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My first portable console was not a Game Boy. It was a Game Gear, the giant black brick of a Sega gaming platform. Technically, I had the upper camera. The Game Gear features an incredibly state-of-the-art display, with colorful graphics and a backlit display that lets you enjoy visuals from anywhere, even in the dark. I showed how cool Sonic and Virtua FighteI have watched Game Gear to my friends whenever I have had the opportunity.
In fact, I was jealous of my friends with the Game Boy, which is comparable to the bass-fi. Nintendo's laptop had an ugly display with a greenish tint and you had to play with enough lighting to see what was going on. But it also had a massive collection of incredible games, a design that made it easy to take anywhere, and it was powered by two AA batteries (compared to the six batteries required by Game Gear). It was a device designed to be played with, not scorned. It was a little gray box that came into your life, instead of getting into it like Game Gear did.
In this way, the Game Boy is emblematic of Nintendo as a whole. The company has rarely chased advanced technology for the pleasure of using it. Instead, Nintendo typically uses new technology only when it enhances the gaming experience. True, it does not always work, but the same thought that made the Game Boy so successful is now at the base of the remarkable success of Switch.
This does not mean that the Game Boy was not innovative. It was also not Nintendo's first attempt at portable games. Before the launch of the Game Boy in 1989, the company had a crush on Game & Watch, a series of electronic games in progress. According to rumors, the late Gunpei Yokoi – who was credited with creating the Game & Watch line and the Game Boy – was inspired by people playing with calculators.
Each Game & Watch unit featured a single game, as well as simple features, such as a built-in clock. There was a total of 59 games, which became more and more complex over time. One of the most iconic games is a port of the Donkey Kong arcade game, complete with dual screen, flapper design, and a suitable directional pad. (This looks like an older version of the Nintendo DS.) The series has sold more than 43 million units worldwide. "Without Game & Watch, today's gaming systems are likely to be different," said Satoru Iwata, current president of Nintendo, in 2010. "I doubt that Game Boy and Nintendo DS systems have been able to spread the word around the world. . "
The main disadvantage of Game & Watch was that each unit could only play one game. When the time came to design a new experience, the small team of Nintendo had to create not only a game, but also the necessary equipment. The company was already enjoying success with its cartridge living console, the NES, and decided to take the same concept and apply it to its next portable system.
It was not long before the competitors arrived. The Game Boy was launched in 1989 and Sega followed with the Game Gear a year later. But if Sega's laptop was more flash and more powerful, it was also much less convenient. This beautiful screen required a lot of battery power. As a result, many players were forced to use an AC adapter, which largely defeated the reason for a portable gaming console. The other competitors had similar shortcomings. The Game Boy, meanwhile, was small and durable, and you could get a lot of Zelda before having to exchange the batteries. Nintendo's handheld has sold about 118 million units, surpassing the 10 million sold by Sega.
This is a trend that would continue with other Nintendo platforms, especially in the portable space. The company wanted to offer just enough innovations to maintain an interesting product, without making it impracticable for the majority of users. The Game Boy did not have a color version until 1998, and at the launch of the Game Boy Advance in 2001, she still had no backlit screen. This did not prevent either product from selling tens of millions of units. Meanwhile, the Nintendo DS was a strange dual-screen handheld that opposed the power of the Sony PSP console. Not only has the DS emerged victorious, but it remains Nintendo's best-selling platform. Of course, this does not always work, as evidenced by chess like the Wii U, but the story of Nintendo is one that proves that advanced technologies do not necessarily allow the best gaming experience.
Despite this, today, new gaming platforms are still sold on the basis of technological prowess. You will hear terms such as 4K and 60 fps regularly during E3 speeches. When Google unveiled Stadia, its next cloud gaming platform, the company proudly boasted of teraflops.
This brings us to the switch. Compared to PS4 and Xbox One, the latest Nintendo hardware is not very powerful. Many of us are still amazed when a modern blockbuster game is stuffed on it, or when it is able to offer fun virtual reality experiences. But that's because the switch is not a traditional home console. According to these standards, it is the low-fi. But for a device that you can take anywhere, it's upscale. Switch innovation is not a specification. It's flexibility.
The result? The Switch, Nintendo's most popular device since the Wii, has surpassed its predecessor in less than 10 months on the market. Thirty million people did not buy Switch because they can play the latest 4K first-person shooter. They bought it because, like the Game Boy, it offers an experience focused on people, not on specs, and offers games so powerful that the rest does not matter.
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