading and downloading saves manually was a tedious workaround prone to error. Switch solves this issue by eliminating the second platform. It is both the handheld and the TV console. You never have to buy two different versions of a game, or extra cables to connect to the TV, and you don’t even have to think about managing save data between two platforms.

There’s no getting around the fact that the Nintendo Switch costs a lot of money. If you’re just looking for a machine to play new release video games for the least amount of money, the Switch isn’t going to be your best option. The Switch is a game system that is as much at home connected to a television as it is in the back seat on a road trip. It doesn’t have the raw power of a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but it’s ability to be used away from a TV and a power source are how the system differentiates itself from the competition.

Having a game console that can act as both handheld or TV connected console, and not be hampered in either configuration is something none of Nintendo’s competition can offer. You lose nothing by choosing to play a Switch game away from a television. Right now, this much power in this flexible a machine costs a lot of money and that’s impossible to ignore, but it’s portability is exactly the aspect that makes this system what it is, and ignoring that in comparisons is in a lot of ways missing the point.