I don't know how to feel about the Switch 2
Evolution over revolution once more, but is there trouble on the horizon for Nintendo's latest hardware venture?
Considering my age, I came to videogames a generation later than you would expect.
My first games console was the Nintendo 64. An Ice Blue brick of a thing, with that fantastically fucked up trident of a controller. My first games for that console were Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye and Super Mario 64. This is the type of greed they talked about in the bible.
My primary foray into games was one informed by the design principles of a company who seemed explicitly motivated by the act of play (the scuffed digital approximation of Pierce Brosnan notwithstanding). Those games were exciting, full of secrets to uncover and, at the time, felt great to control.
I continued to be a Nintendo guy for much of my youth. I jumped in on the Gamecube at launch, accompanied by the blissful dyad of Luigi’s Mansion and Rogue Squadron II. I had a pristine jet black clamshell Gameboy Advance SP that I spent my high school lunch breaks playing Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
The list continued: A salmon pink DS, hundreds of hours of grinding in Disgaea DS and an almost equal amount tapping away at the rhythmic trio of Ouendan games. A metallic blue 3DS XL, held briefly and with a cautious foray into the world of Bravely Default (before sadly having to sell it on due to financial concerns).
I had other consoles at the same time, but there was always a nintendo presence in my life somewhere. However, once the thunderously successful Wii rolled around, I was already a grown man. In my head too mature for such childish ventures, and my relationship with Nintendo sort of fell by the wayside for many years.
The Wii was a frustrating thing to get excited about. While genuinely innovative in its design and means of engagement, the types of games I liked at the time simply were not there. The company struggled to court third party support, and especially as the cost of development increased, their commitment to a singular and uncompromised vision of design shot them in the foot.
As my tastes evolved over the years, I found myself less enthralled by the simple joy of play and got more in the weeds about specific works from a broad range of creatives, many of which simply were not on Nintendo’s platform anymore.
Years passed, at some point the allure of Breath of the Wild became too much, and I bought a Switch Lite, a device that has, once again, transformed my gaming habits, but not necessarily in the way I was expecting.
The form factor and convenience of the Switch, the expansive digital library and the fact that the eShop had this surprisingly generous cashback programme (RIP big man, you will be missed!) meant that I used the device to play a lot of multiplatform titles, predominantly indie, and on the occasion I did dip a toe or two in the first party waters these were great experiences.
But it never really felt like a Nintendo Console. Not in the way the N64 did. Especially not in the way the 3DS did. I honestly don’t even know what my relationship with the Switch actually is. Is it an indie games machine? Maybe, although I play a lot of those on PC too. Is it an away-day device? Not really, it never leaves my living room, I don’t even play it in bed. As there is a raft of new competitive handhelds on the market, there is little, if anything to distinguish it beyond its raft of platform-unique offerings.
With the reveal of the Switch 2 as a direct successor, a console of startling similarity, more so than any other in the company’s history, I find little to be truly excited about. An upgrade. A few extra bells and whistles. Functionality that once again showcases how behind the curve Nintendo have been at embracing the new internet paradigm.
I think the controller mouse thing is neat. I like that it has a built-in microphone. I hope that it can capture more than 30 seconds of footage at a time.
I’m not all that buzzed about it beyond that. The launch lineup seems pathetically weak, a rogues gallery of titles that have already existed for years (in Yakuza 0’s case, a full decade at this point!) plus an eye-wateringly expensive new Mario Kart. A lot of what is on offer are simply upgrades to the admittedly compromised Switch versions of those titles.
I wasn’t expecting any different, to be honest. The climate in which games are now made is drastically different. The most vocal and troglodytic of fans have been clamouring for this kind of power hog all throughout the switch’s life cycle. A Nintendo console that can play PS4 games was the assignment, and from the looks of things, the company is going to get an A+. But as a result, and as I’ve discussed in previous Substack posts, the cost of all this is true innovation.
I keep thinking about the 3DS when looking at all this. How that handheld felt like space age technology. How it was decidedly doing its own thing and as a result felt like something of a miracle. Much of what made the 3DS has been borrowed wholesale for Nintendo’s future consoles, but remixed in a way to bring some form of parity with everything else on the market. Edges sanded down, a smoother, higher-tech, less interesting version of an idea.
On top of this, a lot of the information coming out about the Switch 2, its functionality, how its systems work, how its games work, has me concerned.
I’m not sure what to make about this digital key system for some physical games other than it sounds like a really bad idea considering how quickly Nintendo have shut down the servers for their legacy consoles in the past. Did they not see the response to Microsoft’s original always on DRM plans for the XBOX ecosystem? If these things are, broadly speaking, digital only, why bother manufacturing the cards in the first place?
The other major concern is the price. The unit itself I think is a modest one time cost. 400 quid for a device that seems comparable in power to the Steam Deck seems reasonable.
75 quid for a single game, on the other hand? Yikes.
I appreciate that much of the cost of Switch games came down to how expensive the proprietary flash carts have been to manufacture, but having said that, given how popular the Switch was, surely that operational cost would have dropped exponentially as manufacturing ramped up? That’s basic economics.
My concern with this is that it's going to have a knock on effect on how people develop games for the system. Everything I’ve seen of the launch lineup screams parity to me. A lot of cross platform titles, many of which already exist in a snazzier, cheaper format on other consoles and PC.
I’m not expecting every game on the system to be as expensive as Mario Kart World, however we are now living in a world where 60 pounds has become the norm. That sucks for any number of reasons, not the least that its endemic of an industry that’s increasingly obsessed with visual fidelity.
The extra money is for the bells and whistles, not the measure of the game these things are thrust upon. It doesn’t guarantee better games, only ones that are more expensive to make. I don’t for a single minute imagine that price as a barrier to entry isn’t something that major companies consider when they adopt these rocketing fees, even if often the answer is to make the calculated risk.
Make your keys enticing enough, and folk will pay anything to watch them jangle.
What this all means for the platform? I don’t know. But I can’t imagine many of the big boys will be chomping at the bit to make bespoke experiences for the platform if there is a risk that these things simply won’t sell as much as they would on other consoles anyway.
I once again return to the 3DS, a console full to the brim of cool, unusual and platform specific titles, amassed so due largely to how manageable the cost of development was for the platform. Those halcyon days, it seems, are now over.
Am I still going to get one? Probably. As much as I grumble about the move away from creative playfulness of the hardware itself, I can’t deny that a ‘Switch but with better framerates’ isn’t an enticing prospect. While my relationship with Nintendo is decidedly less enthusiastic now than it was in the past, there is a place for this console in my life, and who knows, maybe the games will speak for themselves, ushering in a new era of playfulness and joy. Maybe the cost of entry truly will be worth it?
However it's undeniable that the reveal of this new console is marginally less exciting to me than in previous generations. The communication around how it works, how its games work and, essentitally, what you are actually paying for, has me more worried than thrilled.
Maybe its time to bite the bullet and hop on board with that other successful handheld, the one with a volumous library of cool games and an established and equally voracious fanbase.
Yeah, I’m thinking its time to buy a Playdate!