It's getting dangerously close to time for a hardware revision announcement. Any predictions on if this will take place at E3, before or later. What do you think a hardware revision might, should or probably will end up looking like?
About a month ago, there was evidence of a potential Switch revision in firmware update 5.0 including references to a Tegra model number Nvidia currently does not use, a new PCB (printed circuit board), and double the RAM (from 4 GB to 8 GB). A more powerful revision is one route Nintendo could go. Stranger things have happened. This is, after all, the same Nintendo that released New 2DS last year.
3DS got the XL a little over a year after launch so it wouldn’t be surprising to get a Switch revision this year. Tatsumi Kimishima recently told investors:
Given that Nintendo Switch is a home gaming system that can be taken on the go, this situation may change if it grows from being a one-per-household system to a one-per-person system. But the price of Nintendo Switch is not something with which most parents would buy a system for every one of their children in a short period of time. Moving forward, we will work to ascertain what kinds of play people want at which price points, and as long as there is such demand, we will continue to sell the Nintendo 3DS system. I see the product coexisting with Nintendo Switch at this point in time.
The plan seems to keep the 3DS line around as an affordable alternative. That said, for Switch, I think Nintendo should aim down and get Switch’s MSRP as low as possible as soon as possible.
How? I’ve heard people toss around the idea of a portable-only Switch, but then, it can’t “switch” anymore, taking away hardware’s main gimmick. To me, what makes the most sense for Nintendo’s purposes is
Lite Switch (get it?): a self-contained unit (maybe with a smaller screen?) with its own controls, compatible with but sold without Joy-Cons and the dock. Nintendo can sell that for less than $200, and it gets the company closer to the one-per-person system goal while also allowing it to let 3DS go.