As much as I'm not a fan of the Switch, maybe, just maybe a combination of Switch and Shield might end up creating a new market. When OUYA was around, I used to argue a lot, in favor of a "mid range" gaming market. The idea would be that PS4, XB1 and PC would be the high range guys while Nintendo and some popular yet powerful enough Android console would make a mid range, cost friendly category for consumers and developers. OUYA flaked out too soon before that dream could be realized but with Switch and Shield both being around the same power, this could work.
Shield already offers some AAA games that are ported to Android. Granted most of those games are last gen but they exist. With two devices at a similar power level on the market, developers will have more of a reason to make games for the mid range. Think about this. When it was just Wii U, PS4 and XB1, you had two consoles running on the same architecture as PC and a third that was viewed as the throw away. Why develop for the "throw away"? Now that we might have a two and two (consoles only) with PS4 and XB1 running one type of architecture and Switch and Shield running on the other, we can now have more choices for the consumer. Hell, maybe we will see households with some combination of a Switch and PS4 or a Shield and XB1.
I'm not on the Switch hype train but it looks like Nvidia could appear to end up as the real winner in this situation. Between the Switch event next month and the reveal of the next Shield TV at CES (also in January), the next 45 days should prove to be interesting.
Shield already offers some AAA games that are ported to Android. Granted most of those games are last gen but they exist. With two devices at a similar power level on the market, developers will have more of a reason to make games for the mid range. Think about this. When it was just Wii U, PS4 and XB1, you had two consoles running on the same architecture as PC and a third that was viewed as the throw away. Why develop for the "throw away"? Now that we might have a two and two (consoles only) with PS4 and XB1 running one type of architecture and Switch and Shield running on the other, we can now have more choices for the consumer. Hell, maybe we will see households with some combination of a Switch and PS4 or a Shield and XB1.
I'm not on the Switch hype train but it looks like Nvidia could appear to end up as the real winner in this situation. Between the Switch event next month and the reveal of the next Shield TV at CES (also in January), the next 45 days should prove to be interesting.