I like how this article does not talk about the anti consumer practices engaged in by Nintendo, that might push some customers away from their consoles. /s Nintendo can disable your Switch 2 for piracy in the U.S., but not in Europe, as confirmed by its EULA. There is already a switch in my household, but the price along with the ability to remotely brick the device, is what made our household pass on the switch 2. We bought a second steam deck instead.
The Wii made me absolutely rage because those consoles were region locked, preventing me from playing titles I had imported from other countries that weren’t published by Nintendo north America. I never spent money on Nintendo products after that. The rest of my family was still happy with Nintendo, and they have continued to purchase their consoles. I finally got my wife invested in PC gaming 2 years ago, and it warmed my bitter heart to hear she wanted a steam deck instead of the switch 2.
That was always the case for Nintendo’s home consoles, not like it was a new thing that started with the Wii. Switch was the first one to be region-free.
This was not the case for Nintendo consoles in the past. I imported plenty of NES, SNES, GC, GB, GBA, and DS carts that were published in Asia/Europe, but not published in the Americas, and had no issues playing them until the Wii. Those consoles I just mentioned were all region free.
NES and SNES were region-locked. In addition to an actual lockout chip, they even had different cartridge shapes so you couldn’t physically fit Famicom or Super Famicom games.
Handhelds were not (until DSi and 3DS), but I specifically said home consoles.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t region locking on the NES and SNES largely implemented via the shape of the cartridge? Frank Cifaldi and the VGHF just put out that NES history video, and it had some kind of authentication chip that could only be provided by Nintendo, and it was in the NES but not the Famicom. And on Gamecube, I seem to remember you needed an Action Replay to break the region locking, but I never dabbled in it myself.
Did you have a modded console? Without modification, the 10NES lockout chip prevents PAL cartridges from running on NTSC or vice versa. But it is possible to disable the chip to get around this.
I love mine. The FPS boost alone in Zelda and Pokémon made it worth it for me. Cheaper than the GPU I want for my computer too. Then again, I went all in on the Switch in 2017 after skipping the Wii U, so more performance is fine with me. I do wish there was more stuff announced, though.
I skipped the Switch because I did get the Wii U. They abandoned that system too quickly due to poor sales so I was a little bitter. I almost went with the OLED, but decided to continue waiting since I had other systems and PC to play on. It’s the first Nintendo console I have ever skipped.
I did pick up the Switch 2, however, so I get to play all the games I missed over the years and any new ones. Glad I don’t have to wait so long on loading screens for Zelda like I did on the Wii U… which was painfully long.
My Switch 2 is pretty much strictly my Nintendo machine. And yeah, just have to wait for them to come out with more 1st party games. I usually buy 3rd party games on other systems because the graphics tend to be superior.
Oh yeah, watching my girlfriend play her Switch 1 now is agonizing. Her birthday is coming up and I think I know exactly what I’m going to be getting for her.
Games like Zelda now load so fast you can’t even see your stats on the loading screen. And ya know, that’s an okay problem to have.
“Never discounted” is just factually untrue, though. The biggest hitters don’t reach Steam-sale levels, sure, but I’m looking at $70 Tears of the Kingdom for $47 USD right now on Woot. I’ve purchased a fair number of Switch 1 games for around $40 in the last year and some (like Mario & Luigi Brothership and Super Mario RPG) went for as low as $25 USD around Black Friday.
That’s the thing. Such being considered a ‘discount’ is why people say Nintendo doesn’t discount games; why the Nintendo consoles end up being quite expensive when compared with a Steam Deck, where games are on discount on the regular.
Not saying don’t enjoy the console. Just with prices like that, it’s hard to justify for many. gestures at OP’s article
i was planning to get a the first switch, with pokemon dint because of how bad the quality it was, and due to them admitting all future POKEMON games are going to be this way was the biggest turn off.
Too expensive, too enshittified for me to consider. All they had to do was not fuck this up and they would’ve had a guaranteed sale but I don’t ever see myself spending a cent on Nintendo ever again.
they got the idea from pokemon games, how you need an app just store all the pokemon, plus another app for certain other features for the main pokemon game. before the switch/3ds transition, i believe you had to pay for “storing your excess pokemon” on a app.
It’s funny. I feel like with the switch 2 Nintendo finally listened to the fans who were saying they just want an incremental improvement. Just make the switch with a better processor. But they really just got too greedy with it and made it an incremental improvement in the worst way possible. Paid online, $70 games which never go on sale, paid switch 2 upgrade packs, LCD screen, digital download physical games.
It’s an incremental upgrade done as horribly as possible, it feels like people are struggling right now and Nintendo is trying to extract every dollar out of customers then wonders why the console isn’t doing well.
For me it’s a hard sell because like at that price why wouldn’t I just buy a steam deck. I don’t have to buy any new games, I don’t have to pay for upgrade packs to have my games run on it, I don’t have to pay for online services. I’m not going to have to rebuy games if I buy a steam frame or steam machine. It also has seamless save transfers, and steam is famous for its sales.
It’s just funny because I feel like people were asking for a switch with more power but now that it’s here like why would you buy it over a steam deck.
Also to top it off Nintendo’s lawyers are aggressively going after emulators, streamers and modders. Why would I want to support a company so hostile to its own community
The point they are probably trying to make is with a key you don’t own the game like you would with a hardware cartridge in older Nintendo systems. So you own nothing on the switch.
Also even for people who want they can just get a gaming handheld and then gain access to a bunch of games which rarely cost $80 even when they’re brand new. Buying a Switch 2 just isn’t a financially sensible decision for anyone regardless of how much money you have in your bank account
I’d argue it is financially sensible if you want one. Current price may be the lowest it’s ever been, with increasing prices for RAM and storage. There’s only so much stock they have bought previously.
Everyone not on Nintendo’s bubble knew a while ago. The Switch 2 was being discounted in ways that no successful console would be, the PS5 outsold it in key markets, and third party software sales for the Switch 2 are abysmally low.
No piracy on the Switch 2 (yet). And it will take a while before it happens. The Switch 1 was blown wide open by a leaked bootrom exploit, I doubt this SOC will repeat the same mistake
and I guess no. 10 was a copy of Coral Island I was gifted, oops lol
At some point I still want LAN Party Adventures, and The Lonesome Guild but those will wait until the next sale. In the meantime I have plenty to sink my teeth (thumbs?) into!
Well I saw Pokemon Legends ZA for 48% off recently. Not that it‘s worth that much or that I would ever buy a Switch 2. I actually stumbled upon that sale randomly. But the fact it‘s on sale already speaks volumes. Nintendo is likely in panic mode.
i wonder if it has do with pokemon being slop for the past generation and this one too. the lack of quality of the pokemon games doesnt justify its high cost. also because game freak said this the future of all pokemon games.
There are several yuzu and ryujinx forks floating around. For yuzu there’s citron, and eden-emu; for ryujinx there’s ryubing. Game compatibility varies so I suggest trying them all and see if any works.
Ain’t got those amazing Nintendo games though. Glhf finding a Mario Cart replacement that is actually as good.
This is not entirely true. Depending on the stance of the person regarding piracy. You can definitely play Mario Kart on the Steam Deck. Emulations for PS1 PS2, Switch 1 exist (there are more but these I know on the top of my head).
The Steam Deck can play nearly all Switch 1 titles through emulation. Yes, developers were taken down but the emulators do still work perfectly fine (I’m saying this as Steam Deck owner and using Emulators myself).
EDIT; noticed we are in the same instance. Now I’m curious whether you were serious or it was sarcasm…
It might be, but if you care about the newest games, you either stick with the Switch 2, wait for a SD 2 or look elsewhere… The SD is getting closer to the Switch 1 state where modern games start to look more blurry, and if you want a hybrid device… Well, it is gonna show more.
Also for some stupid reasons SD availability sucks in several countries, like Mexico.
Most of “the newest games” are well within the spec of the Steam Deck. Of the 4 non-exclusive games nominated for GOTY at the Keighleys, they’ll all run on it just fine. Some of the biggest games of the year end up being the likes of Peak, Schedule I, or Megabonk, and not only are those games only available on PC (at least for a while), but they’re not even pushing the spec of the Steam Deck to its limit. With RAM pricing issues going on right now, high end studios are likely going to target a lower spec. And the companies that can afford to make a game that hits that higher spec are few and far between anyway, compared to the AA and indie studios that made most of the best games of the past few years.
From what I’ve heard, Expedition 33 runs like hot garbage. Even if you use something like Lossless Frames to use AI generated frames to fill in gaps and run at super low settings.
I played it all on desktop, but it looks like it got an update a month ago and is now Deck verified. Friends of mine played it on Deck before that and didn’t mention any complaints, but I wasn’t fishing for them either.
With RAM pricing issues going on right now, high end studios are likely going to target a lower spec.
That is quite a positive thought that I would truly want to become real, let’s just wait and see I guess, that doesn’t change the fact that SD 2 is imminent though (I know that is obvious).
What about hybrid gaming? I don’t think anyone can agree that SD is better than the Switch 2 or any other handheld device in 2025 regarding that… Perhaps only in certain cases as locked awful framerate (for the Switch 2).
All of new gaming hardware is decidedly less imminent now that this pricing nonsense is going on. Even if the tech exists, no one thinks they can sell at what they’d have to charge for it. It’s going to be a rough near term future for gaming hardware before it eventually levels out. Reports are that consoles planned for 2027 are now looking like they’ll be pushed back.
I’m not super used to calling that “hybrid gaming”, but my wife seems to have no problem playing cozy games on the Steam Deck, almost exclusively on the TV when I didn’t take it with me on the go. And we’re once again back to the best games and the best graphics not being all that correlated. The other part is that even if a random gamer has a Steam Deck, it’s unlikely to be their only gaming PC, and if they want the power to produce that larger image at better frame rates at home, they’ll play on that other PC, and that game will run its best there. On Switch 2, that one device is your only option no matter what. That means that if you want to play one of those beefier titles from the Switch 1, they’re not going to run at better settings ever unless the developer explicitly upgrades them; even then, there’s often the Switch tax compared to buying the same game on PC.
I’m not trying to talk you down from a Switch 2 if that’s your preference, but if someone’s asking me for a recommendation for a gaming handheld, the Steam Deck is going to be what I tell them until I rule it out due to some other need. I definitely wouldn’t start with a Switch 2. The Deck just hits a compelling price with a good software experience and, perhaps most importantly, a library that dwarfs what Nintendo could ever hope to match by following the traditional console model.
Idk I picked it up and personally I felt the complete opposite. Everyone says its so massive and huge, I expected this massive bulky handheld but sadly its the opposite. Its big yeah but not really controller sized, my hands are too big for it so I’ll just stick to the steam controller (until the new one releases)
I love mine but I also agree that it’s a chunky boy. I’d absolutely get a Steam Deck Lite if Valve were ever to come out with one, even if it had weaker performance than the original.
The same is true of PlayStation and Xbox too (and has been for a decade or more). At least in US, don’t know about Europe. This is not to defend Nintendo, just saying that if that was the issue, it would effect all the consoles, and would have been effecting them for last many years. Average people don’t even know about these, and many probably don’t even care.
There might be more to this, but with the current economy, and consoles getting more expensive instead of cheaper as time goes on could be some of the reasons, IMO. And there weren’t much holiday sales this year.
First year sales are also generally limited by supply, not demand, so it will be interesting to see how Switch 2 does in its second and third years, specially if we do get next PS and Xbox next year.
Oh yeah, that last lines were about Switch 2 doing record sales in first year, not about the holidays sales, should have made it clear.
I agree with all your points about holiday sales, but I am not sure if it means that it’s momentum has slowed down or it just went down because of other expenses and stuff people wanted to buy over this period. Will be interesting if the sales go back up or if they keep going down.
It was the best selling console in the US this holiday season, but not sure how it’s sales compared to previous years. It also was on a big discount which definitely helped.
I doubt the ability to brick your console remotely played too large of a part in this. It’s far more likely the asking price combined with the general economic situation for the average consumer, combined with a worse screen and a lesser launch offering of titles. For my own biases, when you see how consoles have required online subscriptions and how your old games don’t automatically run at higher settings when you buy the new machine, I wonder how much more gas in the tank consoles even have without some fundamental transformation.
Yeah, this is a bubble. I don’t blame op for not liking that but the average consumer isn’t even aware and wouldn’t care anyway. Look at all the other shit the average consumer tolerates.
I agree also- just too expensive and no real improvements. I know two people with one. The one games a lot and he enjoys it but I don’t know how often he plays it anymore compared to steam. The other family plays it but are starved for games.
Nice if you have the pocket change but fundamentally just a lot of money for a slightly upgraded switch with few dedicated games. Jmho.
I have one, I like it as a slightly better switch, but, yeah. There’s not a lot of reasons to get one for now.
Mario Kart World and Age of Imprisonment are disappointing, most of the other first party games are just upgrades of Switch games, including Prime 4 that’s… Meh.
Bananza was a lot of fun, but it’s not selling a whole console.
This is exactly the problem, weird policy quirks and better alternatives didn’t help the situation but quite frankly there’s no new content for the Switch 2, and the performance bump over the OG Switch is almost irrelevant because raw performance isn’t the reason people buy Nintendo systems & games.
I have a big switch library, and my OG switch is not in the best of shapes. Also, I honestly expected better from Mario Kart.
So yeah, as I said, I’m not exactly advising anyone to get one right now. I’m just saying, it’s more comfortable than the switch, it has one good exclusive game, and it runs some switch 1 games significantly better.
Prime 4’s also on the OG Switch, so it doesn’t count as a reason to get one, other than “it runs better,” which applies to lots of other Switch games as well.
I mean there were like… NO sales. What the hell do you expect? We got one for our son and good Lord after Nintendo Online, Tax, Screen Protector, Insurance, one extra game its like an $800 expense!
I doubt it’s a common cause, but my impetus for boycotting Nintendo was Garry’s Mod. They sent their lawyers after animators, who actually get people more interested in their games. Their litigious nonsense caught up with them that time.
I wonder if it’s because they had 10 million ready to go in June for launch so most people who wanted one got one then. Especially because it’ll never go down in price, why wait until the holidays unless you have kids?
Mario-Kart-at-home by the way: supertuxkart.net
Buy now for $0 and get Rocket-League-at-home for free on top!
(It’s one of the game modes in SuperTuxKart. 🙃)
But yeah, $80 is kind of wild, even just because it’s fundamentally still a cart game. You pretty much need a group to regularly play it with, otherwise you won’t get your money’s worth out of that.
I actually reinstalled it myself after writing that comment. 😅
I only really started to fully appreciate it, when I learned that drifting gives you a boost. So, if you’re going around curves, you pretty much always want to drift, which then kicks your speed up once you stop drifting. Maintaining a higher speed than your car normally goes, is vital for beating the harder difficulties.
I like my regular Switch (because it’s jailbroken and I haven’t ever paid Nintendo for any game on it) but I see no reason to ever get a Switch 2 when the Steam Deck exists.
I’m not really surprised. I kind of saw this coming with the price and how the sales started dropping after the launch.
I was talking to a friend about it and i just got brushed off by him saying “The numbers are too large too mean anything”. It’s crazy how people like him just buried their heads in the sand
I got one for free because someone at an Amazon fulfillment center was off their game. Ordered some storage containers; one of them had Switch 2 in it. If Duskbloods wasn’t going to be an exclusive to the system, I wouldn’t have even kept it.
I own or owned every one of their consoles other than the Wii (though can play the games on the wii u). No more, between their pricing (especially on recycled content), wastefullness (all that excess plastic for a case that holds a tiny cart because a small box makes their prices even harder to stomach), and legal bs (going after modders, emulators, and the used game market via anti-piracy bricking depending on what the previous owner of the game did), fuck them.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
The Switch 2 is the first console I’ve just outright skipped in… well… years now. I guess since the Wii U?
Just every piece of news about it as it was coming out made it sound less and less appealing…
$70 games (that never get discounted because Nintendo.)
Games aren’t “games”, they’re download keys.
Special SD cards that are more expensive.
Microphone support requires a subscription after 1 year.
Charging $10 for a hardware demo that should be included, like Desk Job on the Steam Deck.
And, like you say, the remote detonation option, which is burning legitimate players:
https://www.gadgetmatch.com/nintendo-switch-2-lawsuit-bricked-consoles/
Generally with new hardware it’s “Hey, what’s not to like?”
With the Switch 2 it’s more “What is there to like?”
i skipped the first new switch, due to pokemon swsh, never regretted it, and many accurately predicted how bad it is with pokemon.
Yep, Switch 1 was much more interesting, and I still skipped it in favour of PC / Steam Deck.
The Wii made me absolutely rage because those consoles were region locked, preventing me from playing titles I had imported from other countries that weren’t published by Nintendo north America. I never spent money on Nintendo products after that. The rest of my family was still happy with Nintendo, and they have continued to purchase their consoles. I finally got my wife invested in PC gaming 2 years ago, and it warmed my bitter heart to hear she wanted a steam deck instead of the switch 2.
That was always the case for Nintendo’s home consoles, not like it was a new thing that started with the Wii. Switch was the first one to be region-free.
This was not the case for Nintendo consoles in the past. I imported plenty of NES, SNES, GC, GB, GBA, and DS carts that were published in Asia/Europe, but not published in the Americas, and had no issues playing them until the Wii. Those consoles I just mentioned were all region free.
NES and SNES were region-locked. In addition to an actual lockout chip, they even had different cartridge shapes so you couldn’t physically fit Famicom or Super Famicom games.
Handhelds were not (until DSi and 3DS), but I specifically said home consoles.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t region locking on the NES and SNES largely implemented via the shape of the cartridge? Frank Cifaldi and the VGHF just put out that NES history video, and it had some kind of authentication chip that could only be provided by Nintendo, and it was in the NES but not the Famicom. And on Gamecube, I seem to remember you needed an Action Replay to break the region locking, but I never dabbled in it myself.
I wasn’t importing famicom cartidges, I was importing NES cartidges that were not published in america.
Did you have a modded console? Without modification, the 10NES lockout chip prevents PAL cartridges from running on NTSC or vice versa. But it is possible to disable the chip to get around this.
NES, SNES, and GC were definitely region locked.
I love mine. The FPS boost alone in Zelda and Pokémon made it worth it for me. Cheaper than the GPU I want for my computer too. Then again, I went all in on the Switch in 2017 after skipping the Wii U, so more performance is fine with me. I do wish there was more stuff announced, though.
I skipped the Switch because I did get the Wii U. They abandoned that system too quickly due to poor sales so I was a little bitter. I almost went with the OLED, but decided to continue waiting since I had other systems and PC to play on. It’s the first Nintendo console I have ever skipped.
I did pick up the Switch 2, however, so I get to play all the games I missed over the years and any new ones. Glad I don’t have to wait so long on loading screens for Zelda like I did on the Wii U… which was painfully long.
My Switch 2 is pretty much strictly my Nintendo machine. And yeah, just have to wait for them to come out with more 1st party games. I usually buy 3rd party games on other systems because the graphics tend to be superior.
Oh yeah, watching my girlfriend play her Switch 1 now is agonizing. Her birthday is coming up and I think I know exactly what I’m going to be getting for her.
Games like Zelda now load so fast you can’t even see your stats on the loading screen. And ya know, that’s an okay problem to have.
“Never discounted” is just factually untrue, though. The biggest hitters don’t reach Steam-sale levels, sure, but I’m looking at $70 Tears of the Kingdom for $47 USD right now on Woot. I’ve purchased a fair number of Switch 1 games for around $40 in the last year and some (like Mario & Luigi Brothership and Super Mario RPG) went for as low as $25 USD around Black Friday.
That’s the thing. Such being considered a ‘discount’ is why people say Nintendo doesn’t discount games; why the Nintendo consoles end up being quite expensive when compared with a Steam Deck, where games are on discount on the regular.
Not saying don’t enjoy the console. Just with prices like that, it’s hard to justify for many. gestures at OP’s article
I picked up Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot for my kid for Christmas. $60 still after coming out in 2023.
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/advance-wars-1-plus-2-re-boot-camp-switch/
(* “My kid” - He’s 29, he should be buying his own games! LOL.)
i was planning to get a the first switch, with pokemon dint because of how bad the quality it was, and due to them admitting all future POKEMON games are going to be this way was the biggest turn off.
A GameBoy Advance reboot? May I recommend EmuDeck? Works on every OS.
Yeah, but you don’t give pirated goods as gifts. 😉
I still have the OG Advance Wars carts for my GBA.
Too expensive, too enshittified for me to consider. All they had to do was not fuck this up and they would’ve had a guaranteed sale but I don’t ever see myself spending a cent on Nintendo ever again.
deleted by creator
Same difference?
How is either Switch not enshittified when you have to pay a monthly subscription to backup your saves?
Did they ever support that for free?
Jesus fuck. I hadn’t realized how bad things had gotten in Nintendo-land.
How long has Steam been backing up saves for? I can’t even remember.
they got the idea from pokemon games, how you need an app just store all the pokemon, plus another app for certain other features for the main pokemon game. before the switch/3ds transition, i believe you had to pay for “storing your excess pokemon” on a app.
Even in the days of memory cards you could back up saves to other memory cards…
It’s not enshittified because the Switch was already shit.
also pokemon console being trashed by gamefreak incensed alot of switch/nintendo fans too.
It’s funny. I feel like with the switch 2 Nintendo finally listened to the fans who were saying they just want an incremental improvement. Just make the switch with a better processor. But they really just got too greedy with it and made it an incremental improvement in the worst way possible. Paid online, $70 games which never go on sale, paid switch 2 upgrade packs, LCD screen, digital download physical games.
It’s an incremental upgrade done as horribly as possible, it feels like people are struggling right now and Nintendo is trying to extract every dollar out of customers then wonders why the console isn’t doing well.
For me it’s a hard sell because like at that price why wouldn’t I just buy a steam deck. I don’t have to buy any new games, I don’t have to pay for upgrade packs to have my games run on it, I don’t have to pay for online services. I’m not going to have to rebuy games if I buy a steam frame or steam machine. It also has seamless save transfers, and steam is famous for its sales.
It’s just funny because I feel like people were asking for a switch with more power but now that it’s here like why would you buy it over a steam deck.
Also to top it off Nintendo’s lawyers are aggressively going after emulators, streamers and modders. Why would I want to support a company so hostile to its own community
Generally agree with your post, but a large majority of games really are games. If they’re a download key, it’s very clearly labelled on the box.
The point they are probably trying to make is with a key you don’t own the game like you would with a hardware cartridge in older Nintendo systems. So you own nothing on the switch.
And the point I’m making is that only a handful of games are keys; the vast majority are still on the cart, same as the last system.
We’re broke
They ain’t that broke.
No one cares about this console.
Also even for people who want they can just get a gaming handheld and then gain access to a bunch of games which rarely cost $80 even when they’re brand new. Buying a Switch 2 just isn’t a financially sensible decision for anyone regardless of how much money you have in your bank account
I’d argue it is financially sensible if you want one. Current price may be the lowest it’s ever been, with increasing prices for RAM and storage. There’s only so much stock they have bought previously.
Plus Nintendo anti consumer practices, fuck them for that
Everyone not on Nintendo’s bubble knew a while ago. The Switch 2 was being discounted in ways that no successful console would be, the PS5 outsold it in key markets, and third party software sales for the Switch 2 are abysmally low.
i suspect alot of them are buying it so they can have pirated games on it, and the pokemon games. with pokmeon being a slop on the console now.
No piracy on the Switch 2 (yet). And it will take a while before it happens. The Switch 1 was blown wide open by a leaked bootrom exploit, I doubt this SOC will repeat the same mistake
The Steam Deck is the better product anyway. Got one recently and damn is it good.
Same. I was able to get like 10 long-wishlisted games for ~$100 with the Steam Winter Sale, too. Nintendo would never.
Bro that’s my patient gaming technique! $10 games FTW!
What you got?
and I guess no. 10 was a copy of Coral Island I was gifted, oops lol
At some point I still want LAN Party Adventures, and The Lonesome Guild but those will wait until the next sale. In the meantime I have plenty to sink my teeth (thumbs?) into!
Well I saw Pokemon Legends ZA for 48% off recently. Not that it‘s worth that much or that I would ever buy a Switch 2. I actually stumbled upon that sale randomly. But the fact it‘s on sale already speaks volumes. Nintendo is likely in panic mode.
i wonder if it has do with pokemon being slop for the past generation and this one too. the lack of quality of the pokemon games doesnt justify its high cost. also because game freak said this the future of all pokemon games.
I got emulators setup so I can even play switch games on it as well.
Which switch emulator is working well for you? I still have yuzu and ryujinx on mine but games are crashing when I try to load them and stuff
There are several yuzu and ryujinx forks floating around. For yuzu there’s citron, and eden-emu; for ryujinx there’s ryubing. Game compatibility varies so I suggest trying them all and see if any works.
Ain’t got those amazing Nintendo games though. Glhf finding a Mario Cart replacement that is actually as good.
IMO, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is better than Mario Kart. I find it much more fun.
The Sonic Racing series is great but still isnt the same. Maybe nostalgia :)
This is not entirely true. Depending on the stance of the person regarding piracy. You can definitely play Mario Kart on the Steam Deck. Emulations for PS1 PS2, Switch 1 exist (there are more but these I know on the top of my head).
The Steam Deck can play nearly all Switch 1 titles through emulation. Yes, developers were taken down but the emulators do still work perfectly fine (I’m saying this as Steam Deck owner and using Emulators myself).
EDIT; noticed we are in the same instance. Now I’m curious whether you were serious or it was sarcasm…
It might be, but if you care about the newest games, you either stick with the Switch 2, wait for a SD 2 or look elsewhere… The SD is getting closer to the Switch 1 state where modern games start to look more blurry, and if you want a hybrid device… Well, it is gonna show more.
Also for some stupid reasons SD availability sucks in several countries, like Mexico.
Most of “the newest games” are well within the spec of the Steam Deck. Of the 4 non-exclusive games nominated for GOTY at the Keighleys, they’ll all run on it just fine. Some of the biggest games of the year end up being the likes of Peak, Schedule I, or Megabonk, and not only are those games only available on PC (at least for a while), but they’re not even pushing the spec of the Steam Deck to its limit. With RAM pricing issues going on right now, high end studios are likely going to target a lower spec. And the companies that can afford to make a game that hits that higher spec are few and far between anyway, compared to the AA and indie studios that made most of the best games of the past few years.
From what I’ve heard, Expedition 33 runs like hot garbage. Even if you use something like Lossless Frames to use AI generated frames to fill in gaps and run at super low settings.
I played it all on desktop, but it looks like it got an update a month ago and is now Deck verified. Friends of mine played it on Deck before that and didn’t mention any complaints, but I wasn’t fishing for them either.
That is quite a positive thought that I would truly want to become real, let’s just wait and see I guess, that doesn’t change the fact that SD 2 is imminent though (I know that is obvious).
What about hybrid gaming? I don’t think anyone can agree that SD is better than the Switch 2 or any other handheld device in 2025 regarding that… Perhaps only in certain cases as locked awful framerate (for the Switch 2).
All of new gaming hardware is decidedly less imminent now that this pricing nonsense is going on. Even if the tech exists, no one thinks they can sell at what they’d have to charge for it. It’s going to be a rough near term future for gaming hardware before it eventually levels out. Reports are that consoles planned for 2027 are now looking like they’ll be pushed back.
I’m not super used to calling that “hybrid gaming”, but my wife seems to have no problem playing cozy games on the Steam Deck, almost exclusively on the TV when I didn’t take it with me on the go. And we’re once again back to the best games and the best graphics not being all that correlated. The other part is that even if a random gamer has a Steam Deck, it’s unlikely to be their only gaming PC, and if they want the power to produce that larger image at better frame rates at home, they’ll play on that other PC, and that game will run its best there. On Switch 2, that one device is your only option no matter what. That means that if you want to play one of those beefier titles from the Switch 1, they’re not going to run at better settings ever unless the developer explicitly upgrades them; even then, there’s often the Switch tax compared to buying the same game on PC.
I’m not trying to talk you down from a Switch 2 if that’s your preference, but if someone’s asking me for a recommendation for a gaming handheld, the Steam Deck is going to be what I tell them until I rule it out due to some other need. I definitely wouldn’t start with a Switch 2. The Deck just hits a compelling price with a good software experience and, perhaps most importantly, a library that dwarfs what Nintendo could ever hope to match by following the traditional console model.
Its so much fun! And my library of steam games already works on it.
I find the Steam Deck far too heavy and bulky unfortunately. I’d love a Switch sized handheld PC.
Idk I picked it up and personally I felt the complete opposite. Everyone says its so massive and huge, I expected this massive bulky handheld but sadly its the opposite. Its big yeah but not really controller sized, my hands are too big for it so I’ll just stick to the steam controller (until the new one releases)
I love mine but I also agree that it’s a chunky boy. I’d absolutely get a Steam Deck Lite if Valve were ever to come out with one, even if it had weaker performance than the original.
The same is true of PlayStation and Xbox too (and has been for a decade or more). At least in US, don’t know about Europe. This is not to defend Nintendo, just saying that if that was the issue, it would effect all the consoles, and would have been effecting them for last many years. Average people don’t even know about these, and many probably don’t even care.
There might be more to this, but with the current economy, and consoles getting more expensive instead of cheaper as time goes on could be some of the reasons, IMO. And there weren’t much holiday sales this year.
First year sales are also generally limited by supply, not demand, so it will be interesting to see how Switch 2 does in its second and third years, specially if we do get next PS and Xbox next year.
General availability seems to imply that supply was not a constraint by the time we got to the holiday shopping season.
Oh yeah, that last lines were about Switch 2 doing record sales in first year, not about the holidays sales, should have made it clear.
I agree with all your points about holiday sales, but I am not sure if it means that it’s momentum has slowed down or it just went down because of other expenses and stuff people wanted to buy over this period. Will be interesting if the sales go back up or if they keep going down.
Didnt playstation do amazingly well?
Not sure, I got the impression that all consoles sold worse than usual, but I didn’t actually dig deep into it.
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/gaming-industry/despite-early-supply-issues-more-than-80-2-million-ps5-units-have-been-sold
Behind the ps4 in outright numbers given the same period of sales time.
Surprised they’ve done that well though. It’s good but the ps4 still holds its own IMO.
It was the best selling console in the US this holiday season, but not sure how it’s sales compared to previous years. It also was on a big discount which definitely helped.
A “big discount” which placed it around the price it launched at.
I doubt the ability to brick your console remotely played too large of a part in this. It’s far more likely the asking price combined with the general economic situation for the average consumer, combined with a worse screen and a lesser launch offering of titles. For my own biases, when you see how consoles have required online subscriptions and how your old games don’t automatically run at higher settings when you buy the new machine, I wonder how much more gas in the tank consoles even have without some fundamental transformation.
Yeah, this is a bubble. I don’t blame op for not liking that but the average consumer isn’t even aware and wouldn’t care anyway. Look at all the other shit the average consumer tolerates.
I agree also- just too expensive and no real improvements. I know two people with one. The one games a lot and he enjoys it but I don’t know how often he plays it anymore compared to steam. The other family plays it but are starved for games.
Nice if you have the pocket change but fundamentally just a lot of money for a slightly upgraded switch with few dedicated games. Jmho.
I have one, I like it as a slightly better switch, but, yeah. There’s not a lot of reasons to get one for now.
Mario Kart World and Age of Imprisonment are disappointing, most of the other first party games are just upgrades of Switch games, including Prime 4 that’s… Meh.
Bananza was a lot of fun, but it’s not selling a whole console.
This is exactly the problem, weird policy quirks and better alternatives didn’t help the situation but quite frankly there’s no new content for the Switch 2, and the performance bump over the OG Switch is almost irrelevant because raw performance isn’t the reason people buy Nintendo systems & games.
deleted by creator
Neither do I, but it was about 450 where I live.
I have a big switch library, and my OG switch is not in the best of shapes. Also, I honestly expected better from Mario Kart.
So yeah, as I said, I’m not exactly advising anyone to get one right now. I’m just saying, it’s more comfortable than the switch, it has one good exclusive game, and it runs some switch 1 games significantly better.
deleted by creator
its all those excess fees coming along with buying the switch, and the game, +online features.
Prime 4’s also on the OG Switch, so it doesn’t count as a reason to get one, other than “it runs better,” which applies to lots of other Switch games as well.
I mean there were like… NO sales. What the hell do you expect? We got one for our son and good Lord after Nintendo Online, Tax, Screen Protector, Insurance, one extra game its like an $800 expense!
$400 a game 💀💀💀
if your paying pokemon, expect to pay double for what its worth due to all the DLC, online play, pokemon storage,etc.
Insurance?
Whether it is a cell phone or a portable computer, I will not refuse screen drop protection for electronics.
yea 300-400 for a new switch? plus a game that is 60-70$+ dlc is another 30$, and online play, and storage if your playing pokemon.
I doubt it’s a common cause, but my impetus for boycotting Nintendo was Garry’s Mod. They sent their lawyers after animators, who actually get people more interested in their games. Their litigious nonsense caught up with them that time.
I wonder if it’s because they had 10 million ready to go in June for launch so most people who wanted one got one then. Especially because it’ll never go down in price, why wait until the holidays unless you have kids?
nintendo is likely banking on the parents to buy for the needy kids right on launch.
deleted by creator
OMG this line got me 😂.
B-but you can buy an overpriced webcam to talk to your friends over spotty online voice chat. What other features could you possibly want?! (/s)
deleted by creator
Mario-Kart-at-home by the way: supertuxkart.net
Buy now for $0 and get Rocket-League-at-home for free on top!
(It’s one of the game modes in SuperTuxKart. 🙃)
But yeah, $80 is kind of wild, even just because it’s fundamentally still a cart game. You pretty much need a group to regularly play it with, otherwise you won’t get your money’s worth out of that.
deleted by creator
I actually reinstalled it myself after writing that comment. 😅
I only really started to fully appreciate it, when I learned that drifting gives you a boost. So, if you’re going around curves, you pretty much always want to drift, which then kicks your speed up once you stop drifting. Maintaining a higher speed than your car normally goes, is vital for beating the harder difficulties.
deleted by creator
I like my regular Switch (because it’s jailbroken and I haven’t ever paid Nintendo for any game on it) but I see no reason to ever get a Switch 2 when the Steam Deck exists.
I’m not really surprised. I kind of saw this coming with the price and how the sales started dropping after the launch.
I was talking to a friend about it and i just got brushed off by him saying “The numbers are too large too mean anything”. It’s crazy how people like him just buried their heads in the sand
I got mine for 99 DKK including Mariokart because the shop selling it fucked up their discount. Best value I’ve ever gotten. XD
I got one for free because someone at an Amazon fulfillment center was off their game. Ordered some storage containers; one of them had Switch 2 in it. If Duskbloods wasn’t going to be an exclusive to the system, I wouldn’t have even kept it.
I’m keeping it around because at some point in the future the Switch 2 will get hacked, and boy am I going to have some sailing to do.
Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by aggressively going after the modding and archival communities.
They will never get another cent of my money and I own over a dozen Nintendo consoles.
I own or owned every one of their consoles other than the Wii (though can play the games on the wii u). No more, between their pricing (especially on recycled content), wastefullness (all that excess plastic for a case that holds a tiny cart because a small box makes their prices even harder to stomach), and legal bs (going after modders, emulators, and the used game market via anti-piracy bricking depending on what the previous owner of the game did), fuck them.