Praying this is for real this time. I've been duped before: Silksong Wikipedia.
Praying this is for real this time. I've been duped before:
A new trailer was revealed at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022, revealing that Silksong would be released on Xbox Game Pass at launch, with the game being available through the service for PC and Xbox Series X/S.[12] While no release date was announced, the Xbox Twitter account stated in a tweet that it would be available within the next twelve months, implying they expected a release by 12 June 2023.
... Team Cherry marketing and publishing representative Matthew Griffin declared on 10 May 2023 that the game was delayed, stating "We had planned to release in the first half of 2023, but development is still continuing."
They'd better not pull the rug out from under us, we've been waiting so long! And let's face it r/silksong will probably implode and take the rest of the universe with them if they get hoodwinked.
They'd better not pull the rug out from under us, we've been waiting so long! And let's face it r/silksong will probably implode and take the rest of the universe with them if they get hoodwinked.
Kirby's Air Ride was MY game growing up and I would love to try out the new version. On another note, I said off the cuff with friends that there would be a new F-Zero, Silksong news, and it would...
Kirby's Air Ride was MY game growing up and I would love to try out the new version.
On another note, I said off the cuff with friends that there would be a new F-Zero, Silksong news, and it would be the same game, so I actually made out like a bandit compared to my serious predictions.
My buddy and I have been joking for the past few months about Sakurai's big project being Kirby Air Ride 2. That was not a prediction we expected to be right about...
My buddy and I have been joking for the past few months about Sakurai's big project being Kirby Air Ride 2. That was not a prediction we expected to be right about...
Air Riders was my #1 most hype announcement - so exciting! Air Ride was ahead of its time in so many ways, and Sakurai being back on board is SO promising. City Trial was like a battle royale game...
Air Riders was my #1 most hype announcement - so exciting! Air Ride was ahead of its time in so many ways, and Sakurai being back on board is SO promising.
City Trial was like a battle royale game mode before that was really a thing. I'm just salivating at the possibilities of what it can look like nowadays, especially with online!
Just throwing my name in the ring as a lover of Air Ride and the city attack mode in particular - a friend and I would take turns with the Hydra and try and slam into the other player who was...
Just throwing my name in the ring as a lover of Air Ride and the city attack mode in particular - a friend and I would take turns with the Hydra and try and slam into the other player who was doing their best to dodge the one hit kill. We also just liked exploring all the nooks around that map.
I definitely want to hear it from them directly, but word on the street (well, the patent, allegedly) is that it'll use Hall Effect joysticks, which don't have the drift problem.
I definitely want to hear it from them directly, but word on the street (well, the patent, allegedly) is that it'll use Hall Effect joysticks, which don't have the drift problem.
I’m confused. I thought that the first look trailer of the Switch 2 from February had already confirmed that the new Joycons would have Hall Effect sticks.
Wow. I full on hallucinated. I was so sure that I remembered seeing them mark the sticks as “Hall Effect” back when I saw that trailer. Yikes. That means that they might not. Not the “news” I...
Wow. I full on hallucinated. I was so sure that I remembered seeing them mark the sticks as “Hall Effect” back when I saw that trailer. Yikes. That means that they might not. Not the “news” I wanted to hear today...
Yeah, the need to pay for that demo actually left me slack jawed. 1 2 Switch was basically a demo collection too, but it was a physically released game that was introducing a lot of new stuff so...
Yeah, the need to pay for that demo actually left me slack jawed. 1 2 Switch was basically a demo collection too, but it was a physically released game that was introducing a lot of new stuff so it felt at least somewhat substantial. The one new feature the Switch 2 has is the mouse. And maybe a better haptic system? They don’t have much detail on it. I suppose it also has a microphone and an optional camera, but both of those were things they didn’t put on the Switch after having it standard on the Wii U gamepad.
It also feels bad that they are charging for the switch 2 version of Switch games. I guess it’s not that bad because those have content improvements on them, but practically none of their competition does that; I got Spiderman PS5 free when I put in the disc for the PS4 version. It didn’t have content added to it, but it did have a whole lot more notable technical improvements.
Here's the official specs from Nintendo's site. Not sure if it's as comprehensive as you want (I admittedly don't look at specs too much), but it does seem to include some details not mentioned in...
Here's the official specs from Nintendo's site. Not sure if it's as comprehensive as you want (I admittedly don't look at specs too much), but it does seem to include some details not mentioned in the Direct. Not a fan of the low battery life, 2-6.5 hours is pretty short. I think that's the same as the Gen 1 Switch.
Maybe I’m just too trusting but it seems inconceivable they will ship with drift issues. Would they really want to be dogged by this issue for another generation?
Maybe I’m just too trusting but it seems inconceivable they will ship with drift issues. Would they really want to be dogged by this issue for another generation?
The pre-orders have been delayed in the US due to the tariffs. Release date currently unchanged. https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-switch-2/553133/pre-orders-delayed-trump-tariff
The pre-orders have been delayed in the US due to the tariffs. Release date currently unchanged.
A friend was live texting the announcements. I'd like to see a Zelda or 3d Mario, the rest of this stuff is neat but I'm not sure it's enough to make me preorder. Will have to watch the direct...
A friend was live texting the announcements. I'd like to see a Zelda or 3d Mario, the rest of this stuff is neat but I'm not sure it's enough to make me preorder. Will have to watch the direct later today to see if anything else stands out.
Sounds like $449? About inline with predictions I saw elsewhere; a bit steep but a steam deck can't (easily) play first party Nintendo games.
After buying LCD Switch and SteamDeck consoles only to be punished later by OLED releases of the same, I'm going to sleep on Switch 2 until I can get the console it should be on the first go.
After buying LCD Switch and SteamDeck consoles only to be punished later by OLED releases of the same, I'm going to sleep on Switch 2 until I can get the console it should be on the first go.
Switch OLED was likely delayed by around a year due to the pandemic; also OLEDs have only gone down in price. The time delta between regular and OLED should be smaller at this point. The Steam...
Switch OLED was likely delayed by around a year due to the pandemic; also OLEDs have only gone down in price.
The time delta between regular and OLED should be smaller at this point. The Steam Deck OLED came out less than 2 years after the regular Steam Deck. However, Valve is generally saner and less user hostile than Nintendo, so who knows what the delay will be.
I'm honestly befuddled that the Switch 2 isn't OLED from the beginning. Every mid-range (and up) smartphone is. Nintendo pushed HDR in the announcement but it'll look like shit on the LCD screen they have in there, especially if it doesn't have local dimming zones like the specs page implies.
And not only does it have a higher refresh rate, it even has a variable refresh rate! If they handle adaptive sync properly, screen tearing should be nearly nonexistent on the handheld display...
And not only does it have a higher refresh rate, it even has a variable refresh rate! If they handle adaptive sync properly, screen tearing should be nearly nonexistent on the handheld display which is a big improvement.
I've intentionally been holding off on the Scarlet/Violet Expansion Pass with the hope that they'd get performance boosts on Switch 2. So they're effectively launch titles for me!
I've intentionally been holding off on the Scarlet/Violet Expansion Pass with the hope that they'd get performance boosts on Switch 2. So they're effectively launch titles for me!
It seems that I’m the only one who thought that Mario Kart World is the spiritual successor of Diddy Kong Racing (which was the better “Mario Kart” on the Nintendo 64). At least, I’m not hearing...
It seems that I’m the only one who thought that Mario Kart World is the spiritual successor of Diddy Kong Racing (which was the better “Mario Kart” on the Nintendo 64). At least, I’m not hearing anyone else on the Internet talk about it. I mean, I saw the airplanes and went: “Oh. Just like in DKR.” Then I saw the jet skis and went: “Oh. Just like in DKR.” And then I saw the open world and went: “Woah. Definitely like in DKR.” That actually made me very happy. DRK was ahead of its time and a lot of fun. I played the heck out of it as a kid. It had a story mode, collectibles, boss battles, some very fun and unique multiplayer modes, and I would like to see all of that come to MKW. MKW truly is the full realization of what DKR could have been, had Rare had access to modern-day technology. They already showed off some interesting new gameplay features. As a long-time fan of the series, this is the step in the right direction that I never imagined Nintendo would take. Totally didn’t see that coming.
Some really exciting announcements! Mario Kart World looks like so much fun! As a kid, I absolutely adored LEGO Racers, because of all of the details, secrets, shortcuts, and puzzles jam-packed...
Some really exciting announcements!
Mario Kart World looks like so much fun! As a kid, I absolutely adored LEGO Racers, because of all of the details, secrets, shortcuts, and puzzles jam-packed into every track. It really felt like a kart-racer take on Super Mario 64's mystery and magic. Mario Kart World seems like the equivalent, but for a more open-world, Odyssey-style kart-racer. The Knockout Tour mode also seems really cool - F-ZERO 99 must've been a 'public playtest' for many of its elements.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was my wife's #1 most-hype announcement. She got into the Zelda series through Age of Calamity, and she's very excited to experience more of Rauru's story, and to play through a story focusing more on Zelda. I'm predicting we get time-travel shenanigans, similar to the first game, which will open up the roster significantly. It'll be cool to focus more on the 'ancient Champions' as well, as they didn't get a lot of backstory in Tears of the Kingdom.
Gamecube Classics is very exciting. Bummed they didn't show Twilight Princess, or Prime 2+3 for the service. I've been waiting eons to play all of those, and truly expected remasters or at least ports of them on Switch for years now. But I'm very excited to be able to play Chibi-Robo!
KIRBY AIR RIDERS!!! No shit!! That was MY #1 most-hype announcement for sure! Especially with SAKURAI!? I've hoped and dreamed and wished but NEVER would have expected that!
Donkey Kong Bananza seems really fun!! The environment destruction is a great way to give Donkey Kong his own unique-feeling platformer adventure. Really loved the whimsy and charm of the environments and characters. Lots of moments felt like they were from cutscenes, so it might have a surprising amount of story, too. Really looks like a blast, and it's so fun for Donkey Kong to get another proper 3D platformer after so long!
KIRBY AIR RIDERS WAS MY FAVORITE TOO!! I can't wait to play online. I didn't get to play the first one a lot, but it was charming af. I think this game is going to be KILLER. Going to play online...
KIRBY AIR RIDERS WAS MY FAVORITE TOO!! I can't wait to play online. I didn't get to play the first one a lot, but it was charming af. I think this game is going to be KILLER. Going to play online so much.
Also excited for the new Kirby Forgotten Land's expansion thing. Love Forgotten Lands A LOT. Kirby probably favorite gaming character, so today was a good day for that.
GameCube classics is also super exciting, super formative years for me and have incredible memories playing GameCube. Need that new GC controller for NSO subscribers.
It looks like the Switch 2 (LCD model, no OLED model yet announced) will launch at £400 in the UK or bundled with the new Mario Kart for £430 which seems pretty reasonable. Not so reasonable...
It looks like the Switch 2 (LCD model, no OLED model yet announced) will launch at £400 in the UK or bundled with the new Mario Kart for £430 which seems pretty reasonable.
Not so reasonable though is that Switch 2 games are listing for £75 each and in order to play older games on the Switch 2 with higher frame rate and graphics they'll be an upgrade fee per game (which appears to be tied to the profile, not the Switch 1 cartridge). Nintendo haven't shared the price of the upgrade fees yet. They're even selling the tech demo/interactive manual instead of bundling it with the console.
It's a small thing (and optional at that), but I have to say that making the "Welcome Tour" paid content is just an awful look. The comparison to the acclaimed free Astro Bot game that they had on...
It's a small thing (and optional at that), but I have to say that making the "Welcome Tour" paid content is just an awful look. The comparison to the acclaimed free Astro Bot game that they had on PS5 to introduce the system is right there!
It's looking like Mario Kart World is a much dearer exception to the rule, with bigger-budget first-party games more likely £60 as standard, going from the Donkey Kong: Bonanza price tag.
It's looking like Mario Kart World is a much dearer exception to the rule, with bigger-budget first-party games more likely £60 as standard, going from the Donkey Kong: Bonanza price tag.
Well maybe you're right but there's still the upgrade cost for existing games to play them at acceptable frame rates. Considering the draught of launch games a lot of people will end up paying to...
Well maybe you're right but there's still the upgrade cost for existing games to play them at acceptable frame rates. Considering the draught of launch games a lot of people will end up paying to play the switch Zeldas again.
Some games will get free performance updates, like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. If there’s a fee for upgrading, it’ll most likely include some new content
Some games will get free performance updates, like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. If there’s a fee for upgrading, it’ll most likely include some new content
So that will be 470€ for the console alone, 510€ for the Mario Kart bundle. I bought my Switch 8 years ago, and it's still running today (though it is my son who's playing now). I can say I got my...
So that will be 470€ for the console alone, 510€ for the Mario Kart bundle.
I bought my Switch 8 years ago, and it's still running today (though it is my son who's playing now). I can say I got my money's worth from it and it's about time to retire it, but... damn, that's expensive. Especially for what will mostly be a Minecraft machine 🙄
Edit: I also own a Steam Deck, and I don't really consider it a Switch concurrent. They don't offer the same user experience at all.
I agree. The deck has a better store system than a switch, better voice chat than a switch, better family sharing and parental controls than a switch. It's no contest really
I also own a Steam Deck, and I don't really consider it a Switch concurrent. They don't offer the same user experience at all.
I agree. The deck has a better store system than a switch, better voice chat than a switch, better family sharing and parental controls than a switch.
Also, one of the Steam Decks in my house is down again due to no fault of the user and annoying me... AGAIN... with it's refusal to boot. Say what you will about the Switch but I haven't had any...
Also, one of the Steam Decks in my house is down again due to no fault of the user and annoying me... AGAIN... with it's refusal to boot.
Say what you will about the Switch but I haven't had any issues with it other than drift which, in fairness, also eventually my Steam Deck caught that too.
I would say the Steam Deck is a much better product, doubly so for the price BUT unless you have technological knowledge the Switch is a safer choice.
Have you contacted technical support about your Steam Deck? When I had my issues -- I got one of the early models with a battery issue that caused it to shut off seemingly randomly mid-game --...
Have you contacted technical support about your Steam Deck? When I had my issues -- I got one of the early models with a battery issue that caused it to shut off seemingly randomly mid-game -- Valve's support were very responsive up to and throughout the RMA process.
For full transparency, there are three Steam Decks in my house - OLED Transparent, 512 Launch, and 256 from before the revision... The 256 is the one giving me all the problems. I contacted...
For full transparency, there are three Steam Decks in my house - OLED Transparent, 512 Launch, and 256 from before the revision... The 256 is the one giving me all the problems. I contacted support for the 256 the first time it went down and they quoted me a few hundred to send it in for inspection and repair. I managed to get it up and running with some more finagling. (Turned out it would only output to a 1080p monitor and not the 720p it was connected to or it's native display.) Valve support was responsive but I'm gonna exhaust all my avenues before they ask me to live off ramen for the month.
Nintendo has published lists of which games have compatibility issues! Unfortunately, it has most of them in PDFs though it does explain what games specifically need a Switch 1 Joy-con. Here's the...
And... That's a bigger list than I expected. With some surprisingly notable games like Alan Wake and DOOM: Eternal. They're all marked "under investigation" so fingers crossed they're all fixed by release.
Games like Ring Fit needing Switch 1 joy-cons makes perfect sense. I'm really curious about all the others though. I'm hopeful most/all the respective publishers will fix whatever is causing issues.
Games like Ring Fit needing Switch 1 joy-cons makes perfect sense. I'm really curious about all the others though. I'm hopeful most/all the respective publishers will fix whatever is causing issues.
From what I'm reading (and as predicted by Switch developers), the Switch 2 is not really compatible with the Switch 1 hardware-wise, so there is at least some degree of emulation:...
Depending on how complex the game is it may be easier to just port the game to Switch 2 (like Epic has committed to doing for Fortnite for example) or for Nintendo to add more game-specific hacks to the emulation code.
The launch lineup looks pretty solid from both first and third parties and will no doubt secure decent opening sales, but it wasn't enough to sell me personally on buying it day one. From first...
The launch lineup looks pretty solid from both first and third parties and will no doubt secure decent opening sales, but it wasn't enough to sell me personally on buying it day one.
From first party Nintendo, I'd want at least a couple out of:
New Mario (2D or 3D mainline platformer)
New Zelda (2D or 3D mainline RPG)
New Animal Crossing
New Xenoblade / gigantic Monolithsoft RPG
to commit to buying a new console. I have no doubt all of those will come in time.
A lot of the notable third party games (other than Duskblood) are also on PC - Deltrarune, Silksong, FFVII, etc. I'm quite happy to just play those there.
The console pricing in my native country puts the Switch 2 + Mario Kart bundle above the price of a PS5 + Astro Bot bundle. That's not out of my price range, but it's a pretty aggressive shift from their earlier strategy of being the lower powered but lower priced console!
The game pricing is unknown, but if it reflects US prices, it'll be almost a 100% increase from current game prices! I'll be really interested to see how this pans out, and especially if there's a difference between digital and physical versions. I've always been a physical version purchaser, but I'd be happy to switch to digital if it was $10 cheaper. If that happens, it would no doubt also tank the availability of second hand physical games.
EDIT: Based on pre-order pricing at our local retailers, it looks like the games are 50%~66% more expensive compared to Switch 1. Oof!
We're getting legally distinct bloodborne 2 next year. What a wild timeline. I thought the lineup looked great but 450USD is close to 650CAD so I'll be waiting for the price to drop before picking...
We're getting legally distinct bloodborne 2 next year. What a wild timeline. I thought the lineup looked great but 450USD is close to 650CAD so I'll be waiting for the price to drop before picking it up.
EXTREMELY important details: The Duskbloods is not a proper "Bloodborne 2" or "Elden Ring style Bloodborne successor", it's an 8 player PvPvE game. We have very little details, so we're not sure...
EXTREMELY important details:
The Duskbloods is not a proper "Bloodborne 2" or "Elden Ring style Bloodborne successor", it's an 8 player PvPvE game. We have very little details, so we're not sure how similar this will be to a more traditional Souls experience, or if it will have singleplayer support at all. Make sure to set your expectations closer to Elden Ring Nightreign then Elden Ring or Bloodborne. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-duskbloods-guide/
I'm really mad that FromSoft has, twice now, released trailers that looked like mainline Souls games, but were really multiplayer experiments. They have to be more clear in their trailers what their games are supposed to be before we all get our hopes up... This time they used a new IP which made it even less clear it's a multiplayer thing.
I think that's a reasonable take. I fanboy Miyazaki a bit so I tend to read interviews I can find. Around the release of Shadow of the Erdtree he did some more in depth ones. A theme he returned...
They have to be more clear in their trailers what their games are supposed to be before we all get our hopes up... This time they used a new IP which made it even less clear it's a multiplayer thing.
I think that's a reasonable take. I fanboy Miyazaki a bit so I tend to read interviews I can find. Around the release of Shadow of the Erdtree he did some more in depth ones. A theme he returned to several times is that he's really trying to grow the talent at From and in that vein he was cautioning people that different ideas were going to be coming out of From in the name of supporting new designers/directors and the ideas they wanted to realize. (edit: holy run on sentence batman. sorry not sorry)
So that's all to say... I'm not very surprised that this and Nightreign feel like departures from the norm.
Totally reasonable for Miyazaki and From to want to expand what they do and mix things up instead of making the same series for 15 years. But they really have to be more clear about their...
he's really trying to grow the talent at From and in that vein he was cautioning people that different ideas were going to be coming out of From in the name of supporting new designers/directors and the ideas they wanted to realize.
Totally reasonable for Miyazaki and From to want to expand what they do and mix things up instead of making the same series for 15 years. But they really have to be more clear about their intentions instead of burying this stuff in press releases and interviews. Miyazaki should have come out during the Nintendo Direct and said "we're interested in trying something new" the way that devs from other studios came out to talk about their game. The trailer for both this and Nightreign should be more clear about the multiplayer aspect as well, with textboxes on screen giving the basic info that that they saved for the press releases. The way they've gone about it rubs me the wrong way and is even a bit irresponsible. This is a weird way to follow up the goodwill they built up from Elden Ring.
I haven't yet seen any promo materials so I'll defer to you in the case of messaging. Trailers should tell you some basic things. Whether a game is required multiplayer is one of those things.
I haven't yet seen any promo materials so I'll defer to you in the case of messaging. Trailers should tell you some basic things. Whether a game is required multiplayer is one of those things.
I am not a big fan of From, but I was really disappointed by this trailer because it ended up being essentially a really long slideshow that told us nothing.
I am not a big fan of From, but I was really disappointed by this trailer because it ended up being essentially a really long slideshow that told us nothing.
Lies of Eldenborne looks like a hoot. I don't like exclusives though, and it only makes me want to emulate rather than buy the entire console for one game. Bloodborne suffered from the same...
Lies of Eldenborne looks like a hoot. I don't like exclusives though, and it only makes me want to emulate rather than buy the entire console for one game.
Bloodborne suffered from the same problem, which is why this legally distinct Nintendo edition even happened only to put it in Nintendo jail.
I apologize, it's called The Duskbloods. A "new" IP by Fromsoftware. It has so much in common with Bloodborne, and I spy some Elden Ring in there, as well as some Lies of P. The reason it's...
I apologize, it's called The Duskbloods. A "new" IP by Fromsoftware.
It has so much in common with Bloodborne, and I spy some Elden Ring in there, as well as some Lies of P.
The reason it's Legally Distinct Bloodborne is because Sony never released Bloodborne from PlayStation jail when a remake or port in such high demand. So here's part 2, but different, for the switch.
No apologes necessary, I got the jokes but didn't know what I was looking for. NEW FROMSOFTWARE IP is probably the biggest news and will make me preorder a Switch 2 if it's an exclusive. Edit:...
No apologes necessary, I got the jokes but didn't know what I was looking for.
NEW FROMSOFTWARE IP is probably the biggest news and will make me preorder a Switch 2 if it's an exclusive.
Edit: looks like it's a 2026 launch so I won't have to preorder.
Mario Kart World looks pretty hype. But I’m going to have to put some pretty serious thought into getting the Switch 2 vs getting a Steam Deck. I already have a Steam account with lots of games,...
Mario Kart World looks pretty hype.
But I’m going to have to put some pretty serious thought into getting the Switch 2 vs getting a Steam Deck.
I already have a Steam account with lots of games, and I appreciate the sales a lot whereas I know Nintendo games basically hardly ever go on sale.
But the Switch would likely get multiplayer time with me and my wife whereas I’m not sure how the steamdeck works for multiplayer, or if we’d even find games we’d both enjoy.
(Also, I just really don’t like the idea of paying for multiplayer internet access. Very annnoying that it’s a thing on consoles.)
I’ll be having quite a bit of research to do over the next few months I guess!
For me, one of the big differences between Switch and Steam Deck is the Switch has physical games, which makes gifting easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mother. Also lets me resell if I ever feel...
For me, one of the big differences between Switch and Steam Deck is the Switch has physical games, which makes gifting easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mother. Also lets me resell if I ever feel like doing that (I never really do that though).
That, and easy local multiplayer for when I have friends over. The system is already designed with that in mind, so all you need is a second controller. A couple of my friends also own Switches, so they can just bring their own controllers. No extra finagling with settings or buying extra accessories since the Switch comes with a dock (still need to get one for my Steam Deck).
I recently lost my Switch by leaving it in the seat back pocket on a red-eye flight, and I decided to splurge a little and replace it with a Steam Deck. I loved my Switch, but the Deck beats it by...
I recently lost my Switch by leaving it in the seat back pocket on a red-eye flight, and I decided to splurge a little and replace it with a Steam Deck. I loved my Switch, but the Deck beats it by a wide margin. If you have a good PC and/or a PS5, then the Switch might be a better choice, otherwise it's Steam Deck all the way.
See, that’s the thing - it would be my only “console”. I have a good PC I use for gaming, but I want something so I can sit out on the couch and play. So maybe what I really want (instead of a...
See, that’s the thing - it would be my only “console”. I have a good PC I use for gaming, but I want something so I can sit out on the couch and play.
So maybe what I really want (instead of a Steam Deck) is just some way of streaming games from my computer to the TV as a monitor…(and I guess a better Bluetooth dongle so I can still use a controller).
and then get a Switch or Switch 2 for playing Nintendo games and for portability.
A Steam Deck with a decent dock works pretty well as a couch gaming system. It's under-powered compared to the latest Xbox and PlayStation, but I think the portability and the fact that I can...
A Steam Deck with a decent dock works pretty well as a couch gaming system. It's under-powered compared to the latest Xbox and PlayStation, but I think the portability and the fact that I can still play games I bought 15 years ago on it make up for that.
(It can also emulate a Switch if there's an exclusive you just have to play.)
In my uneducated opinion, the Nintendo Switch is for Nintendo games, and the Steam Deck is for Steam games. Now, that's going to probably change a little because the Switch 2 is expensive and both...
In my uneducated opinion, the Nintendo Switch is for Nintendo games, and the Steam Deck is for Steam games. Now, that's going to probably change a little because the Switch 2 is expensive and both the Steam Deck and the original Nintendo Switch are cheap enough pre-owned to be able to try both. That and for my needs, my $50 Ambernic GBA SP clone gets more playtime than both with Portmaster being able to run lots of PC games anyway.
FWIW Valve allegedly has another gaming system releasing this year (a VR headset that can play both VR games and flatscreen games on a virtual display)
FWIW Valve allegedly has another gaming system releasing this year (a VR headset that can play both VR games and flatscreen games on a virtual display)
Mario Kart World MSRP is $80 (Scroll to the bottom) And apparently its €80/€90 digital/physical in Europe. $80 games don't really get me hyped. I'll be waiting at least a year to see what...
Mario Kart World MSRP is $80 (Scroll to the bottom)
And apparently its €80/€90 digital/physical in Europe. $80 games don't really get me hyped.
I'll be waiting at least a year to see what exclusives the Switch 2 gets. Backwards compatibility does make it appealing to me. I have a gen 1 Switch, so I'll probably play around with hacking it once (if) I get the 2.
I'm not a Switch gamer myself (Steam Deck 4 lyfe), but my husband is and I watched this with him. I thought it was a really strong showing. I'm kinda hyped for the system, and I'm not even getting...
I'm not a Switch gamer myself (Steam Deck 4 lyfe), but my husband is and I watched this with him. I thought it was a really strong showing. I'm kinda hyped for the system, and I'm not even getting one!
I think the built in video chat on the screen, the addition of facecams in games like Mario Party, and the concurrent screensharing during different games was the lowkey standout info from the direct. Feels next-gen in a good way.
It also made me wonder if something like that is possible with PCs. If I'm wanting to parallel play games with my friends, where we can all see each other's screens at the same time, is that even possible? Is there a platform/app that will do that kind of thing for us?
Also, despite not getting a Switch 2 myself, I might steal my husband's in order to play Mario Kart World and Kirby's Air Riders.
Discord supports this, no problem. Multiple people in a call can share their screens simultaneously. I'm not sure when I'd ever use this though?
It also made me wonder if something like that is possible with PCs. If I'm wanting to parallel play games with my friends, where we can all see each other's screens at the same time, is that even possible? Is there a platform/app that will do that kind of thing for us?
Discord supports this, no problem. Multiple people in a call can share their screens simultaneously. I'm not sure when I'd ever use this though?
Cool! I thought it could just do one screen share, not multiple ones concurrently. I’ll have to try it out. My friends and I already play our own individual games while hanging out on Discord...
Cool! I thought it could just do one screen share, not multiple ones concurrently. I’ll have to try it out. My friends and I already play our own individual games while hanging out on Discord voice chat sometimes, so adding screensharing for everyone would be a cool bonus for us.
If Discord doesn't, they're probably going to get on it soon enough. Maybe something could be done with OBS on a private server, but that seems involved.
If Discord doesn't, they're probably going to get on it soon enough. Maybe something could be done with OBS on a private server, but that seems involved.
I also want to talk about the Gamecube NSO service. This was the only part of the Direct that got me emotional. The Gamecube is my favorite system of all time. It’s very underrated. It had some of...
I also want to talk about the Gamecube NSO service. This was the only part of the Direct that got me emotional. The Gamecube is my favorite system of all time. It’s very underrated. It had some of the best games Nintendo ever launched. They have been pretending that the Gamecube never existed for almost two decades. It was one of their worst-selling consoles, so that’s somewhat understandable. What is absolutely not understandable, is how vengefully they have been working to prevent people from playing Gamecube games via other method (cough cough), when they offered no alternative. I heard, from time to time, people spread rumors about Nintendo bringing some Gamecube classics to the Switch. I always expected this to happen in the form of remakes and remasters, because it allows them to make an easy buck off our nostalgia, by reselling games that are over two decades old, at full price. It’s not that I wasn’t happy to see Paper Mario and Metroid Prime make a return, but it’s too little for too much money. If a rag-tag of a motley crew of (very skilled and talented) Internet randos can emulate the Gamecube just fine, why couldn’t the actual darn company that developed them do the same? So, here we are. Nintendo has finally acknowledged the ridiculousness of it all (probably just because they want an excuse to continue to tell us that pirating their classics is a crime that deserves the death penalty). I still think that it’s a miracle of sorts. I don’t think that Nintendo ever planned to do this. They felt that they had to. Nintendo would very much like to just forget about the past, and only ever bring it back for nostalgia and effortless cash grabs. But maybe, the company culture is finally shifting a bit, and they are beginning to also care a bit about the preservation of these classic titles. One can only hope that, whenever they release the successor to the Switch 2, these services will all be grandfathered into the future, rather than nuked like the Wii’s Virtual Console and the WiiU’s e-shop were. But as emotional and excited as I got, I also almost instantly became concerned. What will the quality of the emulation be like? Given how they handled the Nintendo 64, I feel skeptical. In their demonstration, I also think that I noticed some emulation mishaps. They mentioned upscaled resolutions, but how will they achieve that (I noticed that the textures are not upscaled). How good will the games look on modern TVs and monitors? (One thing to note, is that they state on their official website the following: “Some games include fun in-game options, like a retro screen filter and widescreen gameplay.” Listen. Some games may get widescreen support? Not acceptable. All of them should. That is a bare minimum on the list of required features.) Regarding the Wind Waker and the Pokémon games, will they do anything about the Gameboy Advanced connectivity features? And why can’t we have save states? But anyway, all of my skepticism aside, I was very happy to hear this. I didn’t actually own a Switch, ever. I always wanted to but could never afford it. I will probably never be able to afford a Switch 2, but I feel more inclined to make the sacrifices to get one, because as it is, NSO has finally become a service worthy of its price tag (not just the subscription fee, but the hardware as well). I was happy to see the return of what I regard as the best game controller of all time (the Gamecube’s), and I hope that they release the original Animal Crossing on it (and somehow make it possible for you to visit other people’s towns). Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
I only took a look at a condensed video of the announcement and the Mario Kart World announcement and overall, things look great! Pricing does sting a bit with the console alone being $450 and...
I only took a look at a condensed video of the announcement and the Mario Kart World announcement and overall, things look great! Pricing does sting a bit with the console alone being $450 and games being $70-90. I also saw online that some games will come in a "game key" cartridge where the game has to be downloaded and the cartridge is just a key which does annoy me. I think other consoles also do this but I like collecting physical games and this will make it harder to buy ones that have the game on the cartridge.
I don't think I'll preorder the system. I don't have Nintendo Switch Online so I wouldn't get priority anyways. I also just don't use my Switch too much these days now that I have a Steam Deck. I also just spent a shit ton of money moving to a new apartment so I'll wait for my finances to stabilize again before thinking about buying this haha.
It seems it's a publisher specific decision. Some publishers may decide they want to make cheaper carts that basically act as keys for the downloaded game content. It's a way that publishers can...
I also saw online that some games will come in a "game key" cartridge where the game has to be downloaded and the cartridge is just a key which does annoy me.
It seems it's a publisher specific decision. Some publishers may decide they want to make cheaper carts that basically act as keys for the downloaded game content. It's a way that publishers can optionally save on production costs. I'd be really surprised if many/any first-party Nintendo games end up going this route.
That's somewhat relieving to hear, I do hope Nintendo maintains proper physical releases for their main franchises. I do intend to buy a Switch 2 with physical copies of Mario Kart and probably a...
That's somewhat relieving to hear, I do hope Nintendo maintains proper physical releases for their main franchises. I do intend to buy a Switch 2 with physical copies of Mario Kart and probably a few other games as well in the future so here's to hoping haha.
Wow. Elden Ring on Switch might compel me to buy this console. I’ll be seeing how much I can offset the cost by selling my current Switch and accessories. This console seems to be competing with...
Wow. Elden Ring on Switch might compel me to buy this console. I’ll be seeing how much I can offset the cost by selling my current Switch and accessories.
This console seems to be competing with the Steam Deck by targeting the “I don’t want to buy a gaming PC and I want to play games” crowd. The number of ports of popular PC games being the focus of the Direct suggests this.
Unfortunately, my current Switch library kind of locks me into upgrading my Switch without even considering a Steam deck. I suspect other people with Steam libraries have the mirror problem. I kind of wish there was less control around game ownership (DRM, physical catridges, etc.).
I kind of wish you could just buy a private key that acknowledges your right to own a game, and then use that to download it on any console. Unfortunately, then there are some issues around playing games offline. A man can dream.
What I would give for a Games Anywhere program that would allow me to acknowledge I bought a game, I can download and play it on the vendor that I choose, and progress would transfer over easily....
What I would give for a Games Anywhere program that would allow me to acknowledge I bought a game, I can download and play it on the vendor that I choose, and progress would transfer over easily. Probably not an option because everyone would rather make their own cake than take a slice, but if everyone is going to be buying everybody anyway, it would be appreciated to have library parity.
Miscellaneous thoughts: It was funny to see Nintendo devote so much time to the console’s specs. Very unlike them. They have finally come to terms with the fact that people do care about that...
Miscellaneous thoughts:
It was funny to see Nintendo devote so much time to the console’s specs. Very unlike them. They have finally come to terms with the fact that people do care about that stuff. Also: Active cooling while docked is neat.
Playing certain multiplayer games with only one cartridge (and over the Internet) is neat.
The whole Switch 1 upgrade thing is neat. I find it laughable though that they’ll have an “enhanced” version of the new Pokémon Legends. Listen, that game looks (and probably plays) like absolute garbage. It honestly looks even worse than Scarlet and Violet, which looked worse than Sword and Shield. The Pokémon Company keeps getting away with cutting corners in the graphical department. A slightly upscaled resolution won’t make the JPEGs that they copy-pasted all over the game world stand out any less (not to mention all the other graphical anomalies). What a joke.
Donkey Kong Bananza looks 🍌 🍌 🍌 🍌 🍌 ! Love it! Would love to play it. They designed Donkey Kong like the version in the Super Mario Bros. movie. The rebrand is official. I think that they are going to market the heck out of this game to get people excited for the Donkey Kong movie that they have been working on since they released the first one.
Kirby Air Riders was the surprise that nobody expected. I always wanted to play the original but never got a chance too. Good stuff. The game’s community is small but very vocal. Apparently the original was super fun. Good that Sakurai is behind it too. It’s going to be great.
The prices for the consoles and games are absolutely nuts. I already missed the WiiU and the Switch. I will probably miss the Switch 2. The decades go by and I just can’t get a chance to play the games that I would like to play. Man. Gaming just is not a lower-class hobby anymore. Maybe never was. Maybe my parents gave me a false impression. But then again, I only got one or two (maximum three) new games a year back when I was a kid.
The mouse feature confuses me. Are people supposed to play on a desk every time they want to use that feature? Or are they supposed to place the Joycons on their legs or something? lol
Edit:
Random thought I had: We had “Joy-con drift” in the last generation. There will certainly be “Joy-con drift” 2.0 in this generation, but of a different kind. Kids will almost assuredly “drift” the controllers around in mouse mode on abrasive surfaces and damage them in the process. lol
DOOM, made by a half dozen or so people in 1993, cost $40. That over $89 in 2025 money. And a modern game has a credits list a mile long, with teams of hundreds of people working on it. Super...
DOOM, made by a half dozen or so people in 1993, cost $40. That over $89 in 2025 money. And a modern game has a credits list a mile long, with teams of hundreds of people working on it.
Super Mario 64 debuted at $60 in 1996, which is $124 now.
Game prices really haven't kept pace with inflation at all.
Looking at the prices alone doesn’t really give you the full story though. The market for these games is also dramatically higher than they were in those years as well. It doesn’t seem that such a...
Looking at the prices alone doesn’t really give you the full story though. The market for these games is also dramatically higher than they were in those years as well. It doesn’t seem that such a minor price increase really helps the risk management issues.
Still I think it's a shame how Nintendo consoles don't come with a game included like they used to. And the first-party games should be subsidized by the licensing fees from other games and what I...
Still I think it's a shame how Nintendo consoles don't come with a game included like they used to. And the first-party games should be subsidized by the licensing fees from other games and what I presume is a 30% cut on micro-transactions.
I remember paying 3000 belgian francs for N64 games, so 75€ back in the late 90s. It was absolutely indecent.
Gaming just is not a lower-class hobby anymore. Maybe never was. Maybe my parents gave me a false impression. But then again, I only got one or two (maximum three) new games a year back when I was a kid.
I remember paying 3000 belgian francs for N64 games, so 75€ back in the late 90s. It was absolutely indecent.
I have many thoughts on this. First and foremost, it is interesting to see Nintendo make something… impressive from a hardware perspective. Of course it's not as powerful as a PS5, but it's in...
I have many thoughts on this.
First and foremost, it is interesting to see Nintendo make something… impressive from a hardware perspective. Of course it's not as powerful as a PS5, but it's in range to get AAA ports, and with DLSS it crushes other gaming handhelds. Which means more people would be able likely use the Switch 2 as their primary console/gaming device.
That said… you're paying for it. When I bought a Steam Deck OLED for $500 or so, part of accepting that price was knowing how damn cheap games get on PC. When games on the Switch 2 are going to cost $80 however ($90 physical even, presumably because they're using actual fast storage this time,) the $450 price tag for the Switch 2 becomes a lot harder to swallow.
I personally didn't see much that would compel me to get this at launch, but knowing myself I'll probably get one down the line. I'm hoping there's an OLED model sooner rather than later though.
As someone with a Switch and a Steam Deck: I think it really boils down to if the Switch 2 has any absolute must-have games for you. I'm an eternal Pokémon fan and Animal Crossing player, so those...
As someone with a Switch and a Steam Deck: I think it really boils down to if the Switch 2 has any absolute must-have games for you. I'm an eternal Pokémon fan and Animal Crossing player, so those two franchises guarantee I'll get the Switch 2 at some point. From there I'll naturally accumulate more games that catch my interest, and play my existing Switch library in the meantime just like when I first got my Wii, DS, and 3DS.
Speaking of libraries, I'd personally recommend the Switch 2 more for people who already have a Switch and some games. With the steep price point and the confirmed costs of the announced first-party games so far, an existing library makes the transition easier. And while other publishers' games tend to be cheaper, chances are you'll already own them or want to get it on Steam for reasons like modding or performance. So if you don't have a 100% must-have Nintendo exclusive, the Switch 2 is probably not worth it.
Though on the note of sales: I have some games wishlisted on both Switch and Steam and I've noticed a lot tend to go on sale for the same prices. The best deals I've found for Steam games tend to come from bundles like Fanatical rather than Steam itself. For first-party Nintendo games, your best bet is a retailer like Walmart or Amazon having a crazy sale on a physical copy. Which is why I had to spend $60 for the Famicom Detective Club game pack last month because it's digital-only and I think it's only ever been discounted one time
Yeah, that's more or less been my strategy since I bought the Steam Deck: exclusives on Switch, crossplat on Deck. Mostly to avoid the Switch tax but also because the Deck just performs better...
Yeah, that's more or less been my strategy since I bought the Steam Deck: exclusives on Switch, crossplat on Deck. Mostly to avoid the Switch tax but also because the Deck just performs better (even if the battery life is BS in comparison.)
For me my strategy is to get physical games for Switch (easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mom for presents, and also more fun to open than a gift card), or games that feel like they should be on...
For me my strategy is to get physical games for Switch (easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mom for presents, and also more fun to open than a gift card), or games that feel like they should be on Switch if they usually go on sale for the same price. I can't really define what games those would be, besides Rune Factory. Somehow, I have a lot of visual novel-esque games for Switch though...
Also, a fun little tip: just because a game doesn't have an American or European physical release does not mean that there's no English option. I was very confused when I got Ghost Trick for Christmas and couldn't redeem it for gold points, and then confused some friends when I mentioned it. Turns out the physical release got repackaged in English in some Asian countries, and that's what my parents found on Amazon. Won't apply for all games obviously, but worth checking Amazon and the like just in case.
I'll let you in on a little trick I use: buy used games from Japan. After a year or so most games that were $60 end up being in the $30 range on there, complete in box and all. Because Switch...
I'll let you in on a little trick I use: buy used games from Japan. After a year or so most games that were $60 end up being in the $30 range on there, complete in box and all. Because Switch games have all languages on the same cart, you can still play them in English.
Tariffs sadly change this calculus if you're in the US.
Don't forget: With a Steam Deck you can play your entire library, without necessarily buying anything. My Steam Deck came with 20-years worth of games when I bought it and I didn't even have to...
Don't forget: With a Steam Deck you can play your entire library, without necessarily buying anything.
My Steam Deck came with 20-years worth of games when I bought it and I didn't even have to pay extra to have them perform better.
I could never justify a Switch based on the exorbitant game prices and I certainly won't be buying a Switch 2 for myself or for either of my kids.
Part of me wants to get a launch model so I can assure that I'll have a hackable model... Really, the biggest thing I was excited for was the backward compatibility and seeing you have to pay to...
Part of me wants to get a launch model so I can assure that I'll have a hackable model...
Really, the biggest thing I was excited for was the backward compatibility and seeing you have to pay to "upgrade" them just kind of killed a ton of excitement for me. Just let me put the damn carts in.
No new fire emblem made me sad inside. I'm not loving the prices and am hoping to convince my kids to use my steam deck instead. It's not even the system proce but the game prices are honestly...
No new fire emblem made me sad inside. I'm not loving the prices and am hoping to convince my kids to use my steam deck instead. It's not even the system proce but the game prices are honestly nuts compared to the PC market.
Being able to play Cyberpunk on it seems really fun but with that price most likely being 470+60 euro, I don't think I can afford it for now. Crazy that they made it work though, when I saw the...
Being able to play Cyberpunk on it seems really fun but with that price most likely being 470+60 euro, I don't think I can afford it for now. Crazy that they made it work though, when I saw the direct I thought "Yeah right, if only Cyberpunk was on it" as a joke but.. I was the joke this time haha
I find the Game Chat feature a bit odd for two reasons: First of all, other companies have been partnering with Discord for these features. Being able to share your screen, and chat over voice,...
I find the Game Chat feature a bit odd for two reasons: First of all, other companies have been partnering with Discord for these features. Being able to share your screen, and chat over voice, and even show yourself on the camera are all nice features, but the implementation looked “janky” to me. Nintendo just doesn’t have the infrastructure and manpower to handle services like these. I would say: “Good on them that they finally entered the 21st century”, except that they are about two decades behind. And that is my second point. It’s too little, too late. And as I was watching them announce this service, I told my wife: “They are going to lock this behind the online subscription.” And guess what? lol At least they will let you demo the service until March 2026. Maybe they’re doing that also to see how well their system works and improve it for a major update next year. I understood, however, that this service will only allow you to communicate with “friends”, so there’s still no way for you to just join a lobby in matchmaking-based games. I guess that’s where Nintendo has drawn the line for the lifespan of this console. Sad. And sad too that they are trying to lock customers into their ecosystem, much the same way that Apple does. They could integrate Discord into the system, but no. They have to do it their way. The Nintendo Music app is another good example of this. (Why not just release the music on Spotify?)
I mean... Voice chat isn't new for Nintendo. The Wii and DSes all had microphones. I remember even talking to people while doing trades in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, where talking isn't...
I mean... Voice chat isn't new for Nintendo. The Wii and DSes all had microphones. I remember even talking to people while doing trades in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, where talking isn't really needed. The main update is that you don't need to be playing the same game to chat.
Also keep in mind that one of the core demographics for Nintendo? Families and kids. That "closed ecosystem", while annoying for older gamers, is ultimately built around safety for kids.
By handling it themselves rather than through a Discord partnership, players don't need to have an external account of any sort. That makes one less account for parents to monitor of worry about, not to mention a good chunk of Nintendo players don't meet the minimum age requirement. So younger kids can talk to friends or family who also have Switch 2s with no extra requirements, which is actually a pretty awesome alternative to social media apps and phones.
By restricting these chat features to friends, parents can also make sure their kids don't randomly meet with creepy strangers every time they play Splatoon. Sure, they can still meet people online and add them to the friends' list, but creeps would definitely camp out games they know are likely to have kids playing. And that's before accounting for how toxic voice chat can get. Nintendo would have to moderate those random matchmaking lobbies pretty heavily, and they've got other priorities.
There are solutions and compromises, like parental controls and restricting Discord to some games, but I get why Nintendo is erring on the side of caution here.
Listen, I get all of that, and I get why Nintendo chooses to handle online chat this way, and all of what you said obviously makes logical sense. I’m still allowed to be upset for not getting what...
Listen, I get all of that, and I get why Nintendo chooses to handle online chat this way, and all of what you said obviously makes logical sense.
I’m still allowed to be upset for not getting what would be the better service for a customer like me, which would, for example, include Discord integration. And if parents weren’t keen on their kids using Discord integration while playing on their Switch, then they could add parental controls for that too. Heck, Discord has its own parental control features now.
I understand and agree with what you said, but it doesn’t invalidate my complaint.
What if I don't use Discord? Why do I have to create a separate account for a separate American company to use voice chat on my Nintendo console? It's not like anyone I'm chatting with isn't also...
What if I don't use Discord? Why do I have to create a separate account for a separate American company to use voice chat on my Nintendo console? It's not like anyone I'm chatting with isn't also going to have a Switch 2.
From Nintendo's point of view I can also see them being very leery of tying chat on their console to some other company's service.
That wasn’t my proposition either. Discord is an example (and also the most widely used service). They should ideally welcome multiple of those to build develop integrations for their products.
That wasn’t my proposition either. Discord is an example (and also the most widely used service). They should ideally welcome multiple of those to build develop integrations for their products.
I finally had time to watch the direct, and it looked good! I think the upgrades announced were substantial, and in many cases more than what I anticipated (e.g I did not expect VRR, or any games...
I finally had time to watch the direct, and it looked good! I think the upgrades announced were substantial, and in many cases more than what I anticipated (e.g I did not expect VRR, or any games outputting in 4k60fps) and price is lower than I expected.
It seems like Nintendo is cooking a system for pre-orders to avoid scalpers, as well. I registered for the pre-order, and hopefully my nintendo account qualifies.
Hollow Knight Silksong confirmed (?) for 2025 release!
Praying this is for real this time. I've been duped before:
Silksong Wikipedia.
They'd better not pull the rug out from under us, we've been waiting so long! And let's face it r/silksong will probably implode and take the rest of the universe with them if they get hoodwinked.
Nintendo Europe even tweeted about it! Deltarune (upto chapter 4) is also announced for June 5th. I haven't been this hyped in a while.
Kirby's Air Ride was MY game growing up and I would love to try out the new version.
On another note, I said off the cuff with friends that there would be a new F-Zero, Silksong news, and it would be the same game, so I actually made out like a bandit compared to my serious predictions.
My buddy and I have been joking for the past few months about Sakurai's big project being Kirby Air Ride 2. That was not a prediction we expected to be right about...
Air Riders was my #1 most hype announcement - so exciting! Air Ride was ahead of its time in so many ways, and Sakurai being back on board is SO promising.
City Trial was like a battle royale game mode before that was really a thing. I'm just salivating at the possibilities of what it can look like nowadays, especially with online!
As long as they keep City Trial and the checklist-based unlocks, it'll be just as addicting as it used to be! One of my favorite games growing up. :)
Just throwing my name in the ring as a lover of Air Ride and the city attack mode in particular - a friend and I would take turns with the Hydra and try and slam into the other player who was doing their best to dodge the one hit kill. We also just liked exploring all the nooks around that map.
No word about them addressing joycon drift or what the actual hardware inside the thing is.
I definitely want to hear it from them directly, but word on the street (well, the patent, allegedly) is that it'll use Hall Effect joysticks, which don't have the drift problem.
I’m confused. I thought that the first look trailer of the Switch 2 from February had already confirmed that the new Joycons would have Hall Effect sticks.
How do you figure? There weren't any tech specs in that teaser as far as I could see.
Wow. I full on hallucinated. I was so sure that I remembered seeing them mark the sticks as “Hall Effect” back when I saw that trailer. Yikes. That means that they might not. Not the “news” I wanted to hear today...
There was separate news regarding a patent Nintendo had taken out around the same time. Perhaps that's what you're remembering?
Could be.
But they will happily ask you to pay for a "virtual exhibition" of the hardware via a game demo.
Meanwhile * cough cough *
Yeah, the need to pay for that demo actually left me slack jawed. 1 2 Switch was basically a demo collection too, but it was a physically released game that was introducing a lot of new stuff so it felt at least somewhat substantial. The one new feature the Switch 2 has is the mouse. And maybe a better haptic system? They don’t have much detail on it. I suppose it also has a microphone and an optional camera, but both of those were things they didn’t put on the Switch after having it standard on the Wii U gamepad.
It also feels bad that they are charging for the switch 2 version of Switch games. I guess it’s not that bad because those have content improvements on them, but practically none of their competition does that; I got Spiderman PS5 free when I put in the disc for the PS4 version. It didn’t have content added to it, but it did have a whole lot more notable technical improvements.
Even closer
Here's the official specs from Nintendo's site. Not sure if it's as comprehensive as you want (I admittedly don't look at specs too much), but it does seem to include some details not mentioned in the Direct. Not a fan of the low battery life, 2-6.5 hours is pretty short. I think that's the same as the Gen 1 Switch.
Maybe I’m just too trusting but it seems inconceivable they will ship with drift issues. Would they really want to be dogged by this issue for another generation?
I agree; I think if the Switch 2 switches with a comparably serious issue, it will be a different one.
The pre-orders have been delayed in the US due to the tariffs. Release date currently unchanged.
https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-switch-2/553133/pre-orders-delayed-trump-tariff
A friend was live texting the announcements. I'd like to see a Zelda or 3d Mario, the rest of this stuff is neat but I'm not sure it's enough to make me preorder. Will have to watch the direct later today to see if anything else stands out.
Sounds like $449? About inline with predictions I saw elsewhere; a bit steep but a steam deck can't (easily) play first party Nintendo games.
After buying LCD Switch and SteamDeck consoles only to be punished later by OLED releases of the same, I'm going to sleep on Switch 2 until I can get the console it should be on the first go.
Switch OLED was likely delayed by around a year due to the pandemic; also OLEDs have only gone down in price.
The time delta between regular and OLED should be smaller at this point. The Steam Deck OLED came out less than 2 years after the regular Steam Deck. However, Valve is generally saner and less user hostile than Nintendo, so who knows what the delay will be.
I'm honestly befuddled that the Switch 2 isn't OLED from the beginning. Every mid-range (and up) smartphone is. Nintendo pushed HDR in the announcement but it'll look like shit on the LCD screen they have in there, especially if it doesn't have local dimming zones like the specs page implies.
And not only does it have a higher refresh rate, it even has a variable refresh rate! If they handle adaptive sync properly, screen tearing should be nearly nonexistent on the handheld display which is a big improvement.
I've intentionally been holding off on the Scarlet/Violet Expansion Pass with the hope that they'd get performance boosts on Switch 2. So they're effectively launch titles for me!
It seems that I’m the only one who thought that Mario Kart World is the spiritual successor of Diddy Kong Racing (which was the better “Mario Kart” on the Nintendo 64). At least, I’m not hearing anyone else on the Internet talk about it. I mean, I saw the airplanes and went: “Oh. Just like in DKR.” Then I saw the jet skis and went: “Oh. Just like in DKR.” And then I saw the open world and went: “Woah. Definitely like in DKR.” That actually made me very happy. DRK was ahead of its time and a lot of fun. I played the heck out of it as a kid. It had a story mode, collectibles, boss battles, some very fun and unique multiplayer modes, and I would like to see all of that come to MKW. MKW truly is the full realization of what DKR could have been, had Rare had access to modern-day technology. They already showed off some interesting new gameplay features. As a long-time fan of the series, this is the step in the right direction that I never imagined Nintendo would take. Totally didn’t see that coming.
Some really exciting announcements!
Mario Kart World looks like so much fun! As a kid, I absolutely adored LEGO Racers, because of all of the details, secrets, shortcuts, and puzzles jam-packed into every track. It really felt like a kart-racer take on Super Mario 64's mystery and magic. Mario Kart World seems like the equivalent, but for a more open-world, Odyssey-style kart-racer. The Knockout Tour mode also seems really cool - F-ZERO 99 must've been a 'public playtest' for many of its elements.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was my wife's #1 most-hype announcement. She got into the Zelda series through Age of Calamity, and she's very excited to experience more of Rauru's story, and to play through a story focusing more on Zelda. I'm predicting we get time-travel shenanigans, similar to the first game, which will open up the roster significantly. It'll be cool to focus more on the 'ancient Champions' as well, as they didn't get a lot of backstory in Tears of the Kingdom.
Gamecube Classics is very exciting. Bummed they didn't show Twilight Princess, or Prime 2+3 for the service. I've been waiting eons to play all of those, and truly expected remasters or at least ports of them on Switch for years now. But I'm very excited to be able to play Chibi-Robo!
KIRBY AIR RIDERS!!! No shit!! That was MY #1 most-hype announcement for sure! Especially with SAKURAI!? I've hoped and dreamed and wished but NEVER would have expected that!
Donkey Kong Bananza seems really fun!! The environment destruction is a great way to give Donkey Kong his own unique-feeling platformer adventure. Really loved the whimsy and charm of the environments and characters. Lots of moments felt like they were from cutscenes, so it might have a surprising amount of story, too. Really looks like a blast, and it's so fun for Donkey Kong to get another proper 3D platformer after so long!
KIRBY AIR RIDERS WAS MY FAVORITE TOO!! I can't wait to play online. I didn't get to play the first one a lot, but it was charming af. I think this game is going to be KILLER. Going to play online so much.
Also excited for the new Kirby Forgotten Land's expansion thing. Love Forgotten Lands A LOT. Kirby probably favorite gaming character, so today was a good day for that.
GameCube classics is also super exciting, super formative years for me and have incredible memories playing GameCube. Need that new GC controller for NSO subscribers.
It looks like the Switch 2 (LCD model, no OLED model yet announced) will launch at £400 in the UK or bundled with the new Mario Kart for £430 which seems pretty reasonable.
Not so reasonable though is that Switch 2 games are listing for £75 each and in order to play older games on the Switch 2 with higher frame rate and graphics they'll be an upgrade fee per game (which appears to be tied to the profile, not the Switch 1 cartridge). Nintendo haven't shared the price of the upgrade fees yet. They're even selling the tech demo/interactive manual instead of bundling it with the console.
It's a small thing (and optional at that), but I have to say that making the "Welcome Tour" paid content is just an awful look. The comparison to the acclaimed free Astro Bot game that they had on PS5 to introduce the system is right there!
It's looking like Mario Kart World is a much dearer exception to the rule, with bigger-budget first-party games more likely £60 as standard, going from the Donkey Kong: Bonanza price tag.
Well maybe you're right but there's still the upgrade cost for existing games to play them at acceptable frame rates. Considering the draught of launch games a lot of people will end up paying to play the switch Zeldas again.
I saw Mario Kart World going for £75!
Some games will get free performance updates, like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. If there’s a fee for upgrading, it’ll most likely include some new content
So that will be 470€ for the console alone, 510€ for the Mario Kart bundle.
I bought my Switch 8 years ago, and it's still running today (though it is my son who's playing now). I can say I got my money's worth from it and it's about time to retire it, but... damn, that's expensive. Especially for what will mostly be a Minecraft machine 🙄
Edit: I also own a Steam Deck, and I don't really consider it a Switch concurrent. They don't offer the same user experience at all.
I agree. The deck has a better store system than a switch, better voice chat than a switch, better family sharing and parental controls than a switch.
It's no contest really
Also, one of the Steam Decks in my house is down again due to no fault of the user and annoying me... AGAIN... with it's refusal to boot.
Say what you will about the Switch but I haven't had any issues with it other than drift which, in fairness, also eventually my Steam Deck caught that too.
I would say the Steam Deck is a much better product, doubly so for the price BUT unless you have technological knowledge the Switch is a safer choice.
Have you contacted technical support about your Steam Deck? When I had my issues -- I got one of the early models with a battery issue that caused it to shut off seemingly randomly mid-game -- Valve's support were very responsive up to and throughout the RMA process.
For full transparency, there are three Steam Decks in my house - OLED Transparent, 512 Launch, and 256 from before the revision... The 256 is the one giving me all the problems. I contacted support for the 256 the first time it went down and they quoted me a few hundred to send it in for inspection and repair. I managed to get it up and running with some more finagling. (Turned out it would only output to a 1080p monitor and not the 720p it was connected to or it's native display.) Valve support was responsive but I'm gonna exhaust all my avenues before they ask me to live off ramen for the month.
Ah, fair enough. Mine was the 512 and ig since it was a known issue, it was easier to get them to cover all the costs.
Nintendo has published lists of which games have compatibility issues! Unfortunately, it has most of them in PDFs though it does explain what games specifically need a Switch 1 Joy-con. Here's the Nintendo Everything article which has the games in neat tables instead of PDFs.
And... That's a bigger list than I expected. With some surprisingly notable games like Alan Wake and DOOM: Eternal. They're all marked "under investigation" so fingers crossed they're all fixed by release.
Games like Ring Fit needing Switch 1 joy-cons makes perfect sense. I'm really curious about all the others though. I'm hopeful most/all the respective publishers will fix whatever is causing issues.
From what I'm reading (and as predicted by Switch developers), the Switch 2 is not really compatible with the Switch 1 hardware-wise, so there is at least some degree of emulation: https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-16-nintendo-switch-2-part-4/
Depending on how complex the game is it may be easier to just port the game to Switch 2 (like Epic has committed to doing for Fortnite for example) or for Nintendo to add more game-specific hacks to the emulation code.
The launch lineup looks pretty solid from both first and third parties and will no doubt secure decent opening sales, but it wasn't enough to sell me personally on buying it day one.
From first party Nintendo, I'd want at least a couple out of:
to commit to buying a new console. I have no doubt all of those will come in time.
A lot of the notable third party games (other than Duskblood) are also on PC - Deltrarune, Silksong, FFVII, etc. I'm quite happy to just play those there.
The console pricing in my native country puts the Switch 2 + Mario Kart bundle above the price of a PS5 + Astro Bot bundle. That's not out of my price range, but it's a pretty aggressive shift from their earlier strategy of being the lower powered but lower priced console!
The game pricing is unknown, but if it reflects US prices, it'll be almost a 100% increase from current game prices! I'll be really interested to see how this pans out, and especially if there's a difference between digital and physical versions. I've always been a physical version purchaser, but I'd be happy to switch to digital if it was $10 cheaper. If that happens, it would no doubt also tank the availability of second hand physical games.
EDIT: Based on pre-order pricing at our local retailers, it looks like the games are 50%~66% more expensive compared to Switch 1. Oof!
We're getting legally distinct bloodborne 2 next year. What a wild timeline. I thought the lineup looked great but 450USD is close to 650CAD so I'll be waiting for the price to drop before picking it up.
EXTREMELY important details:
The Duskbloods is not a proper "Bloodborne 2" or "Elden Ring style Bloodborne successor", it's an 8 player PvPvE game. We have very little details, so we're not sure how similar this will be to a more traditional Souls experience, or if it will have singleplayer support at all. Make sure to set your expectations closer to Elden Ring Nightreign then Elden Ring or Bloodborne.
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-duskbloods-guide/
I'm really mad that FromSoft has, twice now, released trailers that looked like mainline Souls games, but were really multiplayer experiments. They have to be more clear in their trailers what their games are supposed to be before we all get our hopes up... This time they used a new IP which made it even less clear it's a multiplayer thing.
I think that's a reasonable take. I fanboy Miyazaki a bit so I tend to read interviews I can find. Around the release of Shadow of the Erdtree he did some more in depth ones. A theme he returned to several times is that he's really trying to grow the talent at From and in that vein he was cautioning people that different ideas were going to be coming out of From in the name of supporting new designers/directors and the ideas they wanted to realize. (edit: holy run on sentence batman. sorry not sorry)
So that's all to say... I'm not very surprised that this and Nightreign feel like departures from the norm.
Totally reasonable for Miyazaki and From to want to expand what they do and mix things up instead of making the same series for 15 years. But they really have to be more clear about their intentions instead of burying this stuff in press releases and interviews. Miyazaki should have come out during the Nintendo Direct and said "we're interested in trying something new" the way that devs from other studios came out to talk about their game. The trailer for both this and Nightreign should be more clear about the multiplayer aspect as well, with textboxes on screen giving the basic info that that they saved for the press releases. The way they've gone about it rubs me the wrong way and is even a bit irresponsible. This is a weird way to follow up the goodwill they built up from Elden Ring.
I haven't yet seen any promo materials so I'll defer to you in the case of messaging. Trailers should tell you some basic things. Whether a game is required multiplayer is one of those things.
I am not a big fan of From, but I was really disappointed by this trailer because it ended up being essentially a really long slideshow that told us nothing.
Lies of Eldenborne looks like a hoot. I don't like exclusives though, and it only makes me want to emulate rather than buy the entire console for one game.
Bloodborne suffered from the same problem, which is why this legally distinct Nintendo edition even happened only to put it in Nintendo jail.
What are we talking about here? I won't be able to watch the direct but I'm hyped and don't know what to google
I apologize, it's called The Duskbloods. A "new" IP by Fromsoftware.
It has so much in common with Bloodborne, and I spy some Elden Ring in there, as well as some Lies of P.
The reason it's Legally Distinct Bloodborne is because Sony never released Bloodborne from PlayStation jail when a remake or port in such high demand. So here's part 2, but different, for the switch.
No apologes necessary, I got the jokes but didn't know what I was looking for.
NEW FROMSOFTWARE IP is probably the biggest news and will make me preorder a Switch 2 if it's an exclusive.
Edit: looks like it's a 2026 launch so I won't have to preorder.
Canadian price will be $630 or $700 bundled with Marko Kart.
Mario Kart World looks pretty hype.
But I’m going to have to put some pretty serious thought into getting the Switch 2 vs getting a Steam Deck.
I already have a Steam account with lots of games, and I appreciate the sales a lot whereas I know Nintendo games basically hardly ever go on sale.
But the Switch would likely get multiplayer time with me and my wife whereas I’m not sure how the steamdeck works for multiplayer, or if we’d even find games we’d both enjoy.
(Also, I just really don’t like the idea of paying for multiplayer internet access. Very annnoying that it’s a thing on consoles.)
I’ll be having quite a bit of research to do over the next few months I guess!
For me, one of the big differences between Switch and Steam Deck is the Switch has physical games, which makes gifting easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mother. Also lets me resell if I ever feel like doing that (I never really do that though).
That, and easy local multiplayer for when I have friends over. The system is already designed with that in mind, so all you need is a second controller. A couple of my friends also own Switches, so they can just bring their own controllers. No extra finagling with settings or buying extra accessories since the Switch comes with a dock (still need to get one for my Steam Deck).
I recently lost my Switch by leaving it in the seat back pocket on a red-eye flight, and I decided to splurge a little and replace it with a Steam Deck. I loved my Switch, but the Deck beats it by a wide margin. If you have a good PC and/or a PS5, then the Switch might be a better choice, otherwise it's Steam Deck all the way.
See, that’s the thing - it would be my only “console”. I have a good PC I use for gaming, but I want something so I can sit out on the couch and play.
So maybe what I really want (instead of a Steam Deck) is just some way of streaming games from my computer to the TV as a monitor…(and I guess a better Bluetooth dongle so I can still use a controller).
and then get a Switch or Switch 2 for playing Nintendo games and for portability.
You'd either want a Steam Link, or a Moonlight setup then.
Previous thread: https://tild.es/1ms5
A Steam Deck with a decent dock works pretty well as a couch gaming system. It's under-powered compared to the latest Xbox and PlayStation, but I think the portability and the fact that I can still play games I bought 15 years ago on it make up for that.
(It can also emulate a Switch if there's an exclusive you just have to play.)
In my uneducated opinion, the Nintendo Switch is for Nintendo games, and the Steam Deck is for Steam games. Now, that's going to probably change a little because the Switch 2 is expensive and both the Steam Deck and the original Nintendo Switch are cheap enough pre-owned to be able to try both. That and for my needs, my $50 Ambernic GBA SP clone gets more playtime than both with Portmaster being able to run lots of PC games anyway.
FWIW Valve allegedly has another gaming system releasing this year (a VR headset that can play both VR games and flatscreen games on a virtual display)
Mario Kart World MSRP is $80 (Scroll to the bottom)
And apparently its €80/€90 digital/physical in Europe. $80 games don't really get me hyped.
I'll be waiting at least a year to see what exclusives the Switch 2 gets. Backwards compatibility does make it appealing to me. I have a gen 1 Switch, so I'll probably play around with hacking it once (if) I get the 2.
I'm not a Switch gamer myself (Steam Deck 4 lyfe), but my husband is and I watched this with him. I thought it was a really strong showing. I'm kinda hyped for the system, and I'm not even getting one!
I think the built in video chat on the screen, the addition of facecams in games like Mario Party, and the concurrent screensharing during different games was the lowkey standout info from the direct. Feels next-gen in a good way.
It also made me wonder if something like that is possible with PCs. If I'm wanting to parallel play games with my friends, where we can all see each other's screens at the same time, is that even possible? Is there a platform/app that will do that kind of thing for us?
Also, despite not getting a Switch 2 myself, I might steal my husband's in order to play Mario Kart World and Kirby's Air Riders.
Discord supports this, no problem. Multiple people in a call can share their screens simultaneously. I'm not sure when I'd ever use this though?
Cool! I thought it could just do one screen share, not multiple ones concurrently. I’ll have to try it out. My friends and I already play our own individual games while hanging out on Discord voice chat sometimes, so adding screensharing for everyone would be a cool bonus for us.
If Discord doesn't, they're probably going to get on it soon enough. Maybe something could be done with OBS on a private server, but that seems involved.
I also want to talk about the Gamecube NSO service. This was the only part of the Direct that got me emotional. The Gamecube is my favorite system of all time. It’s very underrated. It had some of the best games Nintendo ever launched. They have been pretending that the Gamecube never existed for almost two decades. It was one of their worst-selling consoles, so that’s somewhat understandable. What is absolutely not understandable, is how vengefully they have been working to prevent people from playing Gamecube games via other method (cough cough), when they offered no alternative. I heard, from time to time, people spread rumors about Nintendo bringing some Gamecube classics to the Switch. I always expected this to happen in the form of remakes and remasters, because it allows them to make an easy buck off our nostalgia, by reselling games that are over two decades old, at full price. It’s not that I wasn’t happy to see Paper Mario and Metroid Prime make a return, but it’s too little for too much money. If a rag-tag of a motley crew of (very skilled and talented) Internet randos can emulate the Gamecube just fine, why couldn’t the actual darn company that developed them do the same? So, here we are. Nintendo has finally acknowledged the ridiculousness of it all (probably just because they want an excuse to continue to tell us that pirating their classics is a crime that deserves the death penalty). I still think that it’s a miracle of sorts. I don’t think that Nintendo ever planned to do this. They felt that they had to. Nintendo would very much like to just forget about the past, and only ever bring it back for nostalgia and effortless cash grabs. But maybe, the company culture is finally shifting a bit, and they are beginning to also care a bit about the preservation of these classic titles. One can only hope that, whenever they release the successor to the Switch 2, these services will all be grandfathered into the future, rather than nuked like the Wii’s Virtual Console and the WiiU’s e-shop were. But as emotional and excited as I got, I also almost instantly became concerned. What will the quality of the emulation be like? Given how they handled the Nintendo 64, I feel skeptical. In their demonstration, I also think that I noticed some emulation mishaps. They mentioned upscaled resolutions, but how will they achieve that (I noticed that the textures are not upscaled). How good will the games look on modern TVs and monitors? (One thing to note, is that they state on their official website the following: “Some games include fun in-game options, like a retro screen filter and widescreen gameplay.” Listen. Some games may get widescreen support? Not acceptable. All of them should. That is a bare minimum on the list of required features.) Regarding the Wind Waker and the Pokémon games, will they do anything about the Gameboy Advanced connectivity features? And why can’t we have save states? But anyway, all of my skepticism aside, I was very happy to hear this. I didn’t actually own a Switch, ever. I always wanted to but could never afford it. I will probably never be able to afford a Switch 2, but I feel more inclined to make the sacrifices to get one, because as it is, NSO has finally become a service worthy of its price tag (not just the subscription fee, but the hardware as well). I was happy to see the return of what I regard as the best game controller of all time (the Gamecube’s), and I hope that they release the original Animal Crossing on it (and somehow make it possible for you to visit other people’s towns). Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
The games that they showed off look great, the pricing was not so great, but I think we kinda expected that going in.
I only took a look at a condensed video of the announcement and the Mario Kart World announcement and overall, things look great! Pricing does sting a bit with the console alone being $450 and games being $70-90. I also saw online that some games will come in a "game key" cartridge where the game has to be downloaded and the cartridge is just a key which does annoy me. I think other consoles also do this but I like collecting physical games and this will make it harder to buy ones that have the game on the cartridge.
I don't think I'll preorder the system. I don't have Nintendo Switch Online so I wouldn't get priority anyways. I also just don't use my Switch too much these days now that I have a Steam Deck. I also just spent a shit ton of money moving to a new apartment so I'll wait for my finances to stabilize again before thinking about buying this haha.
It seems it's a publisher specific decision. Some publishers may decide they want to make cheaper carts that basically act as keys for the downloaded game content. It's a way that publishers can optionally save on production costs. I'd be really surprised if many/any first-party Nintendo games end up going this route.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/04/nintendos-switch-2-game-key-cards-somehow-manage-to-make-codes-in-a-box-worse
That's somewhat relieving to hear, I do hope Nintendo maintains proper physical releases for their main franchises. I do intend to buy a Switch 2 with physical copies of Mario Kart and probably a few other games as well in the future so here's to hoping haha.
Wow. Elden Ring on Switch might compel me to buy this console. I’ll be seeing how much I can offset the cost by selling my current Switch and accessories.
This console seems to be competing with the Steam Deck by targeting the “I don’t want to buy a gaming PC and I want to play games” crowd. The number of ports of popular PC games being the focus of the Direct suggests this.
Unfortunately, my current Switch library kind of locks me into upgrading my Switch without even considering a Steam deck. I suspect other people with Steam libraries have the mirror problem. I kind of wish there was less control around game ownership (DRM, physical catridges, etc.).
I kind of wish you could just buy a private key that acknowledges your right to own a game, and then use that to download it on any console. Unfortunately, then there are some issues around playing games offline. A man can dream.
What I would give for a Games Anywhere program that would allow me to acknowledge I bought a game, I can download and play it on the vendor that I choose, and progress would transfer over easily. Probably not an option because everyone would rather make their own cake than take a slice, but if everyone is going to be buying everybody anyway, it would be appreciated to have library parity.
120 Hz with VRR and a 1080p screen makes this a really nice upgrade.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
Edit:
Random thought I had: We had “Joy-con drift” in the last generation. There will certainly be “Joy-con drift” 2.0 in this generation, but of a different kind. Kids will almost assuredly “drift” the controllers around in mouse mode on abrasive surfaces and damage them in the process. lol
DOOM, made by a half dozen or so people in 1993, cost $40. That over $89 in 2025 money. And a modern game has a credits list a mile long, with teams of hundreds of people working on it.
Super Mario 64 debuted at $60 in 1996, which is $124 now.
Game prices really haven't kept pace with inflation at all.
Looking at the prices alone doesn’t really give you the full story though. The market for these games is also dramatically higher than they were in those years as well. It doesn’t seem that such a minor price increase really helps the risk management issues.
Still I think it's a shame how Nintendo consoles don't come with a game included like they used to. And the first-party games should be subsidized by the licensing fees from other games and what I presume is a 30% cut on micro-transactions.
I remember paying 3000 belgian francs for N64 games, so 75€ back in the late 90s. It was absolutely indecent.
I have many thoughts on this.
First and foremost, it is interesting to see Nintendo make something… impressive from a hardware perspective. Of course it's not as powerful as a PS5, but it's in range to get AAA ports, and with DLSS it crushes other gaming handhelds. Which means more people would be able likely use the Switch 2 as their primary console/gaming device.
That said… you're paying for it. When I bought a Steam Deck OLED for $500 or so, part of accepting that price was knowing how damn cheap games get on PC. When games on the Switch 2 are going to cost $80 however ($90 physical even, presumably because they're using actual fast storage this time,) the $450 price tag for the Switch 2 becomes a lot harder to swallow.
I personally didn't see much that would compel me to get this at launch, but knowing myself I'll probably get one down the line. I'm hoping there's an OLED model sooner rather than later though.
As someone with a Switch and a Steam Deck: I think it really boils down to if the Switch 2 has any absolute must-have games for you. I'm an eternal Pokémon fan and Animal Crossing player, so those two franchises guarantee I'll get the Switch 2 at some point. From there I'll naturally accumulate more games that catch my interest, and play my existing Switch library in the meantime just like when I first got my Wii, DS, and 3DS.
Speaking of libraries, I'd personally recommend the Switch 2 more for people who already have a Switch and some games. With the steep price point and the confirmed costs of the announced first-party games so far, an existing library makes the transition easier. And while other publishers' games tend to be cheaper, chances are you'll already own them or want to get it on Steam for reasons like modding or performance. So if you don't have a 100% must-have Nintendo exclusive, the Switch 2 is probably not worth it.
Though on the note of sales: I have some games wishlisted on both Switch and Steam and I've noticed a lot tend to go on sale for the same prices. The best deals I've found for Steam games tend to come from bundles like Fanatical rather than Steam itself. For first-party Nintendo games, your best bet is a retailer like Walmart or Amazon having a crazy sale on a physical copy.
Which is why I had to spend $60 for the Famicom Detective Club game pack last month because it's digital-only and I think it's only ever been discounted one timeYeah, that's more or less been my strategy since I bought the Steam Deck: exclusives on Switch, crossplat on Deck. Mostly to avoid the Switch tax but also because the Deck just performs better (even if the battery life is BS in comparison.)
For me my strategy is to get physical games for Switch (easier on my not-so-tech-savvy mom for presents, and also more fun to open than a gift card), or games that feel like they should be on Switch if they usually go on sale for the same price. I can't really define what games those would be, besides Rune Factory. Somehow, I have a lot of visual novel-esque games for Switch though...
Also, a fun little tip: just because a game doesn't have an American or European physical release does not mean that there's no English option. I was very confused when I got Ghost Trick for Christmas and couldn't redeem it for gold points, and then confused some friends when I mentioned it. Turns out the physical release got repackaged in English in some Asian countries, and that's what my parents found on Amazon. Won't apply for all games obviously, but worth checking Amazon and the like just in case.
I'll let you in on a little trick I use: buy used games from Japan. After a year or so most games that were $60 end up being in the $30 range on there, complete in box and all. Because Switch games have all languages on the same cart, you can still play them in English.
Tariffs sadly change this calculus if you're in the US.
Don't forget: With a Steam Deck you can play your entire library, without necessarily buying anything.
My Steam Deck came with 20-years worth of games when I bought it and I didn't even have to pay extra to have them perform better.
I could never justify a Switch based on the exorbitant game prices and I certainly won't be buying a Switch 2 for myself or for either of my kids.
Part of me wants to get a launch model so I can assure that I'll have a hackable model...
Really, the biggest thing I was excited for was the backward compatibility and seeing you have to pay to "upgrade" them just kind of killed a ton of excitement for me. Just let me put the damn carts in.
"This video is private"
Does anybody have a mirror or something?
https://youtu.be/VrTVeYm4iIM
No new fire emblem made me sad inside. I'm not loving the prices and am hoping to convince my kids to use my steam deck instead. It's not even the system proce but the game prices are honestly nuts compared to the PC market.
Being able to play Cyberpunk on it seems really fun but with that price most likely being 470+60 euro, I don't think I can afford it for now. Crazy that they made it work though, when I saw the direct I thought "Yeah right, if only Cyberpunk was on it" as a joke but.. I was the joke this time haha
I find the Game Chat feature a bit odd for two reasons: First of all, other companies have been partnering with Discord for these features. Being able to share your screen, and chat over voice, and even show yourself on the camera are all nice features, but the implementation looked “janky” to me. Nintendo just doesn’t have the infrastructure and manpower to handle services like these. I would say: “Good on them that they finally entered the 21st century”, except that they are about two decades behind. And that is my second point. It’s too little, too late. And as I was watching them announce this service, I told my wife: “They are going to lock this behind the online subscription.” And guess what? lol At least they will let you demo the service until March 2026. Maybe they’re doing that also to see how well their system works and improve it for a major update next year. I understood, however, that this service will only allow you to communicate with “friends”, so there’s still no way for you to just join a lobby in matchmaking-based games. I guess that’s where Nintendo has drawn the line for the lifespan of this console. Sad. And sad too that they are trying to lock customers into their ecosystem, much the same way that Apple does. They could integrate Discord into the system, but no. They have to do it their way. The Nintendo Music app is another good example of this. (Why not just release the music on Spotify?)
I mean... Voice chat isn't new for Nintendo. The Wii and DSes all had microphones. I remember even talking to people while doing trades in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, where talking isn't really needed. The main update is that you don't need to be playing the same game to chat.
Also keep in mind that one of the core demographics for Nintendo? Families and kids. That "closed ecosystem", while annoying for older gamers, is ultimately built around safety for kids.
By handling it themselves rather than through a Discord partnership, players don't need to have an external account of any sort. That makes one less account for parents to monitor of worry about, not to mention a good chunk of Nintendo players don't meet the minimum age requirement. So younger kids can talk to friends or family who also have Switch 2s with no extra requirements, which is actually a pretty awesome alternative to social media apps and phones.
By restricting these chat features to friends, parents can also make sure their kids don't randomly meet with creepy strangers every time they play Splatoon. Sure, they can still meet people online and add them to the friends' list, but creeps would definitely camp out games they know are likely to have kids playing. And that's before accounting for how toxic voice chat can get. Nintendo would have to moderate those random matchmaking lobbies pretty heavily, and they've got other priorities.
There are solutions and compromises, like parental controls and restricting Discord to some games, but I get why Nintendo is erring on the side of caution here.
Listen, I get all of that, and I get why Nintendo chooses to handle online chat this way, and all of what you said obviously makes logical sense.
I’m still allowed to be upset for not getting what would be the better service for a customer like me, which would, for example, include Discord integration. And if parents weren’t keen on their kids using Discord integration while playing on their Switch, then they could add parental controls for that too. Heck, Discord has its own parental control features now.
I understand and agree with what you said, but it doesn’t invalidate my complaint.
What if I don't use Discord? Why do I have to create a separate account for a separate American company to use voice chat on my Nintendo console? It's not like anyone I'm chatting with isn't also going to have a Switch 2.
From Nintendo's point of view I can also see them being very leery of tying chat on their console to some other company's service.
That wasn’t my proposition either. Discord is an example (and also the most widely used service). They should ideally welcome multiple of those to build develop integrations for their products.
I finally had time to watch the direct, and it looked good! I think the upgrades announced were substantial, and in many cases more than what I anticipated (e.g I did not expect VRR, or any games outputting in 4k60fps) and price is lower than I expected.
It seems like Nintendo is cooking a system for pre-orders to avoid scalpers, as well. I registered for the pre-order, and hopefully my nintendo account qualifies.