The Nintendo Switch 2

it is time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itpcsQQvgAQ

very surprised the mouse thing turned out to be true!

time to first look at it

time to wait until april 2 for the important part (video games)

slick to oh btw new mario cart

I guess 3rd parties can start announcing games now?

Looks good! Sightly bigger. Better attachment mechanism for the joy cons

xp unless they want to be in the Direct, which they probably do

roll on 4 february

time for 3 months of frenzied speculation about the 'c' button

So, when I was really little, single-digits, we had a ColecoVision, but I don't remember what games we had for it. A tiny bit later we had an Atari 7800, and I remember playing ... Pole Position? Something like that. Both consoles I recall winning in a contest or something, or getting them for opening a bank account, back when that was a thing that happened. But the original NES, I know we got that when I was in my early teens, so like a lot of people my age (old) it was a cultural touchstone. I played the hell out of OG Super Mario Bros., OG Zelda, MegaMan, Contra, OG Castlevania, etc.. Those games and Nintendo in general were formative. Secrets, guides, codes, the whole thing, tons of fun.

For some reason, though, that was the end of the line for me, and I never got another console (from any company) until the GameCube. I played it a little, but don't remember spending much time with it. Same for the original Wii, which I know we owned but which I don't recall playing too much, for some reason. Fast forward again until I had kids and we bought a used Wii, which I hacked and stuffed full of easy-to-rip games, but besides Wii sports and the kids doing Just Dance or Animal Crossing, I don't recall much of what I played on it, either.

Long story short (but still long), I bought the Switch when it came out, making it for all purposes the first system I owned since the original NES that I spent any time with. I was excited, and played the hell out of Breath of the Wild and Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, plus a bunch of compelling new or new to me indies like Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight and Ori, but often times the system just felt kind of lacking, especially Nintendo titles; even my formerly Animal Crossing obsessed kid was disappointed by the Switch's Animal Crossing. Me, I'd missed out on decades of great games, and either the system was not capable of playing them, the games were not being ported, or when they were ported there were problems or delays; I recall Doom 2016 on the Switch being particularly disappointing, as was the delayed port rollout of Dark Souls Remastered. Once I bought the PS4, with its deeeeep bench of often deep discounted games, it was hard to go back to the premium-priced but (imo) often kinda disappointing or relatively slim-pickings must-have Nintendo titles, not to mention all the novelties, like the cardboard stuff or the remote control car stuff.

I still have the Switch, which is mostly used for Mario Kart, but other than that it hasn't really held my attention. I never really used it handheld, either, which kinda missed the point! Which is to say, Switch 2 is the epitome of a wait and see console. I suspect it will be a lot like the PS5 and feature tons of remasters, but few "exclusives," as such. I guess we'll see what an 8-year gap between consoles/designs allows Nintendo to do or offer.

Maybe now I'll finally get a cheap Switch 1.

The male controller ports on the sides of the console look... very breakable. Surprising design for a Nintendo product

roll on 4 february

I thought this too until seeing well afterwards that it's 2 April

I just skimmed past a rumor that the Switch 2 joysticks may be "hall effect," which I had never heard of but which sound super cool, whether or not this is the console that gets them. For sure I've had drift issues on both the Switch and Playstation but especially the Switch.

you can already get 3rd party controllers with those for current consoles. some of the newer 8bitdos have them

can also buy hall sensor sticks and replace them yourself, did that to my launch joycons for £20 and it was pretty easy to do

mm/dd, reggie?! I’m out

gta 6 gonna debut on dis ting?

prob not powerful enough

depends how scalable it is, prob wouldnt happen before the pc version anyhow

hope this thing has an OLED screen. after having been spoiled with the steam deck, i can't go back

good chance they'll save that for a revision, but i hope so too

I can never figure out why some games were or could be ported to the Switch but not others. Doom and Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein 2, but not Wolfenstein: New Order. Dark Souls 1, but not 2 or 3. Witcher 3 and Skyrim and Bioshock 1-3, but not GTAV or Mass Effect. Super Mario Galaxy, but not Super Mario Galaxy 2. Ori games looked great, but the Batman games were reportedly a mess.

I think part is money and time or rights, what is worth it, but I suspect it has to do with power and sometimes simply how the code is written; I don't know anything about code, but I understand Nintendo can be tricky to write? I've seen a couple of vids, one on Wolfenstein 2 and one on Ori, about porting to the Switch, and sometimes it seems it takes a certain degree of ingenuity to figure out a way to make it work without making the console work too hard. Curious how much power this new one will or can pack.

Grand theft Mario when

My main question is will it be uncomfortable to hold like the regular Switch

are they going to forza horizon mario kart ? seems likely

doubt it since it would detract from the pick up and play identity of it but they could do more dynamic stuff with the tracks changing lap to lap etc, i know they dabbled with that in the last one

i guess i could imagine how it would work like if each cup was its own map that had all 4 tracks on it and then a horizon mode where you can use it as a sandbox

maybe theyll have wonder flowers that make the tracks go all loony

how fast can nintendo switch 2 go? does nintendo switch 2 have automatic transmission? does nintendo switch 2 have four-wheel drive?

hope this thing has an OLED screen.

The leaks say it doesn’t. And they got literally everything else right, so chances are they’re right about that too.

Mariokart as a launch title obviously makes sense and it’s odd they haven’t done it before (it’s consistently their biggest or almost biggest selling game in each generation) but it’s hard to get excited about it. MK8 was sort of perfect already? It’s not a game that’ll benefit from better resolution or whatever and it’s already 60fps. And 8 had 96 courses by the end! Some of which came out recently enough that I’ve still only played them 3-4 times.

maybe they could add more to Kart than just more tracks and drivers
loved the missions/minigames in Kart DS, bring those back!

one must assume they understand the challenges of following up MK8 after all those expansions and are going to have some big new gameplay hook in this one, even if it's not apparent from those 10 seconds of footage

there will be other launch titles as well, presumably including ones that show off the new gpu more (metroid prime 4?)

They frequently add gimmicks here or there (two characters per kart in Double Dash or the upside down driving in 8 or whatever) but the games are generally good in spite of those, not because of them.

realistic mortal injuries from shells

Double lol.

1) Inevitable Digital Foundry analysis, an hour long based on that 2-minute "reveal"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pdx4GK4PSw

2) The first question/comment from a viewer named "Abadaba-Pling Boink Weeeee U," a name so ridiculous the hosts can't even keep a straight face.

(This, btw, is a trend I find endlessly hilarious from any channel that takes questions or comments from chats or texts or whatever. "Stinkybum420king asks a very good question ... "

does USB-C mean we can maybe output to TV while still using the touch screen to allow wii U and NDS games on virtual console

feel like it would be against Nintendo's MO for switch to have games that only work with a tv

also they've rereleased almost all the good wii u games on switch already, whats even left?

ds is more compelling but you can do most of them on one screen since the second screen is often just a status/map screen and can be put as an inset, e.g. see that castlevania ds collection thats on switch

i think on switch 2 you'll even have the vertical resolution to be able to stack the two screens vertically at 2x scale

what if you can attach 2 switch 2s together and make a giant ds

switch 4

snake should be a launch game and it should be the definitive version of it - meaning, with a high score list that persists from gaming session to gaming session using save technology

you can already access the global high score list by walking your Mii to Snakelist Cave on Wuhu Island

(you'll need to touch your Tingle Amiibo to open the gate)

I just played Mario Wonder for the first time and noticed that my controller plays musical notes when Mario steps on a keyboard – has it always done that and been able to play sound??? I think I’ve played lots of games that rumble but never any that actually make noises. Maybe I’ve just been playing the wrong games

the switch's "HD rumble" is essentially just passing a sound wave through an actuator in the controller so you can do stuff like that with the right sound wave yeah

very few games use it in that way though

https://i.imgur.com/CzrgLag.png

dawn of the final day, less than 24 hours!
presentation is said to be an hour long with Treehouse gameplay shows on April 3rd and April 4th at 7am PT
any last predictions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUmjX7DsP8

i predict old mario, no more jumping for him hes retired

drives his rascal scooter directly into a goomba

gray mustache

-mario kart 9 ofc
-whatever nintendo tokyo has been making since mario odyssey, that's the big one
-nextlevelgames hasnt released anything in the past few years so they could have a new medium scope game like a luigi's mansion or whatever
-donkey kong something, they've been pushing DK recently in stuff like the theme park despite him not having a new game in ages. could be the same game as one of the above two points.
-square enix probably have an unannounced RPG to announce. been rumors of an FF9 remake, i'd rather have something new though
-there'll be some "look at what switch can run now" ports of big AAA games from late PS4, stuff like assassins creed odyssey or RDR2 or FF7 remake.
-maybe they show metroid prime 4 again with switch 2 improvements and give a release date

-sakurai has been working on a game. seems too early for another smash so maybe a kid icarus or a kirby
-monolithsoft probably don't have anything new to show yet but they've been so active in the switch era that i can't count them out
-likewise with the splatoon team
-star fox was absent from switch 1. f-zero too of course but that series doesn't seem to have anyone pushing for it anymore at nintendo whereas miyamoto & co still like star fox afaik

-yoshi hasn't gotten a game in a while, though goodfeel who made the last two were very busy last year so it wouldn't be them if it's this soon
-tales of something? bandai announced a whole 30th anniversary initiative and only one remaster has come out of it so far. feels like we're due for a new game too
-musou game. there's always a musou game
-fire emblem doesn't seem like something that shows up until the console's been out a bit, but there's been rumors of a FE4 remake

mostly i'm just hoping them calling it a direct means its actually going to be in that format i.e. lots of shorter announcements

the Treehouse shows are rumoured to be 4 and 3 hours long, don't think even Nintendo could show just Mario Kart for 7 hours

star fox was absent from switch 1. f-zero too of course but that series doesn't seem to have anyone pushing for it anymore at nintendo whereas miyamoto & co still like star fox afaik

There was enthusiasm for F-Zero 99! I think Star Fox is a dead series though.

also i'm expecting it to release in june, with one or two of the bigger games held back for the holiday season. no damn clue on US price given the tariff situation, i would have said $399 but it could be much higher now. i hope they don't bring back region locking because of that

because of tariffs it'll be more expensive to buy from outside your home country anyway, on all sides

hopefully they realized it's just not worth the trouble

they got a whole mario cart world now

For whatever reason, I love the aesthetics of Nintendo Directs. Its polite. It’s nerdy yet removed from video game culture. The clothes are odd and nostalgic.

otm i like when the presenters do a little razzle dazzle like putting their arms out and saying please enjoy the game

lotta ports....

yeah surprising lack of new games so far

yo wait what

okay, the ol' leave the best for last thing works everytime I guess

tendo playing with the big boys now

was happy enough until I saw the prices, oof

no 3d mario but the donkey kong game looks good you just run around smashing everything, an exclusive fromsoft game is crazy theyre strong arming people into buying the system

pretty meager in terms of actual new games announced but the few that were look great

XPs, I feel this, but also the price seems about right given inflation and where this sits in the market compared to a Steam Deck/ROG Ally/Lenovo Whatever

they didnt say the price tho

prices have come out in press releases after the Direct, I buy physical whenever possible and 90€/$79.99 for Mario Kart World is wild

xps the console is $449

also there in Japan the hardware is language locked to Japanese for 49,980 yen, a multilanguage one is 69,990 yen! that's one way to get around export problems I guess

I didn't realize they were asking $80 for MKW, damn

yeah theyre bundling it with the console for 500 so most people will get it that way i assume

thats weird they didnt put the price in the announcement, 399 wouldve been better

those darn tariffs

for UK peeps it's £395 standalone, £430 bundle with MKW.
MKW is £67 digital, £75 physical. Donkey Kong £59 digital, £67 physical.

xp they probably didnt want to commit early enough to put it in the video

given ongoing situations

*gesturing generally around*

the casual silksong mention made me guffaw

throwing 5 seconds of that in the montage when its probably the most anticipated game of all time at this point was really funny

are they going to forza horizon mario kart ? seems likely

― secretary of state for fractal pluripotencies (||||||||), Friday, 17 January 2025 16:05 bookmarkflaglink

a wee bit

they did it

All the jokes about Bloodborne Kart, and now there's actually a From game that looks like Bloodborne 2 as a Switch exclusive. Might be the first From game since Dark Souls that I don't play. :(

eh isn't it a multiplayer live service type game tho? have zero interest in those

Oh huh, well that makes me feel better.

I started watching the direct... It appears to have what I wanted with handheld 1080p and more power.

I'm guessing the dock will have a snug fit and you can dock it facing backwards?

Lame move, From. Maybe this is just an excuse not to upgrade their rickety engine.

they basically only hit the highest confidence items on my prediction list and nothing else new besides the fromsoft game. weird presentation, didnt feel like it had more gas than the average direct

because it's nintendo and they're incomprehensible, they'll probably put out another direct in the summer that has like 5 more games that they should have shown in this one

yeh wonder if they'll have the usually timed E3 direct in June
playing a new Metroid with mouse controls at 120fps does sound quite tasty ngl
did a quick rewatch/skim through and there are plenty of games that I want to play, still suffering sticker shock tho

(This is as good a thread as any I guess) I am such, such a big fan of Starfox SNES and Starfox 64. The format of those games was astounding, I felt like a new genre was born. Just as Galaga and the subsequent history of 2D Schmups presented space battle as an exercise in gorgeous choreography, Starfox posited a game where the exploration happened in three dimensions, on the rails, like Crash Bandicoot; it's hard for me to nail it down verbally but it's like the game is "an endless zoom in on a titillating proscenium". The "Armada" stage of the original Starfox is one of the most thrilling bits of space opera I can imagine, enormous ships all prepping for war as the arwings fly into the cores of several megaships and eliminate them.

My brain has imagined a Starfox masterpiece that took place in some manner of Halo-ish circular satellite, whereby the flythroughs would sometimes interlink/interconnect with previous levels (see the latter stages of Gradius V, for example). The branching paths would sometimes result in appealing re-treads. The actual-story of Starfox is entirely whatever, I don't give a shit about Fox or his dad or this weird romance between Falco and a Katt it's all so dumb. But the gameplay itself, the choreography... I have never felt as thrilled as I did when I played Starfox SNES for the first time.

I think I bought a Wii U just to play the Starfox for it, and felt dread/anger as I played through to the final stages; iirc, I beat the entire game on my first attempt and don't think I even lost more than a couple ships. I do not understand why Nintendo cannot identify the brilliance of the format and do a proper Metroid Dread-ish new game based on the basic tenets. No more all range mode. No more Arwing transformations. No more water levels. Keep it airborne and on-the-rails and keep the enemies ridiculous and mobile and with a hundred moving parts. God I wish this game existed

they basically only hit the highest confidence items on my prediction list and nothing else new besides the fromsoft game. weird presentation, didnt feel like it had more gas than the average direct

because it's nintendo and they're incomprehensible, they'll probably put out another direct in the summer that has like 5 more games that they should have shown in this one

― ciderpress, Wednesday, April 2, 2025 11:57 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

did just you want more 3rd party games could see that being lil slow cause its a new console, first party stuff mario kart donk kong and kirby is a pretty big three from nintendo tho missing 3d mario is a big disappoint must be saving it for the holidays maybe mario kart and 3d mario together is too much mario, but yeah i bet well learn about more 3rd party games soon

oh and metroid too

looks like elden ring + erdtree will be available for switch 2

I did think the 120hz screen was a nice surprise but then remembered that I only ever play docked anyway, and even in handheld most stuff will presumably still run at 60fps (and pokemon will still struggle to maintain 3fps).

Paid upgrades to existing titles is an ok idea as long as they land in the £10-15 range that those ps4->5 upgrades tended to sit. But I can imagine Nintendo overpricing them.

ya dont think im going to pay to upgrade the zelda games i have played them enough they shouldve made some dlc then i wouldve paid any amount

Not so fun to steal my star when I am crying and dry heaving in a little bubble above shy guy's head while you do it

seems some Switch 1 games are getting free updates "that may improve performance or add support for features such as GameShare in select games. The contents of these free updates will differ depending on the game.​" hmmmmm may.
games include Odyssey, Mario 3D World, Arms, Link's Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, Scarlet/Violet, Captain Toad.
where's my Xeno updates Nintendo!

upgrade packs will be free to online / expansion pak members, I think I read

the upgrades are $10 if they don't include a DLC expansion (zelda, metroid) and $20 if they do (mario party, kirby)

and it sounds like the former are included in the higher subscription tier yeah

as for the device nintendo cares about specs more than it used to i guess, between that and the fromsoft exclusive seems like theyre interested in playing a little closer to the video game mainstream, maybe detecting some weakness in ps-xbox society

did just you want more 3rd party games could see that being lil slow cause its a new console

im sure there will be more mario kart metroid kong on launch kirby dlc in august then nothing after that they gotta be sitting on 3d mario and at least some inscrutable to me jrpg and prob some sort of wii sports type shit

the donkey kong game is almost certainly the mario odyssey team so there might not be 3D mario for a bit

that game's been rumored for like 4 years

the hyrule warriors game is kind of a weird bummer since a) the whole purpose of those games is to do the full franchise crossover and let you play all your favorite characters, not a tie-in to one single game. and b) they already did the latter for BotW and the game ran so poorly that everyone's been waiting for switch 2 to play it, so we don't even need a new one already

like i'm sure the game is fine but it's the least asked-for thing they could possibly have come up with for a launch year game

cmon they gotta have a 3d mario in the chamber the last one was 100 years ago

now that i think about it im mad there was no odyssey 2 jumping on the hat was the best mario mechanic i want to jump on the hat more

also i was hoping square enix would bring a new JRPG announcement but it was just a remaster of a 3DS game i already have so thats another whiff on a "slot" that could have been for me

i want a hide and seek battle mode in the open world mario kart

That does sound great fgti, although I never really played the Starfox games. I always talk about wanting a current gen Wing Commander or Colony Wars that's actually good, but it seems hard to do space combat that's actually fun (and doesn't leave you spinning in 3D circles), maybe on rails is actually the way to go?

its not just nintendo pretty much no one is making 3d shmups/rail shooters anymore. one of those genres that fell by the wayside since it's hard to make a game longer than like 5 hours and hard to sell modern audiences a game shorter than 5 hours. you might have to, gasp, replay it multiple times to get the most out of it

that said they did make a new pokemon snap, that's a rail shooter

just need to make it a rouge like

i want a hide and seek battle mode in the open world mario kart

― c u (crüt), Wednesday, April 2, 2025 5:55 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

seems like they could build a lot of stuff in the mario kart world would be cool if they just kept adding to it

nintendo building that up as their fortnite hangout game makes a lot of sense. unfortunately fortnite costs $80 less so its probably not going to supplant it for the famously unwealthy cohort "children"

children gotta get a job

seems crazy that the tutorial download game is paid

nintendo nintendoing

I just did a quick scan of reactions to all the news yesterday, and ... didn't see a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe about on par with the PS5 Pro? Personally not getting any fomo from this, thank goodness, but if I were to quarterback I would have made Zelda's Tears a console-launching showcase, along with the inevitable/belated new Mario Kart. Something meaty and exciting.

xp reggie had to stake his entire job on making wii sports a pack-in game, Nintendo seems fundamentally opposed to that idea

Wait, they are releasing Elden Ring and Cyberpunk for Switch 2? Those games are going to run like shit.

how do you know

because they run like shit on playstation too. feature parity!

heh

Yeah, seriously. Elden Ring was shaky for some on *PS5* (unless you are playing with the PS4 disc in). Cyberpunk took *years* to stabilize on every platform. I bought it for $10, I think, with a free upgrade, after all the corrections and fixes. This is, what, $70 for an unproven port on a new but likely *weaker* (right?) system. And it was reported that Cyberpunk is aiming for 40fps *docked*, which means that is the *target*.

I just did a quick scan of reactions to all the news yesterday, and ... didn't see a lot of enthusiasm.

That's crazy, this was the best Direct in a long time.

youtubers seemed initially very stoked on it but then there was a growing backlash to the cost

Still no cartridge blow challenge in Nintendo World Championship

if elected nintendo ceo, Josh would run this business like an ilx thread

ok the Hori camera is cute
https://bsky.app/profile/whilhorst.bsky.social/post/3llvhc5g5ws2e

for privacy the mouth can be closed lol

https://i.imgur.com/ao9cIra.png

yeah the sentiment i saw was "looks good but a bit light on first party compared to switch 1 launch year" pivoting to more negativity after the presentation when the $70-80 game prices came out. i think people were ready for the console to be over 400 but not ready for nintendo to break the still sticker-shock-y $70 barrier

i will say the device seems excellent the switch is all grown up but is still fun and nice

nintendo games tend to hold their value too :/

that said its probably just to upsell the mario kart bundle, and it will work on me

Treehouse stream on btw, just about to start Metroid

seemless switching between mouse mode & normal mode is pretty cool

basically the only thing i need to see demoed at this point is someone putting in a game that had framedrops on switch 1 and it running better without a bespoke patch

think that will only happen on games with resolution scaling & unlocked frame rates, think some of the Xeno games are like that? but yes it's the one thing that I want to see more of

ok Metroid looked sick, sigh I'm going to have to buy one of these things now

The Metroid gameplay was a boring tutorial section. Looked like a Halo game.

xp yeah i'm not talking about taking 30 fps games to 60 fps, i'm talking about taking "30 fps" games to 30 fps

lol at nintendo's way of demonstrating 4k resolution:

https://i.imgur.com/hFhiLcQ.png

haa

yeah i'm not talking about taking 30 fps games to 60 fps, i'm talking about taking "30 fps" games to 30 fps

Yeah, that's why I brought up Elden Ring and Cyberpunk. Those games sometimes had/have trouble hitting their relatively modest marks on more powerful systems.

these guys played donky kong and are calling it super mario odyssey 2 hell yeah kong time baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZZVfWxFSUg

yeah the sentiment i saw was "looks good but a bit light on first party compared to switch 1 launch year" pivoting to more negativity after the presentation when the $70-80 game prices came out. i think people were ready for the console to be over 400 but not ready for nintendo to break the still sticker-shock-y $70 barrier

i want to play the donkey kong

Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.

first they came for the gamers, and i said nothing

RIP Nintendo - launching the Switch 2 right before world trade altering tariffs disrupt the ability of your biggest market from buying your product (and they were already crying foul over $450) is def an unfortunate development for them.

yeah i dont envy them trying to navigate this immediately after cashing in all their goodwill already on the software price hikes

getting that extra $10 for mario kart / scheming for bundle sales really does not seem worth the ill will for nintendo, not sure what they were thinking they only had one $70 to date shouldve just kept it at that gone for the $80 in a few years maybe

am I crazy or weren't N64 games like $79.99 at launch

yeah idk the exact price but video games used to be insanely expensive

yeah gaming was very bougie expensive before playstation came in with $50 games and expanded the market

*console gaming, that is

some nes games were $60 which is $160 in todays money

bout the same as an $80 n64 game

CDs were a loooooooot cheaper to make than carts. wonder how much Switch 2 carts cost to make? gotta be a lot more than Switch 1 ones and companies were trying all sorts of things to reduce the size of games for those.

actually sega games might have been 50 too i dont remember. but the market was a lot smaller back then its hard to compare to today where theres hundreds of high quality indie games available for $20

game I’ve played most ever was £free.99

didn't Virtua Racing cost $100 at launch? all those extra chips on the cart board were v expensive to make

anyway what happened in the 90s is irrelevant since after that there were like two decades of $60 being standard so people still aren't fully acclimated to $70 again yet. plus younger generations dont even buy $60 games anymore, they play free-to-play games

idk two days ago i thought the worst possible outcome for switch 2 was the DS -> 3DS (150mil -> 75mil after pricing it too high and having to do an early price drop and never really achieving the same momentum) but now an even worse trajectory seems possible. very unfortunate

you also had rental at video stores, sregular joes werent buying $80 SNES games for their kids

yes rental was a huge part of the ecosystem to the point where games were designed with it in mind

Nintendo tax, and all that, but apparently if you want to upgrade "Breath of the Wild" for the Switch 2 and want but don't already have the DLC it will cost you an additional $10 (for the upgrade) + $20 (for the DLC), bringing the total Switch 2 price of a complete "Breath," which is 8 years old and was originally released for the Wii-U, up to $90. Nintendo fans are ... irked.

For comparison, as Kotaku notes:

Contrast Nintendo’s approach to its eight-year old mega hit with CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. Both games have sold over 30 million copies. Both games are dense open-world adventures. Both are coming to Switch 2. Both will be $70 there. Except Cyberpunk 2077 will include its Phantom Liberty expansion which came out less than two years ago as a “Complete Edition” pack-in at no extra charge. And that’s despite the fact CDPR has to pay a platform fee to Nintendo on every sale.

we should be lucky Nintendo didn't simply force a $70 full cart upgrade, i guess...

who are the people who care enough to follow this story but dont own the dlc but want it and dont want to pay for it, its no one thats who, this pricing outrage is verified reliant on non existent people, the true cost to zelda freaks is $10, which why even pay that havent you played this game enough already

I think the proverbial people would be someone that doesn't own a Switch but buys or gets a Switch 2 and wants to get Breath of the Wild? But based on Nintendo's response ("We recognize there are some people that may not be able to afford that price point,” Nintendo of America Doug Bowser said last week. “That’s why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available.”), it feels like the Switch 2 is not being positioned as a next gen device so much as a Switch Pro, a premium priced upgrade for those that want it rather than a must-have console for everyone. So, yeah, sure, those people probably already do own "Breath" and maybe its DLC.

yeah those seem like a non-issue though if metroid prime 4 is $80 for the switch 2 version because its $70 for the switch 1 version +10 for the upgrade that is a lot more ehhh. same with the new pokemon game, i dont know if theyve put out the price for those two yet

you can still play the original $60 version of breath of the wild and get the same experience everyone else who called it one of the best games of all time did. you dont have to upgrade the graphics for the game to be good

i think the new pricing is bad and dumb but more because its confusing than anything. there are $60 and $70 games, there are $10 and $20 upgrades, then there is an $80 game that isnt part of all that its just 80. also a lot of games have free upgrades and not paid upgrades

would have been so much more of a PR win to be able to just say all graphics upgrades are free thats part of what you're buying when you buy a switch 2. and then they can jack the game prices up if they want but at least theres no confusion

i don't know if i even want to upgrade BOTW it looks kinda weird at the high framerate

otm re the whole pricing pr situation altogether xp

Yeah - this pricing scheme, coupled with tariffs, a belt tightening consumer base, and ridiculous upgrade prices (not to mention the "demo" costing $10) might not bode well for the launch. Previously I would have considered buying on launch day - now I'm going to wait at least 6 months, possibly a year.

The only must have game for me for the platform in the next year is Hades 2, which will launch for the Switch 1 as well.

if theyd just made mario kart 70 prob no one would be complaining and the funny thing is most people who want it will get it in a bundle for cheaper anyway, the $10 upgrades and the lame demo game you can just not get seem like lesser but still unwise nickel and diming, the console costing 450 i think people wouldve been ok with without the other stuff but i do think nintendo didnt really make the case for how good of a device it is seems like its not just an iteration of the first one its a better more serious console altogether, obvs the tariff/crashing world economy stuff they cant control

its the most cutting-edge nintendo console since gamecube but its not in their nature to market on that anymore i guess

(i will also be waiting a bit before buying in)

i want to play the kong

same but i like to wait until theres 3 big new games i want to play, that one is #1 of 3

Cheapest Steam Deck is $400. OLED 512GB one is $550, if we're looking at some hardware performance comparison points.

Supposedly the Wii wasn't originally going to come with Wii Sports in the US, but President of Nintendo of America (at the time) Reggie Fils-Aimé convinced the Japanese leadership to include it. Apparently in Japan it's not normal to offer complimentary content in this way, hence the Switch 2 demo costing $10. Yeah it's only $10, but feels a bit insulting to the American consumer base, especially when Astro's Playroom exists on the PS5 - and that "demo's" practically a full on game that's actually given me nearly 10 hours of solid entertainment for free. Def a bad look and a bit of hubris for Nintendo.

In the long run they'll be fine, I'm sure. The Wii might end up becoming the "new" Steam Deck with its performance, popularity and ease of use when being considered by developers. But I would not be surprised if the launch is a big let down. We'll see.

I think launch will be fine, the real question is how sales go in the 6-12 months after the hardcore fans have bought theirs. 3DS launched ok too but dipped sharply due to the general public not vibing with the system cost, they had to cut prices & give away free games before it took off. I promise to buy it once you cut the price to 300 Nintendo!

agreed. i don't think they'll get this one down to 300, though i'm sure they would have loved to do 399 if there wasnt a trade war on. sony hasn't been able to price drop the PS5 either, those efficiencies don't seem to exist within a 7-8 year console generation anymore

unless you meant UKP idk whats going on over there

3DS launched ok too but dipped sharply due to the general public not vibing with the system cost

3ds also just didn't have many games for ages (this was a big problem for the wii u too). switch 2 seems like it's going to have enough going for it that it'll still do fine even if it probably doesn't match switch 1 numbers

from previews I've seen a lot of praise for how well 3rd party games like Cyberpunk run on it, sounds like the inbuilt upscaling solution is working well

3DS was also their first handheld that had to compete meaningfully with mobile, DS thrived on the sort of casual games that people just play on phones now whereas 3DS games ended up having to be full blown games to compete. the 3DS library ended up quite a bit stronger in retrospect because of that but yeah it took a while to get there

switch 2 is landing in a place where it can more reasonably be someones only console and not miss out on too many big games and the pricing takes that into account i guess. but it makes it less palatable to the multiplatform gamers who are buying nintendo consoles just to play the nintendo games

I think launch will be fine, the real question is how sales go in the 6-12 months after the hardcore fans have bought theirs.

How is the PS5 Pro doing? (Honest question, I have no idea, but it seems to be a loosely comparable console, in terms of potential audience, incremental improvements and premium pricing.)

theyre not comparable but i dont think anyones buying the ps5 pro

switch to switch 2 is not incremental, it's a significantly more powerful device. it's comparable to PS3->PS4, not PS4->PS5 (which was still a bigger jump than PS5->PS5 pro)

more features too chat, digital game lending

its got a mouse

i will not be using the chat or the mouse

I dunno, Switch 2 seems incremental to me, not least because, yeah, new stuff like the mouse and chat seem pretty eh (especially the dedicated C/chat button, which is tied to a subscription, right?), and in the case of the screen (OLED back to LED) ... it's actually a step back? I'm sure we'll see when people are hands-on, but (for example) will Cyperpunk run as well on the Switch 2 as it did on PS4 (for better or for worse) or will the performance still run behind the PS4, or require big compromises? *Could* Mario Kart 9 be released for the OG Switch, spec-wise, or is it Switch 2 exclusive just to boost sales? I think there's a lot we don't know about the console's capabilities. Some folks noted that the clips of Donkey Kong shown were pretty shaky, and that's the footage they decided to share, and a flagship title at that.

you have to use the chat and mouse sorry its nintendo law

cyberpunk will probably run better than ps4 in docked mode and worse in handheld

mario kart world would probably not run on OG switch without some big compromises, its clearly taking advantage of the larger memory and faster loading speeds, at minimum

donkey kong was running well in every clip i saw except for the one that showed a zoomed out 3d view of the entire level with all of the player-caused destruction visible. thats pretty ambitious and maybe they'll smooth it over or go with a regular map for the final version

seems like it could be a pretty resource intensive game because of all the smashing

there is footage of cyberpunk running on it people seem to think its pretty good maybe in between ps4 and ps5 but obvs hard to tell from just a lil random footage

it runs a lil better than steam deck which is what you would expect

it seems pretty clear that it's a substantially more powerful switch with a few new features, none of which are essential. that's good enough for me - no need to fix what isn't broken or unnecessarily force a new gimmick. the mouse stuff seems like it'll be pretty nice for metroid prime 4 at least. idk if it will be much use elsewhere, but i'm glad they're adding it.

I personally dont pay attention to Nintendo stuff really and I thought Cyberpunk on the Switch 2 was hyperbole... wow!

I've seen a couple of videos about how they managed to get, say, Wolfenstein II on the Switch, and the slight of hand is fascinating.

Inevitable Cyberpunk nerd breakdown, sucking the fun out of everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Rs_g4c4ko

An impressive feat, regardless of results.

It's kind of moot, imo, because there is no real compelling reason to get a Switch 2 over a steamdeck (for portable) or PS5 or whatever besides the Nintendo exclusives, so with that in mind, any spiffy games it can get beyond those exclusives is just a bonus.

i think the sales numbers of the switch v steam deck would take issue

steam deck is not a mass market device. you can't buy it at target or walmart

Yeah, selling 3 million to Nintendo's 150 or whatever. What I mean is that you don't buy a Switch 2 if you want to play Cyberpunk, you buy Switch 2 to play Mario Kart, but if it can also play Cyberpunk, great.

right. i have friends who have a switch as their only gaming device because they have kids and aren't big gamers, but are interested in playing the occasional big hyped game, thats the audience for the AAA ports

thats me except i dont have kids im the kid i dont want to play cyberpunk tho

i bought the witcher for switch but i never played it, not sure what aaa id like to play maybe red dead redemption 2

tho i bet theres a bigger audience for those aaa ports theres prob plenty xbox/ps owners who would become switch exclusive owners under the right circumstances, not your hardcore gamers just regular gamers whod be fine with it, you buy a ps5 and its not that different than the ps4 then you buy a switch 2 and when the ps6 comes out you just never end up buying it you dont care then you get a switch 3

tho people do want to play gta guess the final mile for nintendo is getting the handful of essential aaa releases day 1, could happen with a big enough install base maybe

gta doesnt even come to PC day 1

I was quite surprised when I got around to the Donkey Kong trailer and the Kirbag teaser a few days ago. The first is a 3D platformer and the second, to my surprise, is a sequel to Kirby Air Ride. Admittedly, I have never played Kirby Air Ride but for a while I watched a streamer play speedruns for winning via collecting the random "achievements" boxes suck as 'destroy every tree', 'kill x vehicle with y vehicle's, 'get 10 hotdogs, 10 sushi, or 10 megatomatos(?)'... Actually, this streamer was the first to attempt this at SGDQ or AGDQ, the one that happened most recently. Previously it was impossible to do this because of the randomness of unlocking necessary stages but there has since been a way to manipulate a new game save file and play the first open-world-city in such a way to manipulate the RNG for unlocking levels throughout the rest of the game.

Kirby Air Riders has the same director as the OG. I expect the open world city (and hopefully cities) to be way more fun than before. This area was what made the original game so watchable. The little challenges seemed like a sidenote. There were stages that felt like nothing more than mini games: straight single track races, boss battles, enemy wave time limit battles, fly at the target, see how high you can fly... I think that Switch 2's stronger online multiplayer with friends features are a good match for this (near)launch game. I hope that the game has replayability in a way other than speedrunning.

US preorders start at midnight tonight from big box retailers, tomorrow morning from Gamestop. you can also preorder direct from Nintendo next week but only if you have an active online subscription and 50+ hours of switch 1 playtime, thats their anti-scalping measure

nintendo japan just had to issue an apology because they got 2 million preorders via the latter method and they can't fulfill them all in the first round. perhaps this thing will be big after all

im sure theyll have no problem selling out the first batch there are enough hardcore wanters longer term who know theres a lot of variables, it is cheaper in japan tho

Yeah a LOT cheaper in Japan. Which they're maybe regretting already.

"Nintendo's own stock" versus "people who applied to get an invitiation to order direct from nintendo" isn't the same as "total stock in the region" versus "total customers in the region" though. I'd applied for (and received) an invitation to order one from nintendo when the UK preorders were happening, but by the time they'd emailled me the invitation, I'd already got a preorder in elsewhere, so I ended up not using the nintendo preorder I'd requested.

interesting choice to make a cheaper japanese language only model, they knew the pricing was going to be alienating and didnt want to fuck things up at home but were willing to bite the bullet abroad

i normally wait until after the first holiday season on this stuff but think i'm gonna get mine now if i can. don't think we've really seen the impact of the trade war on games yet might as well sneak one last big purchase in

yeah who knows where the price is going from here

probably a lot of people thinking the same though hence high preorders

not really any hope of getting it cheaper years down the line either. PS5 is almost 5 years old and still the same price. they've run out of whatever efficiencies were letting them price drop in past generations, or else those processes are monopolized by iphones now idk

lots of inflation recently tho so its an effective price drop in a less inflationary period maybe they lower the price

ps5 is more expensive in europe now than at launch

wasn't able to pre-order one. that's ok, switch 2 isn't cool anymore. it's passe

nevermind i was able to get one without the mario kart bundle. switch 2 is good again. but mario kart is still bad and uncool