When the original Switch came out almost eight years ago, hardly anyone realized they wanted console-quality gaming on the go. Turns out we did, and the Switch become Nintendo’s bestselling console. Five years after the Switch launched, Valve gave PC gamers a way to play those games anywhere with its Steam Deck gaming handheld. With the Switch 2 unveiled this week, it’s possible gamers could get it all in one package — if Nintendo allows it.
The Switch 2 could shape up to be the ultimate all-in-one portable gaming device. There is potential for it to play other console games and PC games while still being the only device that can play Nintendo games. The only roadblock is Nintendo’s insistence on keeping its ecosystem closed off and needlessly complicated.
It’s true, we don’t know much about the Switch 2, as it was only revealed on Thursday. However, there are some things we know for sure. The first is it will be more powerful than the original Nintendo Switch. By how much we don’t know, but if it’s close to the power of the Xbox Series S or Steam Deck, it can play practically any game on the market and likely every new game for either home console or PC for the next few years.
That would mean a big jump: The original Switch was on par with a PlayStation 3 when it came out in 2017, so it couldn’t handle many of the big-name, so-called “AAA” games that could be found on the Xbox, PlayStation or PC.
But it doesn’t end there. Thanks to the advancement of cloud streaming, the Switch 2 could also play a wealth of games from Day 1 without needing any developers to port their games over. You have Xbox Game Pass that allows subscribers to play Xbox games on their phones, tablets and other portable gaming devices by streaming via a browser. So there’s no need for an app, just access to a browser and that should be enough to play Xbox games on a Switch 2.
This is also the case for GeForce Now. It’s a streaming service to play PC games via the cloud, and it also works with a browser.
That means just by having an easily accessible browser, a Switch 2 owner could potentially be able to play hundreds of Xbox games with Game Pass and thousands of games with a GeForce Now subscription. That’s compounded with all the Switch games that are available through backward compatibility and all the future games for the Switch 2.
A potential library like this could easily give the Switch 2 one of the largest libraries available for a console, and it would include one thing that other consoles and portable gaming devices don’t have easy access to: Nintendo games.
This will only happen if Nintendo allows it, however, and the Mario maker doesn’t have a track record of making things easy for third parties to involve themselves in the company’s ecosystem. Nintendo just doesn’t want to make things easier if it requires the use of more than the bare minimum of technology — or poses a threat to its family-friendly reputation.
That’s why it has Switch Friends Codes, instead of just sending friend invites, and online voice chat only available through an app. Nintendo is also a company that’s very protective of its hardware, hence its constant litigation against developers of Switch emulators.
There is an extraordinary amount of potential with the Switch 2 that could allow Nintendo to dominate the entire gaming industry and not just consoles. But maybe Nintendo just doesn’t want to give up any control.
