Hear me out for a moment.
I know that sounds like a strange question to ask in 2026. Nintendo already has a home console. The Switch 2 connects to your television, plays games on the big screen, and can sit right beside a PlayStation or Xbox. So what exactly am I talking about?
To explain that, I have to go back to a podcast that I’ve been listening to for quite a while.
One of my favorite gaming podcasts is the Nontendo Podcast. The show originally started with two well-known YouTubers, Wood Hawker from BeatEmUps and Bob Wulff from Wulff Den. Both creators spent a lot of time talking about Nintendo, so eventually they decided to launch a podcast focused entirely on Nintendo gaming. The name itself is a fun little play on words, and the show quickly became one of my regular listens.
Over its lifespan, the podcast evolved. Bob eventually stepped away to focus on his own projects, but Wood kept the show alive and continued bringing in guests and new voices. More recently, the podcast went through another refresh, bringing in KnightSky, and Sully as regular co-hosts. The current version of the Nontendo Podcast has been a lot of fun, and if you’ve never listened to it before, I highly recommend checking it out.
Recently, I was listening to the latest episode titled Video Games Will NEVER be the Same... During the Super Chat portion of the show, a listener named Vegemiteyfine brought up an interesting question about whether Nintendo would ever return to making a traditional home console, the kind of system that simply sits beneath your television and never leaves the house.
The hosts discussed the idea, but my brain immediately wandered somewhere else.
What if Nintendo didn’t need to make a new home console?
What if they simply took the Switch 2 and stripped it down?
No screen.
No internal speakers.
No battery.
No Joy-Cons in the box.
Just a small console that sits beneath your television and plays Switch games.
As I kept thinking about the idea, I decided to reach out to Vegemiteyfine and ask what they meant by their original comment. Their response ended up being the most interesting part of the entire discussion.
Vegemiteyfine explained that when playing games like Breath of the Wild, most of their playtime happened in docked mode. They estimated that roughly 70% of their time was spent playing on the television and only about 30% in handheld mode. They even mentioned replaying certain sections on the TV because they preferred the larger screen and the Pro Controller experience.
That immediately clicked with me.
Back when I played my original Switch, I did something very similar. The handheld screen wasn’t bad, but I almost always preferred playing on the television. If I was going to spend hours exploring a game world, I wanted to enjoy it on the biggest screen available. The Switch 2 has changed that for me. The larger display makes handheld gaming much more enjoyable, and I find myself using both modes much more often than I did before.
Still, Vegemiteyfine’s comment stuck with me because it highlighted something I hadn’t really considered. There are probably a lot of people who simply prefer docked gaming. Not because handheld gaming is bad. Not because the Switch is flawed. It’s just their preference.
And if that’s the case, maybe there is room for a different kind of Switch.
I’m not talking about a smaller Switch Lite. In fact, I’m talking about the opposite. The Lite exists for people who just want portability. This idea is for people who don’t really care about portability at all. Imagine a small box that accepts cartridges, connects to your television, and plays the exact same games as a standard Switch 2. If you want to use Joy-Cons, you buy them separately. If you prefer a Pro Controller, that works too. The system simply stays connected to your TV all the time, ready to play whenever you are. In the following mock-up I even put some USB ports in the front so you can just plug and play some remotes and you're done!
As I continued thinking about the idea, I started to realize there might be more people interested in something like this than I originally expected. There are players like Vegemitefine who spend most of their gaming time docked and rarely use the portable features of the system. There are families that might appreciate a second Switch connected to another television without having to purchase another full hybrid console. There could also be PlayStation and Xbox players who have little interest in handheld gaming but would love a more affordable way to access Nintendo’s exclusive library.
Do I think Nintendo will actually make something like this? Probably not. The hybrid identity of the Switch has been one of the company’s greatest successes, and I don’t see Nintendo moving away from that formula anytime soon. Still, I find the idea fascinating.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Would a TV-only version of the Switch 2 appeal to you, or is portability too important to give up? Let me know in the comments.
And if you haven’t checked out the Nontendo Podcast, give it a listen. You never know what gaming discussion might spark your next big idea.
Prof. Rock
This is a great idea.
They could call it the Stay... or not, haha
Thanks for the writeup!
Awesome write-up!
I love this idea, and wish that Nintendo would do something like this. I think the Switch worked so well because of its ease with portability, and its fairly seamless transition from handheld to docked mode. However, since I primarily play in docked mode, I would love a version that was just a home console without all the bells and whistles that come with the portability — especially if it was cheaper in price. Honestly, I wish a future Switch 2 Lite was a smaller portable version (that could fit in a pocket) for people that want a handheld console, and another version for folks that just want a home console.
Will Nintendo do that? Probably not. But, it's something I wish they would consider!
Awesome article Prof. Rock 🙌