2 Switch 2 Costly

I personally never jived with the OG Switch, though I do understand why most of the world adores it.

I’ve never found the Switch comfortable in handheld mode — the awkward joystick placement always makes my hands cramp after a few minutes — so mine has been mostly relegated to dock duty. As a home console, the Switch is simply bad. It’s not set up to be a good experience on a 4k TV, and while that was obvious from the get-go, it’s no less disappointing.

The OG Switch had a key advantage, however: it could undercut just about every competitor on price. For access to one an extraordinary game library, $300 was a small price to pay. Within some lucky kids' Christmas budgets, and otherwise one of the cheapest entry points to modern gaming, the Switch sold fantastically thanks in part to being inexpensive.

The Switch 2 arrives in a radically different reality than 2017. It’s looking like a far better home console than portable device, which is an interesting pivot for Nintendo. Early reports show potentially worse battery life, they didn’t bother to fix the joy-cons, an LCD screen, and the ergonomics look just as bad as the original (I really wish Nintendo had taken some notes from the Steam Deck here).

But, priced higher than a base PS5 and Steam Deck, and within spitting distance of the increasingly irrelevant Xbox Series X, the Switch 2 sits in an uncomfortable spot. The people that buy Nintendo consoles clearly don’t care about 4k or 120FPS. While myself and the rest of the enthusiast crowd celebrate their inclusion (120hz! From Nintendo! Apple has no excuse now), these features are more for folks like me who want a great experience on a fancy TV, and less relevant to Nintendo’s core customer base.

This pivot to a more traditional home console makes sense in the context of the Switch 2’s development which, as Richard Lawler noted on this week’s Vergecast, was mostly during the pandemic. For casual gamers in the post-COVID world, handheld is increasingly the way of the market. I doubt that this will add up to a big miss on Nintendo’s part, and the inevitable Switch 2 OLED will surely fix any issues with handheld mode, but it will make the new console a tough upgrade sell.

That’s the trouble that Nintendo runs into here. The Switch has such a vast install base that most people who might have the propensity to buy one have already done so. The Switch 2’s whole thing is “The Switch, but better.” Better in that context is hard to communicate - it looks about the same, plays many of the same games, includes a bunch of esoteric upgrades that don’t amount to a radically different experience, and carries a far higher cost.

Myself and many others are simply excited for the thing that will play the next Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, and Metroid. Nintendo can usually get away with a lot by virtue of their legacy and the quality of those tentpole franchises, but I reckon the Switch 2 will have a hard time. And, the Orange Man’s bullshit is about to make things even worse.

I don’t expect a full-on Wii U situation, but Nintendo does have a tradition of fumbling the followup to a smash hit.