Chapter 383: Switch (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Currently, the mainstream focus in the gaming industry is on VR platforms. As for handheld consoles, as Meng Zuo mentioned earlier, they are already in decline. Many established handheld console manufacturers have either gone bankrupt or been acquired. Chen Xu also had some understanding of this area.

However, in Chen Xu's view, the handheld consoles in the Parallel World had completely gone down the wrong path, narrowing their own prospects. How to put it? Can mobile phones replace handheld consoles?

In Chen Xu's opinion, a complete replacement is impossible. Mobile phones will indeed shrink the handheld console market; this cannot be denied. In fact, the relationship between mobile phones and handheld consoles is somewhat similar to the relationship between consoles and PCs in his previous life. As PCs became more powerful, the console market was also compressed. This is why, in his previous life, exclusive games that were once only available on console platforms eventually came to PC. But could PCs completely replace consoles in his previous life? Obviously not. And the PCs in the Parallel World were actually a bit like the consoles of his previous life. The main reason for this is their irreplaceable nature. Exclusive games, a stronger focus on the gaming experience, being cheaper than a PC with equivalent specifications, and a more developer-friendly architecture – these are all advantages that ensure consoles won't be eliminated by PCs.

The same applies to handheld consoles. With mobile phones becoming increasingly powerful, why would people still buy handheld consoles? If it's just about portability, aren't mobile phones more convenient? After all, there's a very famous saying: "Don't you guys have phones?"

The real reason is that handheld consoles possess unique and irreplaceable advantages. In his previous life, with the rise of smartphones, Nintendo's handheld console market was continuously eroded. However, Satoru Iwata initiated a major departmental reform, changing the previous development philosophy and system, and in that environment, the Switch emerged.

Just like PCs, mobile phones are never solely for gaming, even the so-called gaming phones. Secondly, there's the price. If one is purely looking to play games, a high-spec mobile phone is actually more expensive than a handheld console. Then there's the tactile feel; compared to a touch-screen-only phone, handheld consoles clearly offer players a superior experience in terms of feel. Ultimately, a mobile phone is simply not a gaming device.

In this regard, mobile phones are still different from PCs because PCs have stronger expandability. Furthermore, in terms of operational feedback, even without connecting a controller, a keyboard and mouse alone provide a better experience than a touchscreen. At the same time, for certain specific games, keyboards and mice offer a greater advantage, such as RTS and shooting games.

Of course, if technology advances to a certain extent, it might indeed lead to the disappearance of handheld consoles. For instance, if one day a portable, thought-controlled VR device emerges that also integrates features like making calls, then mobile phones would likely already be a thing of the past.

The reason Chen Xu said the handheld console direction in the Parallel World was wrong is because the handheld consoles there completely abandoned their inherent characteristics, focusing instead on over-specifying hardware. Speaking of which, some handheld console brands that went bankrupt in recent years had quite a connection with Nebula Games. These handheld consoles strived to run games of the caliber of Monster Hunter: World and Dark Souls. As a result, the final cost of the devices became prohibitively high, naturally leading to their collapse.

This left Chen Xu rather speechless.

After all, when it comes to handheld consoles, games are the most important; hardware is merely supplementary.

Consider how in his previous life, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo divided the market. In terms of hardware specifications, Microsoft was the strongest. Yet, why did it consistently fail to gain an advantage in the console wars throughout the generations? Aside from starting the latest, the most crucial reason was games.

Sony's platform had exclusive blockbusters like The Last of Us, Uncharted, Bloodborne, and God of War. Although with the expansion of the PC platform market, these exclusive games would eventually be released on PC. However, it cannot be denied that in their early days, these games indeed possessed a very strong appeal. Microsoft, on the other hand, had very few titles of note, mainly just Halo, Gears of War, and Horizon.

As for Nintendo, there's no need to say much. On the Switch, games like Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros., and the Pokémon series, along with Zelda, which many players call the "best game ever," are all games with sales in the tens of millions.

Of course, games are one aspect, but more importantly, Nintendo fully understood what kind of appeal a handheld console should have. That is, irreplaceable attributes.

For example, if a blockbuster on PlayStation were brought to the PC platform, would it lose some unique core experience by switching from a controller to a keyboard and mouse? No, it wouldn't. But games on the Switch would.

Motion control, portability, and sharing – these are the unique aspects of the Switch. Many games were even created specifically to showcase a particular Switch feature; some games, if not played on the Switch, would feel like they're missing something. The machine creates the game, and the game creates the machine.

However, Chen Xu also understood that in the Parallel World, due to the nature of the era, these handheld console manufacturers were more hardware companies than software companies. Therefore, in developing handheld consoles, their focus was always on keeping up with mainstream hardware trends, rather than breaking new ground from a game-centric perspective. This led to increasingly high handheld console costs, and due to over-specifying hardware, even the original portability of handheld consoles was lost. Who would want to carry a handheld console that feels like a brick when going out?

In his previous life, Atari and Nintendo were able to rise because, ultimately, they were initially game software companies and knew how to design hardware from a gaming perspective.

As for Sony, that was an accident. After all, if it weren't for Nintendo's royalty system, which had long frustrated game designers worldwide, prompting them to flock to Sony to develop games after the PlayStation's debut, then Sony would never have established its first-party studios, considered things from a gamer's perspective, and driven the development of cinematic games.

Microsoft? That's even more of an exception. Two words: 'rich' – that's all it took. No tech, no experience? I can buy it! Wasn't Sega just defeated in the console war, broke as a church mouse? I've got plenty of money! If you're unwilling to sell yourself outright, then surely I can secure you for a year or so, right? Thus, Microsoft directly entered the console market, which is also why Microsoft's first-generation console was practically identical to Sega's back then.

In Chen Xu's view, the handheld console market in the Parallel World still holds immense potential. In his previous life, the global sales of the Switch had already reached 85 million units and were continuously breaking records. Although that achievement was boosted by the Nintendo brand and long-standing IP games like Pokémon, Mario, and Zelda, which had been developing for decades, it was also thanks to the Switch's unique characteristics and games specifically tailored for it that countless new Switch players were attracted. With the Switch as a starting point, Chen Xu believed he could fill this void in the Parallel World.

At the same time, there was another very important point: it might even be possible to build the Switch into a unique platform. Not a software platform, but a hardware platform. (End of Chapter) <>