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Nope. That'll be a pass from me Nintendo.
Oh you’re going to subscribe to Nintendo Pass for $12.99 a month?
I’ll wait for an emulator
I am not in the market for a console (my last one was the Sega Mega Drive which was abandoned after we got a Pentium 1 PC and dialup), but I got to say, I love Nintendo's pricing policy.
It's almost as if they are taking the piss and want to see to what extent their fans are gluttons for punishment.
One possible complicating factor for those games? While they're physical releases, they use Nintendo's new Game-Key Card format, which attempts to split the difference between true physical copies of a game and download codes. Each cartridge includes a key for the game, but no actual game content—the game itself is downloaded to your system at first launch. But despite holding no game content, the key card must be inserted each time you launch the game, just like any other physical cartridge.
This is full on corporate regressiveness.
Nintendo will also use some Switch 2 Edition upgrades as a carrot to entice people to the more expensive $50-per-year tier of the Nintendo Switch Online service. The company has already announced that the upgrade packs for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will be offered for free to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers. The list of extra benefits for that service now includes additional emulated consoles (Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and now Gamecube) and paid DLC for both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8.
Wait so you have to subscribe to get access to emulators (which are all open source I am assuming)? And you can't just buy a retro game (ala GOG) and play it to your heart's content? You need a sub to Nintendo online?
The key card thing is seriously infuriating, both from a consumer standpoint and from a media conservation standpoint.
Basically you own a game cartridge, but as soon as Nintendo shuts down their servers for whatever reason it becomes a useless piece of plastic. They really don't want us to own anything anymore.
I'm not sure that's how that works. The Switch already had both physical boxes with digital codes in them and cartridges that required mandatory downloads to run. This seems like a physical unlock key for a digital download, which depending on how it's implemented is actually easier to both resell and use offline than the Switch 1 solution to the same problem.
I don't recommend purchasing either, and I avoided both of those options on Switch 1, but I'm pretty sure this at least does not make things any worse.
I have major gripes with a number of pricing choices in this thing, but to the best of my current understanding this one is based on a misunderstanding.
You cannot use the unlock key, or even redownload the game, when, not if, the Switch store goes offline.
This is true.
It's also true of the partial download carts for Switch 1 that don't include a full playable version of the game in the cart.
Presumably the digital back-compat on the Switch 2 means the Switch will live a lot longer usual for Nintendo platforms, and we don't know if there will be a backwards compatible Switch 3.
But in practice, this is just an iteration of the Switch 1 version of the same thing. It's not great. I avoided both the mandatory download carts and will likely avoid these ones, but it's not a bigger deal than it has been for the past five years or so.
Their emulators have always been proprietary. The waters were a little muddied by the NES/SNES Classic consoles using a Linux OS but the emulators were their own code.
Their FOSS code is made available when required and is published here:
I see. I am surprised they didn't simply take existing open source code and go with that.
They likely want to avoid legitimising those existing emulators.
Oh wow, that cartridge thing is actually just the worst of both worlds. I'm similar to you, my last console was a Mega Drive but I did get a Switch for my wife and played a couple of games on it which was fun. Not really keen on giving Nintendo more money though.
So when Nintendo servers shut down, that's it.
So does this kill used game sales?
I think it kills game leaks before the street date. Even if the data isn’t in the carriage (which is stupid), you would still be able to sell the cartage assuming the online service is still active.
Sucks for game preservation though. I’m personally hoping there’s some flaw in the gen 1 hardware that can be exploited for archive purchases.
I am assuming you can re-sell the "Game Key".
Fuck Nintendo.
Always loved Nintendo, but this will be a hard pass from me.
Ah yes, let me pay $450 for a console that I have to pay an additional $80 for every game I want to play. What a sound financial decision.
I wonder if there would be communities, focused on playing these xbox360 era games on pc - after this
Anyone got links further educational reading on this matter?
Gbatemp.net
I pray it faces record-breaking piracy.
It probably will. Given the modest spec bump and the high even for Nintendo hostility to switch emulation, it's probably trivial to support switch 2 as well.
I too wonder if there would be communities, focused on playing these xbox360 era games on pc - after this
Anyone got links further educational reading on this matter?
I was REALLY looking forward to the 2 ... this leaves such a sour aftertaste, it's very unpleasant.
The only game I want to play is that new Donkey Kong game. Paying €520 for playing just one game is ridiculous. I’m gonna wait till Nintendo releases more games. I’m not gonna spend €450 for it to collect dust like my PS5.
I love having my decision not to buy a Nintendo Switch and stick to PC games validated.
Feel bad for all the Nintendo fans though, I get how you can fall in love with a franchise they make and want their stuff only to have "except it costs a ton" stuck on, so you'll have to skip for financial reasons and feel unhappy. It's a lot harder to abstain from something you actually care about and want, than something you are maybe mildly interested in.
It's most difficult for me since I want to play metroid prime 4, especially after hearing the music. But I don't want to pay 90 euro for base game. That's incredibly ridiculous
I'm just going to get the Switch version and be perfectly happy with the visuals being slightly less good and using gyro joycon aim over joycon mouse.
I hope they still have tank controls, and designed the game with those in mind. I've been playing the Prime games like that for so long.
Failing that, at least a twin stick control scheme would be nice.
Ubisoft's The Crew 3: Super Mario Horizon
Aren't consoles and their new game always ridiculously expensive on launch? I know Nintendo stuff often doesn't drop in price that much but I'd be surprised if they stay this expensive for long. Plenty of other games to play in the meantime!
These are the top 5 sellers on Switch:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate
- The legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild
- Super Mario Odyssey
These links take you to a price tracker with a chart showing historical prices. The RRP of each of these has been static, and discounts are short and infrequent.
In a break from form Nintendo hasn't released a budget "Selects" label for older titles this generation.
Fair point, but I still can't imagine they'll be double that price for long. The only GBP price I've seen for a Switch 2 game is the MKW bundle which is only £30 more than the console on its own.
It will only stay as high as the market and customers allow it
If it sells out, expect a price drop in a few years
If it fails to meet Nintendo's expectations (3DS at launch) expect a price drop a few weeks or months (3DS at launch)
If it sells out, expect a price drop in a few years
Switch sold out in 2017, and now the same basic Neon model is selling for the same price in 2025.
Maybe I should have been more specific...i meant mid to end of life. I totally figured forgot the switch lasted a fucking decade
Can't wait to wait 2 years and then pirate it.
But besides that; are there any good PC kart racers?
(Emphasis on "good", because I already know about Super Tux Kart, used to play it a lot more than 10 years ago, but today it feels very... Clunky and dated).
super tux cart on linux is free and open source
Am I the only one who doesn't care about this? We'll wait for the 33% nintendo sales and fill the rest of the year with 3rd party 80% sales like always
Or get it second hand for cheap lol, it's not a big deal to me at least.
I look forward to playing these for free in a year or two when an emulator that works on the Steam Deck is released.
The reason the switch 1 was emulated so fast was a hardware vulnerability on nvidia's part. Presumably we won't see that again.
Also: While switch games DO run better on a steam deck, they don't run great. And I think estimates put the switch 2 at closer to a PS4 than PS3 in terms of power? But even PS3/360 games don't run gerat on a Steam Deck.
Not to mention nintendo's lawyers putting the fear of mario into the emulation community.
So in a few years? I could see MAYBE some proof of concepts. But I doubt we'll actually be able to properly emulate switch 2 games until at least 2030.
4 real when Zelda was released on the switch is ran at like 1080p 30 fps. The emulator version was 4k @ 60 fps…
Just like their prices, Nintendo will never change.
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this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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