Over the past couple of decades we've become very accustomed to the notion of consoles getting their hardware redesigned mid-lifespan -- so much so that it's now almost taken for granted that these milestones will punctuate the life of any moderately successful piece of hardware.
The earliest example that really stuck in people's minds is probably Sony's "PSone", a diminutive re-imagining of the groundbreaking PlayStation that came late in that device's life. But both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation S3 benefited hugely from being slimmed down in their mid-life (honestly, who among us wouldn't?), and the Xbox 360's coveted Elite redesign helped to establish the design language for Xbox that persists to this day.
Microsoft and Sony seem to have this down pat, in other words. Nintendo's track record is more... patchy. The Wii Mini, launched back in 2012, is largely a footnote in gaming history; the industrial design was lovely, but the system hacked out vast amounts of the Wii's functionality and came far too late in its lifespan to really make a mark, despite an incredibly ambitious $100 price that was designed to open up the console to an even broader demographic.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...raphic-opinion