Nintendo Brings Back Cameras (Sort Of)

Buried in Nintendo's Switch 2 announcement during Nintendo Direct earlier in the week was a quiet accessory that brings Nintendo back into the camera game. Sort of.

Nintendo's new camera, which is simply called "Nintendo Switch 2 Camera," is more designed for the system's new game chat feature, which places little video conference-like boxes along the bottom of the screen and uses the camera to capture a face for that box, but it seems like there's a lot more potential here. Like a Game Boy camera-style revival with the new device as the centerpiece for photographs.

Now, quality cameras have never been Nintendo's thing. Here's a sample of what a photo (all 640 x 480 pixels of it) looks like from the company's last attempt at a built-in camera with the 3DS XL:

Now, while the cameras aren't wonderful, they have been fun. The Game Boy Camera captured the fun of lo-fi image-making on what was essentially a primitive digital camera and a receipt printer. The 3DS series capitalized on the 3D TV fad of the time by taking 3D pictures with its dual-camera system. The photos had some depth to them when viewed on an actual 3DS due to the system's unique "3D" feature, the intensity of which could be controlled with a slider at the side of the screen. It's something that can't be captured on the screen here but is a cool feature to see in real life.

Nothing looked great, but I was entertained, which is the point of a handheld system. The low-fidelity digital images in the game chat shown in the preview video looked like they fit this mold exactly. Here's another shot of the Welwyn Preserve in New York with that camera:

Again, it's not high art, but on the other hand, you can't take a Sony Playstation 5 out with you in the world to shoot photographs with. And even if you did, it doesn't have a camera to take pictures with. That's one thing I wish I could see out of a Switch 2. As someone who clearly takes his 3DS (and his Switch) into the wilderness, it would be fun in the same way as people who take Holgas out into the world, except a digital version. That also plays games.

Granted, one can already buy some cheap cameras on Amazon that play games, it's just that the Nintendo will play better ones.

But Nintendo can make up for the fact that they didn't include a built-in camera by making a series of lens mounts that could clip onto the thing for some options. Maybe they can even release a higher-end model with built-in rear-facing cameras. There's already a huge touchscreen and plenty of physical controls at the ready; all that's missing is the receipt printer to bring the photos into the physical world.

What do you think? Is Nintendo missing a market here or is this just crazy talk? Sound off in the comments below.