The Nintendo Switch 2 will be the last video game console – Reader’s Feature

A reader thinks that the era of video games consoles is coming to an end and that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be the last bastion of the concept. For a good few years now there’s been talk about the ‘last generation of consoles.’ Some tried to say it about the PlayStation 4 era, and some have said it about the PlayStation 5, but clearly neither have been right. The assumption has been that eventually consoles will be unnecessary because streaming will take over, but this seems to ignore the fact that it depends on you being somewhere with a very fast Wi-Fi connection – which is invariably going to be in your home, in a big city. At which point you might as well just stick with a traditional console.

Streaming will eventually take over, I’m sure, but I can’t see it happening for at least 10 years. Not when it makes it all but impossible for someone in the countryside to play a video game – and there is an awful lot of countryside in America. Mobile seems to have missed its chance, but I could see the PC being more of a danger to consoles, given how much it’s been on the rise lately. People argue about Xbox exclusives on PlayStation, but every exclusive bar Nintendo is already on PC, to the point where Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling Sony game ever and yet most of its players are on PC and not console.

Another problem haunting the future of consoles is the issue that’s thrown gaming into turmoil over the last two years: the fact that we have reached the limit of what can reasonably be spent on a video game and still expect to turn a profit. Games already take too much money and too much time to make and the idea of making things even worse by releasing an even more expensive console is madness.

Apparently it’s happening anyway though, with both Xbox and PlayStation openly talking about next gen machines. They’re both also talking about portables and if they were sensible they’d both be handhelds that were less powerful than the current consoles, in order reduce the cost of development and yet still have an attractive gimmick that people would want to buy them. However, I don’t believe either Microsoft or Sony to be sensible, so I’m sure they’ll find some way to overcomplicate it and avoid all the benefits that should come with making a portable and somehow still hold onto the negatives associated with a home console.

All of which brings me to the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s going to be released this year and technically counts as being next generation – even though the first Switch took Nintendo out of the whole generational classification system and it doesn’t really apply to them. But let’s call it next gen for the sake of argument. Unless something has gone very wrong, then Nintendo’s usual MO means that it will be relatively cheap, probably no more powerful than a PlayStation 4, and home to dozens of amazing exclusive games. It will still be more expensive to make games for than the first Switch, but the PlayStation 4 was before things went stupid in terms of costs so it should still be manageable.

You’ll be able to get most current gen games working on it, to some degree, and there’ll be (probably endless) ports of last gen games. A lot of new games are probably going to be cross-gen too so I would imagine that there’ll be lots of lower budget Switch 2 games, from both Nintendo and others, that will also work on the original console, of which there are 150 million in the world. But what happens after that? I have doubts that the PlayStation 6, and especially the Xbox 5 will be major successes, and I feel it’s guaranteed they won’t have 8+ year lifespans like the Switch. But the Switch 2 seems like nothing can stop it. Even the underwhelming reveal trailer has been hugely popular and the console itself seems like it will offer three things the PlayStation 5 doesn’t: affordability, lots of great exclusives, and new ideas.

Where do you go from there though? There’s no advantage in making a portable that’s as powerful as a PlayStation 5, because making games for it will still be too expensive. So there can’t be another generation after this next one, not because of streaming or even the rise of the PC, but because it’s too expensive to make games for it. All of which leaves the Nintendo Switch 2 and probably nothing else. It will end up as the last console standing, the one that realised it wasn’t all about graphical power but instead good games and value for money. It’ll be a shame but I’m not sure how much sympathy I’ve really got for Sony and Microsoft when they finally hit a brick wall.

By reader Grackle. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.