Against Sony's $700 long position, will consumers switch to the Switch Two?

Sony's lack of concord between themselves and their audience may be their dearest cost

You may have encountered grumblings of malcontent regarding the PS5 Pro this past week; growls, even. Imagine, if you may: a weary colossus, its mouth excised. Through the whirring of its fans, you suspect raised integrity within - 45% greater, to be precise. It cannot stand for itself: you must support it via a separate apparatus. I speak not of a beast belonging to pulp myth, rather the PlayStation 5 Pro: Sony’s final labor to shame its most prosperous generation yet - yielding a hearty $10 billion in profit after three years. Granted, its earliest years were rather troublesome: supply shortages, followed by a dearth of destination titles, marrred its prominence. However, the latter can be refuted by record sales per volume: for a slab of consumer hardware, it became atypically elusive.

Nevertheless, the year is 2024. Sony’s flagship device is in the midst of a mid-life crisis; Triple A development has become unsustainably scrupulous. Consequently, many members of the studio’s intelligensia have failed to yield an original title for the console to date: Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog (they added a roguelike feature, though!), Bend Studio, and Media Molecule. Conversely, three of their contemporaries, Guerrila, Polyphony Digital, and Santa Monica Studio, have produced cross-generational efforts - Horizon: Forbidden West’s DLC notwithstanding. Respect must be paid to Insomniac and Team Asobi, however: Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, and Astro Bot perfectly exhibited the wily power of the platform. One could argue that PlayStation has codified the effective storytelling ethic of its brand this generation - we may need a better sample size.

Sony’s live-service gambit has bore one genuine phenomenon: Helldivers 2. A greater-than-minor Steam scandal aside, Arrowhead’s satirical shooter has sustained an active, impassioned audience since its initial deployment; premium titles rarely ingratiate themselves into the competitive multiplayer space so swiftly. However, Helldivers’ triumph was driven further by a complimentary PC playerbase, outside of the hermetic PlayStation network. When Sony tried to rectify this error, they were humbled into accepting their inital stroke of luck: player counts would be partitioned indefinitely. Subsequent entries, however, would demand a unity between one’s Steam and PlayStation accounts. Nonetheless, Helldivers’ successor, Concord - significantly higher in profile, budget, and general audience dissension - could barely claim a lobby by its ignominious end.

Writing of Concord’s failure provides me with no sense of schadenfreude. I found the reveal trailer intrinsically harmless, if not unadventurous; learning it was a ‘hero shooter’ came as a shrug, not indignant outrage. Concord’s marketing felt closer to a funeral procession than a rollout, with a particular air of doom clouding its future - ultimately engulfing its ghastly bounds following two weeks of internal mourning. The community, presuming there was one, were given short notice to reorganise into a support group.

I dare say my consternation is unwarrented: tales of Black Myths and Fortnite(s) have kept the console draining power grids the world over; people still play Grand Theft Auto V with great regularity! However, on the horizon - not in the direction of the forbidden west, naturally - Sony’s most immediate rival, Nintendo, are supercharging the Switch. You have heard rumblings, conjecture, and clickbait on its capabilties, and I am here to tell you … absolutely no new information. Regardless, when this unicorn strides into an desperate moment in the industry, it will sell, file your taxes, walk your dog, and clean your dishes - for about $400 to $450.

You have crossed into a parallel stream: a primordial river of promise and possibility. Outside of select industry reserves, the Switch 2 is a canvas of the imagination. Manifests provided via litigation claim the console is approximately as powerful as the PS4 and Xbox One; it will receive some form of Call of Duty. Furthermore, it may utilise DLSS to remedy resolution qualms, as Nintendo may resort to an LCD screen to lower manufacturing fees. If this edition of the Switch is more iterative than revelatory, one could read its launch as a bid to curry favour with home console nomads. Nintendo’s core player base will stick to their Switch - presuming they are not fighting against entropy, joycon drift, or other life commitments. Casual consumers who were dissuaded by the Switch’s limited ambition could be enticed by the promise of less compromised experiences: a balanced diet of Zelda, Zombies, and EA FC OTG (on-the-go) may be best for this audience.

If the PlayStation 5 Pro receives benefits lost on their base kin - unlikely at this present moment - disenfranchised consumers may indeed request refuge in Nintendo’s cheaper, more flexible bounds. Presumably, their archive of retro titles will be accessible, complimented by a library of enhanced experiences from the previous generation. This, in concert with the presence of every major sports title - closer in content to their contemporaries - may serve as a canny model of success for the Kyoto dynasty.

Or, perhaps more succintly, the one with Grand Theft Auto VI will win.