If you were following our live blog ahead of Nintendo’s big Switch 2 event, you might have seen my contribution, where I said I was hoping Nintendo would blow me away with its new hardware, and finally convince me to buy one of its consoles for the first time since the GameCube.
Now that the dust has settled after the event, I can safely say that unfortunately, Nintendo failed. I was holding out for a killer gaming handheld, an affordable price and exclusive games that would make me fall in love with Nintendo again. We got none of that.
The hardware itself, from what Nintendo showed, was fine. I like the new, larger 7.9-inch screen in particular, as I think the larger the screen the better for gaming on, and I’m seeing an encouraging trend with PC gaming handhelds coming with larger screen options.
The 1080p resolution and 120Hz variable refresh rate support were also big ticks for me, though I was disappointed that the screen was LCD, not OLED. The optimist in me thought this might be a sacrifice for a more tempting overall price of the console. The pessimist in me, however, expects that this is more so Nintendo can flog an OLED version later on.
I also like the look of the new Joy-Con controllers that attach via magnets (hopefully they’ll have the same satisfying pull that you get when you attach a MagSafe 3 charger to a MacBook), and being able to use them like mice means the Switch 2 could be a great platform for oft-neglected genres such as real time strategy games. Of course, you’ll need to be sitting near a flat surface to use them like a mouse, which seems to defeat the object a bit of the Switch 2.
Sorry, Nintendo. You lost me
After those few bright spots, my interest in the Switch 2 plummeted, however. The new C button means Nintendo has finally realized that online chat between friends is a thing, and the Switch Camera, which just looks like a Nest Camera, isn’t that exciting either. The demonstration video also seemed to show that video streams suffer from low frames per second, leading to rather janky and distracting footage.
The game footage shown was also a disappointment to me, with some very underwhelming graphics that looked distinctly last-gen. Now I know a lot of people say ‘but it’s Nintendo, it’s never about pure power’ but while that’s been true of recent generations, that wasn’t always the case – both the SNES and N64, for example, were more powerful than the competition.
Anyway, graphical fidelity certainly isn’t the be-all and end-all (the game I’m still mostly obsessed with is Balatro, which isn’t exactly cutting-edge), as long as there’s a charming art style. But when third-party games look noticeably worse than on competing devices, you need to pull out all the stops in other departments to get people to pick your console.
One of these is with first-party exclusive games that you can only play on the console. Traditionally, this is something Nintendo has excelled at, and with its refusal to port games to PC, if you want to play a Mario or Zelda game you have to buy a Nintendo console.
The problem with this week’s announcement was that there was a real lack of first-party exclusives. Unless I missed something, the big announcements were a new Mario Kart (oh yey a franchise that has now had well over 10 instalments) and a Kirby racing game which… well, it’s Kirby. Consider me distinctly underwhelmed.
The price isn’t right
Another way to win people over is with an extremely competitive price that undercuts the competition. Again, Nintendo has done this well in the past, and again with the Switch 2 it seems to have forgotten that.
With a launch price of $449.99 / £395.99 / AU$699.95, this is an expensive console. Sony’s rival PS5 now regularly sells for less than that, and the problem for Nintendo is that the Switch 2 isn’t just competing with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but also PC gaming handhelds such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X.
PC gaming handhelds are a rapidly growing product category, and because companies like Valve, Asus and Lenovo are all building their own devices, there’s already a lot of choice for people looking for a handheld gaming console.
This means there are handhelds out there that have more powerful hardware than the Switch 2, so offer better gaming experiences, and there are lower-powered models that are cheaper than the Switch 2.
I was also shocked at the price of Switch 2 games, with the new Mario Kart World apparently being sold for $79.99 / £74.99, and I’ve seen some people speculate that we could get Switch 2 games as expensive as $90.
This is horrendously expensive, and would mean if I were to get a Switch 2, my library of games would be pretty small, as I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on games regularly.
Nintendo games also have a habit of stubbornly keeping their prices, even several years after their release, so I probably wouldn’t be able to pick up a Switch 2 later on in the generation and buy older games at lower prices.
This is another area where PC gaming handheld beat the Switch 2. PC games on the whole are cheaper than console versions, and because PC is an open platform, there’s a wide range of stores you can buy your games from (such as Steam, Epic Games Store or Amazon), which increases competition that leads to sales and special offers to tempt gamers.
On the Switch 2, if you want to buy a digital game there’s only one company you will be able to buy it from: Nintendo. So you’ll be relying on it cutting prices for its games, and that’s something Nintendo doesn’t like doing.
So, throughout the Switch 2 event, I was just thinking how glad I am that I have an Asus ROG Ally X, which offers a convenient handheld gaming experience with excellent performance and a huge library of affordable games. Best of all, the games I buy for the Ally X can also be played on my gaming PC and Steam Deck without having to rebuy them – another big tick when it comes to affordability compared to the Switch 2.
Of course, the one thing the ROG Ally X can’t do – nor any of the rival PC gaming handhelds – is officially play Nintendo games.
This is the Switch 2’s biggest advantage, and while I’ve not been excited about the first party games that have been shown so far, if Nintendo brings out some brilliant new Mario, Zelda or Pokemon games (or even, god forbid, make a new franchise) that I’ll be desperate to play but won’t be able to unless I buy the new console, then it could win me over. Until then, I’ll be sticking with my ROG Ally X, thank you very much.
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matthew.hanson@futurenet.com (Matt Hanson)
