How many Nintendo Switches do I need for a family of gamers? (midwest.social)

submitted 6 days ago by MNByChoice@midwest.social to c/games@lemmy.world

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I don't understand the Nintendo Switch. How many do I need for a family of gamers?

They are a personal device like a gameboy.
There is a TV version for party games.
The games may or may not be shareable, even with the physical games.
Assume the ideal usage is during screen time on a weekend.

I have been avoiding buying one as I don't understand them. Thinking of getting them soon.

I assume one OLED for the family and then a portable per person, then one copy of each game per device.

How is this affordable?

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[-] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 6 days ago

Do you play the same games together often? In that case unless it is a couch co-op game (some are) you would need a second switch with the same game.

You can have multiple profiles on a switch and can share games between profiles on that switch. If it's physical you can just play that game on any switch on any profile (just whoever has the cartridge). If it's digital, if you buy it on the primary profile of a certain switch (make sure you do this) then all the other profiles on that switch can play that game too. If you want to share digital games between different switches it's more complicated, but it requires cloud syncing and some other shenanigans I couldn't explain.

They are all portable but you might be talking about the switch light which doesn't have removable controllers. If you have a tv one for everyone, the you either need the controllers from the other switches or extra controllers (joy con style or normal controller style) to play together. Some games can be a lot of fun to play on the tv together. Check how many people a game can play.

I hope I answers some of your questions.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 5 points 6 days ago

Thank you!

I appreciate that you listed off various ways to share games all in one place. Many guides I have seen handle the methods piecemeal, and I thought they overlapped morw.