Game Boy Color was an incremental improvement with the same form factor, 3DS more so.
Why did you frame this agreement as if it’s a counterpoint?
The GBC had twice the CPU power, more memory, and a bunch of developer-friendly features nobody normal would care about.
DSi added cameras and microphones.
3DS was a bigger upgrade, ostensibly a whole different console, but even that got the New 3DS as a line-blurring incremental improvement.
Drastic change has been the exception… not the rule. It is very like Nintendo to just do a hardware bump with similar form factor. They’ll milk any portable that’s still selling well. In fact, they only did the GBC because they got spooked by the Neo Geo Pocket, and they only did the DS because the PSP was a massive leap beyond the GBA. In the absence of direct competition they will drag out mere numeric improvements for over a decade. I don’t expect they consider phones and Steam Decks to be direct competition.
Why did you frame this agreement as if it’s a counterpoint?
The GBC had twice the CPU power, more memory, and a bunch of developer-friendly features nobody normal would care about.
DSi added cameras and microphones.
3DS was a bigger upgrade, ostensibly a whole different console, but even that got the New 3DS as a line-blurring incremental improvement.
Drastic change has been the exception… not the rule. It is very like Nintendo to just do a hardware bump with similar form factor. They’ll milk any portable that’s still selling well. In fact, they only did the GBC because they got spooked by the Neo Geo Pocket, and they only did the DS because the PSP was a massive leap beyond the GBA. In the absence of direct competition they will drag out mere numeric improvements for over a decade. I don’t expect they consider phones and Steam Decks to be direct competition.