Earlier quoted context omitted.
it’s a business, not a charity
I think it's commentary on capitalism, not on a company acting out of the ordinary.
You're probably right
Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
231–240 of 258 posts
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#232I bought a Steam Deck earlier this year and haven’t touched my Switch since. Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo, so this is essentially a nail in the coffin for folks who were already questioning Nintendo’s prices and value proposition. Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but…
The only reason to buy Nintendo hardware is so that you can play Nintendo's exclusive games. In the past, I felt that it was worth it. In the recent years, there haven't been many good Nintendo releases, definitely not enough to justify buying Switch 2. I feel that Nintendo should really become just a software company. All consoles are converging towards using more or less similar PC hardware anyway, so having your o…
> The only reason to buy Nintendo hardware is so that you can play Nintendo's exclusive games
Nintendo also pushes gaming innovation in different directions, enabling interesting experiences. It's not always successful, but is rarely boring: virtual boy (proto-VR), dual screen gaming (DS, 3DS, Wii U), asymmetric multiplayer (Wii U), split controller with motion controls (Wii, Switch), advanced haptics (Switch), screen-free gaming (1-2 Switch), glasses-free lenticular 3D (3DS), hybrid cardboard gaming (Labo/Switch), slab handheld (2DS), hybrid handheld/TV gaming (Wii U, Switch), asynchronous network interaction and game data sharing (3DS street pass), moderated social networking (Warawara Plaza and MiiVerse on Wii U and 3DS), etc.
The consoles are carefully designed. Game Boy had a non-backlit, reflective display that enabled it to be used in broad daylight and helped it achieve a 50-hour battery life. GBA SL and Nintendo DS/3DS were attractive and functional clamshell designs. GameCube (a compact and rather charming purple cube design) had a handle to encourage people to move the system to different TVs or bring it to friends' houses. Switch has a kickstand and a dock system to enable quick switching between handheld, tabletop, and TV-attached gaming, all without restarting the game.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
DK Bonanza was fun. I just pre-ordered Star Fox: I played the SNES one as a kid a lot, but I never played the N64 one that the Switch 2 one is based on. The new Mario Kart is also great, and the larger screen is great too. At 45 I don't need to use reading glasses when I use Virtual Console, but on the OLED Switch I usually use reading glasses with Virtual Console.
We didn’t love DK or Mario kart when we had my friends Switch 2 one weekend so it still hasn’t felt worth it yet.
Switch OLED is still great, as the Switch 2 display is something of a downgrade.
But the Switch 2 shines for Nintendo gaming on a 4K display and for actually being able to play PS4-era games well on a handheld.
I am not completely sold on Mario Kart World's open-world driving (vs. Mario Kart 8's track-only approach), but it's still a lot of fun, plays well, looks fantastic, and scales up to 24 players for LAN games and tournaments.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#234I’m waiting for a special edition and some games that make the upgrade worthwhile.
DK Bonanza was fun. I just pre-ordered Star Fox: I played the SNES one as a kid a lot, but I never played the N64 one that the Switch 2 one is based on. The new Mario Kart is also great, and the larger screen is great too. At 45 I don't need to use reading glasses when I use Virtual Console, but on the OLED Switch I usually use reading glasses with Virtual Console.
Star Fox 64 is great (you can play it now on the Switch, as well as the SNES version, via Nintendo Switch Online).
Do a barrel roll!
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was stronger but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1. They know that the combination of extremely high quality first party exclusives combined with hugely popular IP is going to move units even if they're…
The combination of expensive hardware AND expensive games kills the switch 2 for me. 80 Dollar just to play Mario Kart? Even older switch titles are barely ever on sale. I never buy games at full price so the economics don't add up for me. I guess it works for the kind of person that buys games on release. If someone has that much money to burn they don't need to care about hardware cost either I guess.
Yeah Nintendo basically doesn’t even acknowledge the concept of marking things down, even many years after their release. And as the physical media window begins closing, even buying a used game will become not a thing anymore. Probably the Switch 3 or whatever they call it will not have a card slot anymore. And used consoles might lose all their games when signed out of an account. I’m sure they’d love that.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was wondering the same thing - I grew up thinking of console prices as something that invariably fell over time
Ram prices went up, normally they go down.
Yeah, given everything I'm not entirely surprised - I'm just curious if this is literally the first time a console has gone up in price post-release, or if I just wasn't paying attention the other times.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#237The Switch 2 also released right in the midst of the tariff mayhem, Nintendo really couldn't catch a break with this generation.
“Catch a break” Please. It’s fucking Nintendo. It deserves to be fucked over as much as humanly possible.
Its the only video game developer that didn't ruin their franchises with bullshit so far, they have stuck around in the industry with a good reputation for quality for 40 years for this reason. No other developer has stayed around that long with consistent quality sequels.
Almost every other big video game developer deserves to get fucked over much harder for ruining their franchises with cheap sequels and adding endless micro transactions and pay to win everywhere.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#238I bought a Steam Deck earlier this year and haven’t touched my Switch since. Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo, so this is essentially a nail in the coffin for folks who were already questioning Nintendo’s prices and value proposition. Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but…
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? Yes! Famously so, in fact. Look up Gupei Yokoi and "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology".
As another fun fact: the most powerful system has never "won" the console generation. Nintendo only has to be strong enough to realize its and 3rd party's visions. And even then, it can get away with being a little weaker than that line.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adults aren’t the target market. I pay a premium because I know there are content standards and at least the big titles aren’t going to bombard my kids with inappropriate content.
But also most parents will scoff at the prices and tell them to pick cheaper toys.
The bigger issue is that they'd scoff at the price and get their kids to play Roblox or Fortnite on some tablet. The steam deck isn't what the console marker is really worried about these days.
Re: Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an odd criticism to begin with. The Switch is a toy, it's not a PC. Apart from a few shitty PC ports, it runs its games just fine, so in what sense is it really "underpowered"? Would Super Mario Bros. Wonder be a better game if the Switch 2 could push twice as many polygons?
Compared to Xbox and PlayStation it’s vastly underpowered. They’re not “shitty PC ports”, they’re ports that people tried, likely managed to one platform and then when they tried on switch 2 realised just how far behind it is.
>Compared to Xbox and PlayStation it’s vastly underpowered.
Sure, the same way an IPhone 17 is vastly underpowerred compared to a PS5. I'd hope we don't need to go into details on why that's not a very useful comparison.
>They’re not “shitty PC ports”,
Garbage in, garbage out. They are called "shitty PC ports" because the port to the PC from the PS5/XBX was bad, without the specs excuse.