The Steam Deck is unlikely to put any sort of dent into the Switch's sales. Its catering to a different market, mainly consumers who are already vested into a library of PC games on Steam. Perhaps there will be greater excitement for Steam Deck because of a segment of Switch gamers who have enjoyed gaming on their Switch but are also into PC gamers, and after playing Switch they are absolutely interested in playing their Steam library portably. Switch 2 will again lean on its first party content and the appeal that the hybrid setup offers consumers. The Deck is no more of a threat to Switch 2 than PC gaming is to PS5/X, they coexist very comfortably.
The reviews for the Switch OLED have been very positive. Outside of those who are still upset that it isn't a Pro model, everyone else seems to be very impressed with just how much better games look thanks to the OLED screen. The fact that even the Steam Deck is going with a 800p screen leads me to believe Nintendo can stick with 720p with the Switch 2, potentially offering a premium OLED model for $399 with more internal storage and a $299 model with an LCD screen with internal memory that is practically non existent.
The discovery of a patent for what I can only assume is a propriety version of DLSS for the next Switch leads me to believe Nintendo will lean on it heavily to improve image quality when played in docked mode. I doubt internal resolutions will go beyond 1080p, with 1440p being the absolute maximum, but with proper DLSS support the image quality will look much superior to 1080P even if it falls short of native 4K. Nintendo knows that hours played docked vs portable on Switch are pretty much split down the middle, so if lots of people have been ok with playing 720p games during this generation, they will no doubt be fine with sub native 4k with the Switch 2.
Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't need to mix things up to much, the formula is solid enough that it warrants a more straight forward successor. Will it sell as well the original Switch? Probably not, but just like the GBA didnt sell as well as the Gameboy, it will still be very successful while Nintendo figures out its next big idea to turn gaming on its head again.
The reviews for the Switch OLED have been very positive. Outside of those who are still upset that it isn't a Pro model, everyone else seems to be very impressed with just how much better games look thanks to the OLED screen. The fact that even the Steam Deck is going with a 800p screen leads me to believe Nintendo can stick with 720p with the Switch 2, potentially offering a premium OLED model for $399 with more internal storage and a $299 model with an LCD screen with internal memory that is practically non existent.
The discovery of a patent for what I can only assume is a propriety version of DLSS for the next Switch leads me to believe Nintendo will lean on it heavily to improve image quality when played in docked mode. I doubt internal resolutions will go beyond 1080p, with 1440p being the absolute maximum, but with proper DLSS support the image quality will look much superior to 1080P even if it falls short of native 4K. Nintendo knows that hours played docked vs portable on Switch are pretty much split down the middle, so if lots of people have been ok with playing 720p games during this generation, they will no doubt be fine with sub native 4k with the Switch 2.
Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't need to mix things up to much, the formula is solid enough that it warrants a more straight forward successor. Will it sell as well the original Switch? Probably not, but just like the GBA didnt sell as well as the Gameboy, it will still be very successful while Nintendo figures out its next big idea to turn gaming on its head again.
