The Nintendo Switch’s poor performance is as enduring as the console itself. Grainy, stuttering graphics are synonymous with playing games on the 2017 system, which has not received a specification upgrade to improve the look and performance of games. And in the more than five years since the Switch was released, comments about disappointing visuals have been a fixture in our reviews of the console’s best games.
The Switch’s hardware is pulling in the opposite direction to Nintendo’s modern software, which is bigger, better and more ambitious than ever before. And yet, the strategy of supporting a low-powered device that updates slowly is no different for the Switch than it was for Nintendo’s previous consoles. This long-term strategy has been financially successful for Nintendo, especially the Switch, one of the best-selling consoles ever. But we are too late for an updated model.
The breath of the wilderness revealed everything the Switch was capable of – and not capable of
After five years, it’s time for a more powerful Switch that can erase some of these past and future issues with a faster chipset that can render games in 4K. Such a device has been rumored and its launch has reportedly been delayed due to the shortage of chips due to the coronavirus pandemic. All we got is a disappointing Switch OLED that has a better, slightly larger OLED display with similar internal specs and little else to tempt current owners.
Continuing to sell the Nintendo Switch with its current specs is one of the biggest tech blunders of 2022 – not least because Nintendo’s inaction allowed other devices to steal a slice of the spotlight.
One of them is Valve’s Steam Deck. It’s not a significant competitor in terms of sales volume (the Switch is over 100 million strong worldwide), but Valve proved what else is possible in a modern handheld. The custom AMD hardware can run many demanding PC games with respectable performance, and the $399 price point is competitive with the much less powerful Nintendo Switch.
The Steam Deck is an attractive device not only because of its power. Purchasing one immediately rewired my brain to seek out the often cheaper Steam version of games rather than the Switch version I would buy as standard for gaming on the go for a few years. There’s an implied guarantee that the deck will run games better, and like the Switch, it can be docked to display on your TV.
However, the deck is not flawless. Compatibility issues mean that many Steam games may not work as intended (or at all). And the bulky design is much less bag-friendly. But for some Switch owners, myself included, it’s hard to resist the Deck, which delivered many of the benefits I’ve been wanting from a Switch Pro.
However, there will always be reasons for me to return to the Switch – namely to play Nintendo’s exclusive games and vent to retro SNES spell. So it doesn’t leave my entertainment center. But there’s a backlog of exclusive games I want to play, but maybe nonsensically I’m refusing to buy them until Nintendo releases a faster Switch. I’m going to buy it oh well from the Switch Pro – when it finally appears.
If there was ever a perfect time to launch a meaningful hardware update for the Switch (beyond any time in the past two years), it would be May 12, 2023, the day when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will release. It is the sequel to the 2017 launch title The breath of the wildernessa brilliant one Zelda game that revealed everything the Switch was capable of – and not capable of – beyond the gate.
Nintendo has some work to do to reverse the stigma that its Switch equates to less than stellar performance in many games. I hope the next iteration leans on Nvidia’s DLSS AI or AMD’s FSR upscaling techniques to make the graphics look better while also taking some of the load off the hardware. Either way, I don’t think Nintendo can afford to dwell on hardware in 2023.
