The Switch 2 Rollout Was So Convoluted It Made Us Want A Steam Deck.

Buy our new device that you can use like a computer mouse!
But I already have a computer with a mouse...?

I feel like Nintendo missed the mark on this. I dont need or really want 4k. Are 4k tvs even common? My dad has one but I don't nor do i know anyone other than him with one.
while i prefer cheaper (obviously) 450 for a console isn't insane to me. The price of games hurts more though.
The biggest letdown for me though is the battery life being 2-6 hours while the switch1 was 4-9 I think.
They had me on the fence until I read that. I mainly play handheld mode and that sucks and there's a good chance ill go for a steam deck over switch 2, at least until hopefully a cheaper or longer living option comes along.
- IIRC it was only later models that were 4-9 hrs. Release model got 3-5 I think?
  They switched (heh) production in later hardware revisions to a more efficient version of the CPU, manufactured with lower nm process. Conveniently it was also to stop easy access to debug pins which were exposed in the OG version, giving easy access to entire system

Honestly I don't see myself getting a switch 2 until its able to be emulated. and I'm buying it and all the games used so I don't have to support Nintendo financially

The console price, the game price and no oled screen as well as it being so damn big make it a hard pass for me.
Il wait for the Switch 2 Lite OLED.
- $450 and not OLED is insane

I don't blame them. Nintendo fans buy anything at any price. I don't see it being different this time.
Mario Kart 8 never goes on sale and sold 70m copies; Pokémon Scarlet/Violet sold 30m despite looking and playing like dogshit; they sold Skyward Sword HD, the remaster of a 10-yo game, at full price and still placed a few millions.
Nintendo is basically like Apple at this point, the brand is enough to convince people to spend more than they would for the competition, regardless of quality. I personally know a lot of people who loudly groaned/complained at the price announcement, but will still buy it day one, just like they always had in all these years.
And people terminally online should stop pretending the Steam Deck is competition to the Switch 2. It couldn't even compete with the Switch 1, which was five years older, had worse performance, and had been easily emulated for years at that point.
- Nintendo fans buy anything at any price.
  Counterpoints: Wii U. 3DS at launch.
- You're not wrong, Nintendo fans will buy this. As a Nintendo fan, I will buy this - though, it's gone from a Day 1, no-brainer purchase to "when I can justify the expense" - but Nintendo fans make up a small fraction of people who bought a Switch 1.
  See: Wii U, 3DS
  The Wii and DS printed money, and they assumed most of those users would move on to the new hardware. They did not. They had to slash the 3DS price within months, and nothing saved the Wii U.
  
  Probably not going to happen, but I think it would be awesome if it’s like the 3DS where they realize the cost is too much, then they lower the price significantly and the early adopters who sacrificed their firstborns for it will have some sort of ambassador program.
- The question is how many of the Switch 1 buyers are Nintendo fans. Many, like me, bought Switch entering for 1st time to the Nintendo, but i am not consider myself a loyal mindless fan. With kids and families is harder though.
  I will just skip Switch 2 and just play only in my PC like i always had. If they release a good Steam Deck that it is worthy, i will consider it. If the market slaps them and they return to reality, i will consider Switch 2 for 2026.
  
  As someone with kids and a Switch, I think I can chime in.
  It's easy to pick up, my kids play some games on it, curiously it's always in handheld mode, never docked.
  The literal only thing that might change when I get a Steam Deck is them not being able to use touch controls. They sometimes prefer them for some games, but I think it's worth learning to use a controller in the long run. Pretty sure we'll have both Switch and SD for a while so I don't think it's much of a problem.
  I'll miss some games, but in the end I don't really have that much nostalgia for Nintendo as I grew up with a PC and only consoles I had were a NES knock-off, and a Gameboy Color
- Apart from both being TV/Handheld hybrid consoles, I’m not understanding why people think Switch/2 and Steam Deck are in direct competition with each other. They aren’t. They’re in totally separate leagues.
  
  Similar form factor, similar price, similar use case. The big difference is that one plays Nintendo games and another plays PC games.
  I own a steam deck, therefore the appeal of a switch 2 is their exclusive games. I don't need both, they scratch the same itch.
- Does the sales reflect if Mario Kart 8 was bundled with the console as a purchase? So are they paying the full price in the end? Obliviously the prices are totally outrageous which is why I think I only have 4 games on the Switch and half of them were included with the console.
- Nintendo is basically like Apple at this point, the brand is enough to convince people to spend more than they would for the competition, regardless of quality.
  People spend more on Apple/Nintendo because of quality. Windows is ten years gone to enshittification. The ps5/xbox have ads on their home screen and are one bad GTA away from a full industry crash
  
  People spend more on Apple/Nintendo because of quality.
  Perhaps we had very different experiences with the JoyCon...
  Joking aside, I agree. I used to buy Nintendo for that reason. Then came JoyCon drift and out of control Nintendo lawyers.
  
  No. They buy Apple & Nintendo because of brand loyalty and their social significance.
  Have you not seen how deranged they get about those companies products? Nintendo fans lose their minds if someone dare criticize a Mario, Metroid, and especially Zelda games.
  Apple fanatics think every new product is a revolution even though some other company or organization has usually already beat them to the punch.
  Further, Windows, PS5, & Xbox are are not their only competition. And even then, they are enshitiffied now but that doesn't explain Nintendo and Apple fans behavior before those competitors became this way.

It's not convoluted at all. It's extremely simple: if you want to (edit: legally) play first party Nintendo titles (or other exclusives), you MUST buy a switch. If you don't care about Nintendo exclusives, there's absolutely no reason to own a switch. That has been true of every, single Nintendo console ever released... except for the Wii. People bought a Wii so they could play a motion control game with Grandma once or twice, and then just let the console sit and collect dust.
- When the Switch 1 released there was nothing else on the market like it. Play handheld on the bus, get home, dock it, continue playing in full HD. That is amazing. I didn't get the Switch 1 because of the exclusives, it was the versatility that got me.
  
  I agree that Nintendo was ahead of the curve when it came to expanding portable gaming, but the only reason the switch sold so many units, and ultimately got so many games ported to it, was because of Nintendo first party titles. If you look at the best selling switch titles, the vast majority of them are Nintendo games. Without Nintendo first party titles, the switch would have been far outsold by better devices.
- Yuzu would like to have a word
- I see your not a high seas enjoyer
  
  New game console arrived
  Comment suggesting piracy as the first option
  gets up-votes
  so-called gaming community
  
  Most people don't want to dedicate brain cells for that
- People bought a Wii so they could play a motion control game with Grandma once or twice
  I'd give up everything just to do this...
- Well. NES/SNES/N64/GameCube/DS/GBA all had bangers. The well started to dry up around the wii.

The only thing "convoluted" about this whole announcement was pricing. The price of the console The price of the games The price of their online services and upgrades...
All of that is gut-wrenching as Nintendo claws at its dedicated fans wallets.
Otherwise the features and games look amazing, i understand why people are willing to pay those prices.
Fingers crossed we luck out with easy jailbreaks and emulators like we did for the Switch 1.
- Maybe I’m just getting old, but I was very bored and underwhelmed during the entire presentation even before the terrible pricing reveal. I like the mouse joycons and the Donkey Kong game. That’s about it.
- Fingers crossed we luck out with easy jailbreaks and emulators like we did for the Switch 1.
  Nintendo won't make this mistake again. But I'm like you, also hoping their security experts are the same dipshits as before so we can resume pirating the entire overpriced Nintendo library.
  
  Nintendo won’t make this mistake again
  17th time's the charm
  
  Nintendo continuously makes the easiest to hack and emulate consoles and handhelds. They been fighting emulation for 30 years and still churn out systems that get cracked immediately.
  
  youd be suprised. all of Sonys consoles are hackable, despite efforts to stopping it. willing to guess that another SD express exploit will be found, as one was already found late last year, and the switch 2 is one of the devices that uses it.
  
  Pure speculation here, but I'm pretty sure the reason Nintendo significantly ramped up their legal hiring in the past few years is because they figured it was cheaper to chill the development of custom firmware and emulation than it was to tighten up their hardware.
  I'm sure they still made an effort, but I'd be very surprised if the security isn't broken fairly quickly.
  
  Nintendo makes this mistake like every single time, what do you mean
  
  They've had dumb vulnerabilities in every single console. Given this one is a refresh, it probably won't have some huge unpatchable vuln, but there's always something.
  
  The first model run of Switches had an SOC hardware flaw that wad Nvidia's fault.
- jailbreaks and emulators
  I'm afraid of the possibility the Switch 2 will be their Xbox 360 -> Xbox One moment in terms of security...
- They made a change that the cartridges no longer hold the game data but will require a download of the game and the cartridge is just a key for the digital game.
  That will stop game dumping from the cartridge. But with a jailbroken console, we can still get the game that way.
  
  That’s not true. The physical games do contain the game. Game-key cards do not. There is a difference
- "dedicated fan". play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

But $450 does feels like the upper limit cost of something you give a child, and if you're charging me Real Console money for this then I kinda expect to be treated like an adult.
It is a Real Console. Today's big showpiece was fucking Bloodborne 2 and some people still can't get out of their bubble where they think it's a children's toy.
- Nintendo deliberately exited the Real Console wars after the Gamecube. This is an interesting time for them to decide to re-join it.
- Nintendo launched the first Switch at $299; just accounting for inflation over the past years - that’s ~$390 now, BEFORE even trying to account for any Trump-tariffs they have been (or will be) imposed on electronics hardware.
  I hate to give Nintendo credit, but $450 is actually somewhat reasonable given the current global shit-show.
  
  I think most people are more upset about Nintendo pushing an $80 price tag for first party games. TotK put a bad taste in a lot of peoples' mouths, but it was both a technical marvel and highly anticipated. People were beyond hyped about the game years before we learned about the increased price.
  Mario Kart World was announced out of the blue, and while it looks like a ton of fun, it's not the same kind of 'I would be disappointed if I didn't play it before I died' as TotK. So a further bump in price for it just feels awful.
  
  It's not just the console prices that have gone up. Console is, 470 euros, Mario Kart is 90 euros, Pro Controller 2 is 90 euros, the SD card is 60 euros, a webcam is 60 euros...
  Meanwhile, their competition is getting cheaper every day.
  
  To your point
  Atari
  Atari 2600 (1977) – $199.99 (~$1,010 today)
  Magnavox
  Magnavox Odyssey (1972) – $99.99 (~$745 today)
  Nintendo
  Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (1985) – $199.99 (~$560 today)
  Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) (1991) – $199.99 (~$460 today)
  Nintendo 64 (1996) – $199.99 (~$400 today)
  GameCube (2001) – $199.99 (~$345 today)
  Wii (2006) – $249.99 (~$375 today)
  Nintendo Switch (2017) – $299.99 (~$370 today)
  Sega
  Sega Master System (1986) – $199.99 (~$550 today)
  Sega Genesis (1989) – $189.99 (~$470 today)
  Sony (PlayStation)
  PlayStation (PS1) (1995) – $299.99 (~$600 today)
  PlayStation 2 (2000) – $299.99 (~$540 today)
  PlayStation 3 (2006) – $499.99 - $599.99 (~$750 - $900 today)
  PlayStation 4 (2013) – $399.99 (~$540 today)
  PlayStation 5 (2020) – $399.99 - $499.99 (~$480 - $600 today)
  Microsoft (Xbox)
  Xbox (2001) – $299.99 (~$520 today)
  Xbox 360 (2005) – $299.99 - $399.99 (~$470 - $630 today)
  Xbox One (2013) – $499.99 (~$675 today)
  Xbox Series X (2020) – $499.99 (~$600 today)
  
  Almost like they base prices on actual financial accounting and not the feelings of gamers.
  Of course any economist will tell you economics is part psychology and sociology because humans aren't rational actors, but it evens out at these large scales, and they have to start somewhere.
  
  Yeah, this was my thinking as well. Inflation + preparations for tariffs are likely enough to bring the price to 450.

Best time to buy Nintendo hardware is after the announcement of a hardware exploit.
- The second best time is before

Those are not the same thing? How do I play the new Donkey Kong and Formsoft exclusive (!) on a Steam deck?
- Emulation (although you may have to wait a bit)
  
  Do you really think the Steam Deck will have the horsepower to emulate Switch 2? I'd love too, but even Switch 1 is not in perfect level yet (like PPSSPP perfect like).

The game pricing argument goes back and forth for me. Yes, on paper, you could say that inflation suggests games should go up in price, especially considering how many more developers are needed to put out high-fidelity games. BUT, on the other hand, the minimum wage has not raised significantly in all of that time. As a result, a significant number of gamers genuinely can't pay more for games than they could 20+ years ago. The reason these larger studios exist is because of gaming's expanded reach in that time; and many of these new target territories similarly can't pay for the equivalent of $80USD.
There's maybe only about 1-2 games I've ever even paid the $70 price tag for.
- I agree, sales are constant (at least on PC) so I almost never even paid the $60 price tag. They can keep cranking up the prices but more and more people may just wait for sales. I know Nintendo games don't go on sale very often but that makes the ecosystem even less attractive. $450 is in the range of a Steam deck.
  Inflation or not, prices can only go up if the market will support them. If people are unable (or unwilling) to pay the higher prices, then prices basically can't go up.

I mean... I will be able to get a Nintendo Switch 2 eventually... Regarding the Steam Deck, I can't buy it officially in Mexico yet... Come on Valve, we are literally neighbors of the USA lol.

Summary; two older men complain about something that they arent interested in: introduce politics and whine about pricing.
- Its almost like those "politics" are related to why the pricing is weird?
  But hey, fuck em. This is hype train time, right? We should be thankful it is only eighty bucks for Mario Kart because REAL fans would give them a hundred bucks for the greatest game ever made or whatever asinine bullshit.
  
  You aren't a true gamer unless you buy 20 copies of ~~Celeste~~ Mario Kart World to support the starving developer ~~Maddy Makes Games~~ Nintendo.
  
  Tbf, the pricing isnt really out yet, im prepared to see the dollar value go up just due to todays news. By the time its actually in the US the tariffs will probably be higher. Nintendo fans are definitely gonna shell out, like always, no matter the cost. Maybe it will sell less because of the price structure and corpos will learn a lesson, but I doubt it. This timeline hurts me