The Nintendo Switch OLED - Why it is a Disappointment
By Xander Townsend | Misfit Media Editor
When it comes to Nintendo releasing consoles, they rarely miss the mark. There have been a few marketing choices that I personally have disagreed with but generally I am comfortable saying Nintendo provide the highest quality assurance with regards to games and consoles compared to companies like Sony (PlayStation) or Microsoft (Xbox). I also find the fact they invest in new and interesting consoles interesting and respectable, with some of their previous releases being some of the most underrated consoles of all time.
The current features accounted for the Nintendo Switch OLED include; a new 7-inch display (not 4k capacity), grey-white colour scheme, enhanced audio, and 64GB of storage compared to the original 32GB. The Nintendo Switch OLED release was a massive disappointment, here is why.
Unfounded screen prioritisation
There are many things you could do to improve the Nintendo Switch console. Why, out of all the options, did they choose to have such a hard focus on an increased screen quality. I understand a higher resolution screen or even a better quality screen in terms of colouration is a great selling point, but why did they bank everything including the consoles name on the screen update?
No hardware updates (limited capacity)
It is a well-known fact as a game developer that making a game for the Switch is an optimisation nightmare. You are practically developing a game for a mobile device. It has a completely limited and quite frankly impossible hardware capacity with rendering development of anything close to competing with AAA games impossible to develop. The one thing I would want from a new and improved switch console would be an increased hardware capacity and I am shocked they chose to ignore it.
Lack of expansion compared to original Nintendo Switch
If I am being honest, there aren't enough changes to the original switch to justify a completely new console release. I would understand if it had updated hardware capacity, 4k resolution or a better quality dock, but with the currently announced features for the Nintendo Switch OLED, I don’t understand how they arrived at a completely new console release.
There are many things I love Nintendo for whether it be their investment in stylised video games or their consistent optimisation and quality assurance, but this console release missed the mark. Similarly to the Wii U's release and the perception of it being an addition to a pre-existing console rather than a completely different console, Nintendo's choice to release another 'variant' console may hinder their sales more than help.