Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

Yeh @skywake agree on this.

Switch2 isn't 'perfect'... but no console/system is. It absolutely does enough of what I want/need it to do though to justify my purchase and enjoyment.

Despite a lot of the 1st party games not landing for me, the third party support is awesome and I've pumped a ton of hours into Wildhearts, Silksong, Absolum, Cyberpunk, Hades 2(!)

I'll likely get a Steamdeck OLED around holiday period, and then between the 2 devices I should have all/most bases covered.

But yeh Switch2 is a great bit of kit, at a very reasonable pricepoint (IMO)

I feel it isn't worth it yet, it needs more exclusive games. I'm not really interested in re-visiting older Switch 1 games or playing mediocre versions of multi-platform titles at much higher prices. I'm looking for maybe at least 4-6 must have exclusive Switch 2 titles to justify the purchase. Also the launch hardware is quite poor, inferior for its time than the original Switch 1 I think. Lastly in the UK and Europe the pricing is ridiculous. A currency conversion shows the Switch 2 is less than £250 in Japan where as the official suggested selling price in the UK is something like £400.

As for the hardware itself the CPU performance is quite low at about 2000 passmark CPU score, it sits between PS4 and PS4 Pro in CPU performance which was confirmed by a developer but not hard to calculate at A78x8x1Ghz and its GPU is around 1.3 Teraflops or less for portable mode and about 2.2 Teraflops docked. However DLSS brings a lot to the console as it can render at ridiculously low resolutions like 640x360p and be upscaled to HD. The Steamdeck in comparison delivers about 9000 passmark CPU score and about 1.6 Teraflops GPU performance but with definitely inferior GPU architecture than cannot match DLSS upscaling although recently FSR4 has managed to get working on Steamdeck so this can perhaps improve Steamdeck performance in the future. Also the Switch 2 has a low grade DLSS feature which is often used where the most active parts of the screen do not get post processing to lower frame generation times. This hasn't been seen before but something that any GPU can do really to improve frame rates if it has AI upscaling and so we may see this adapted by other hardware. It reduces visual quality but gives a significant performance boost.

So far the Switch 2 had fantastic launch numbers but has significantly slowed down in Europe in sales and Switch 2 third party software sales have been abysmal. We are waiting for post Christmas analysis but Europe at least feels like sales have been much slower than the US and Japan probably mainly due to excessive pricing. Already there has been heavy discounting. I missed out on a sub £300 price for Switch 2 with Mario Kart on Aliexpress that was available on 11/11 which was the Hong Kong spec model. I would of gone for it at that price but out of stock before I could order. There is zero chance of me paying around £400 for the Switch 2 with Mario Kart. I just don't think its worth anywhere near that price for me but I'm happy to wait until 2026. I currently have 3 original Switchs. The launch model (cough), the OLED model and a Switch Lite. I use the Lite model most. So I'm going to sell one of those but I still can't decide on which.

I should add I'm primarily a PC gamer and my Switch is my secondary console. I do not have a PS5 or Xbox Series console.

So I'm looking for exclusive Switch 2 games that I cannot play on my PC. I'm not interested in Switch 1 games because a) my older Switches are far more portable and b) for home use I can run Switch 1 games on PC at 4K 60fps emulated on PC. My steamdeck also emulates Switch 1.

So for me I need many more exclusive Switch 2 games or at least a fantastic low cost deal for the console with Mario Kart World.

Absolute worth it for me. I think I've played the system pretty much every day since launch.

I enjoy the majority of Nintendo franchise so it was always going to be a hit for me. Between Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World, Pokemon Legends Z-A and now Age of Imprisonment it already feels like I've got my money's worth...and if it's anything like the Switch I've got 7+ more years of great games on the horizon. That's not to even mention the third party titles (e.g. Yakuza 0) and Gamecube games (e.g. Wind Waker) I've yet to devote my time to.

This made me wonder. Since so many big Switch games were cross-gen or enhanced ports, I didn't technically have 6 truly exclusive Switch games until well into 2020, more than 3 years after I bought the console. For Switch 2, I will only have 2 2025 exclusives (not counting the exclusive DLCs etc) but there are a lot I am interested in in 2026; I may or may not hit 6 in 2026, depending what else is announced.

So on a whole this is mostly split between people actually playing and loving it and people who contemplate or once contemplated buying one, who are reading/watching too much on the internet and are actively talking themselves out of buying one. Of course with the odd activist 'variant' having or claiming to have one and making it a hobby of poopooing it at every opportunity that presents itself – instead of actually playing games on it, it seems.

I'm loving and playing it since launch and far more so than Switch 1. It's the perfect console for a grown up lifestyle (it is far far easier to squeeze game time in, instead of confining the hobby to the solitary "man cave" space or chaining it to the living room wall that everyone wants their equal share of) and it has just gotten a huge upgrade with the new model.

Even though there is still a single game for it that interests me and I wouldn't be able to play anywhere else (Donkey Kong Bananza), I have enjoyed playing improved versions of other games, and it's good to future-proof my ability to play stuff my PC wouldn't be able to handle.

@jfp Cute to dismiss our opinions just because you disagree with it. I have one, I would love to enjoy it more, I simply don't. It's OK, but I can't personally recommend it yet. I get no joy out of that, but I wanted to answer honestly in this topic.

@OutlawGamer I absolutely think it has potential, so I suspect eventually I'll be happy to have spent the money on it. It has some fundamental flaws I think — the screen, the sharper joy con edges, among some — but if Nintendo makes games that truly take advantage of it that I enjoy, then it's a solid piece of tech

I was late into the Switch generation as already had a wii u and at the beginning many of the games were ports from wii u and this meant for a while I had no interest in the Switch until eventually getting onboard. I think I had my first Switch in 2020 and I didn't double dip on games I had on wii u until I could pick them up cheaper. All I currently want is Mario Kart World for Switch 2. I know Donkey Kong Bonanza is highly rated but looking at videos and reviews for some reason I'm not pulled in too strongly and the super high price puts me off to be honest. I could probably get 20 great games on Steam for that money that are a little older but I haven't played yet. I think that is the problem with Switch 2 for me, games need to be exceptional to justify such high pricing.

I do think Switch 2 is worth it but it does feel like every time there's something good happening with the console it's immediately followed by something bad. Most recent example is that Age of Imprisonment is a fun game but was immediately followed by Pokopia (a 1st party game) being revealed to be a Key Card.

I'll get this out of the way first... the game key cards are just not good. They're fake physical copies of games, and they're also a more cumbersome version of digital games. At least with games bought from the eShop, you can play them anytime you want, without having to put a game key card in, as long as they're still on your console. Even as a Nintendo fan, the game key card practice is something I don't want to support. Definitely the worst part of the Switch 2, IMO.

Outside of that, I do really like my Switch 2. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are both great games, and I'm looking forward to playing Kirby Air Riders. It's very powerful for a Nintendo console too... plus the Switch 1 games that I've tried play noticeably better on the Switch 2, like Link's Awakening and even New Horizons. So the console is worth it to me. And although they have not been announced yet, I'm especially looking forward to seeing what the next 3D Mario and Animal Crossing games will be like.

It's a problem with new games in general. I've only bought one $70 game so far and I admit it hurt a bit to do. I'm about to get a second but that one will be a present so it doesn't feel as bad. 😆

I have 100s of Switch games and most of them cost less than $10 or even less rhan $5. I'll continue to buy those 80% off deals on Switch 2, but some Nintendo franchises I like too much to skip or wait.

Buying a console a couple years into the generation is totally reasonable though; even Nintendo games go on occasional 30% or 50% off sales if you wait a bit.

Ugh, you need to learn your history. Freedom of speech is not immunity from disagreement or the cotton balling of opinion. The revolution that idea grew out of was from the monarch's suppression of dissent. The idea was that people should be free to openly air their greivences and that the best ideas form an open in contest of ideas

Free speech was never about protecting individuals from people disagreeing with them. If anything it was about the opposite. Free speech is inherently combative. That's the whole point. But mostly free speech was about protecting the people from having their speech limited by authorities. And it certainly was never about protecting you from the social consequences of your speech i.e. reaction to your speech from other people. Because those other people are also free to express themselves

@OutlawGamer
Well, by your own words @jfp should be perfectly free to dismiss @OmnitronVariant 's opinions, no? Isn't that part of @jfp 's free speech?

I mean... come on people. We're all (relatively) smart here. How do we not see how this same old "my opinion is being repressed" argument is so trite?

@OmnitronVariant knows they generate a lot of attention with their ridiculous statements and clearly enjoys it, so whatever, good for them. I think they (the opinions and the person) are quite disingenuous, but hey, that's just me.

I'm also the one making this post I really know I shouldn't because, again, this is all well-trodden (and stupid) ground.

Yay!

It should also be noted that "free speech" is largely an American legal concept born out of enlightenment ideals. A lot of countries don't have it as part of their constitutions

Australia for example, the closest we have to it is parliamentary privilege which allows our representatives in parliament to speak freely in parliament. Free speech for us is best seen in parliament's question time when there's open debate and argument on the floor. The UK also has this. That's what our free speech is

Most of the kind of "freedom of speech" stuff that extends to the general public is just a lack of specific laws restricting speech, convention, or people adopting American legal ideas that don't actually apply here

I know I should probably not post anything…not here to change anyone’s opinion (because I’m a random dude online) but man, these types of threads are annoying. I get it, you don’t like game key cards, games cost more than on steam…but these points are tired. And I continue to read about it in many of the different topics/threads here.
It’s pretty shocking, as the discourse before the SW2 was basically hoping for a system that was less than what we got. The system is freaking amazing. It’s better than what I was hoping/expecting.
We’re what, 6 months in, and the games are stellar. And we’re going to get bangers after bangers.
Anyways - had to vent - for those who like the SW2, I’ll see you in other chats. For those who don’t like it, I really hope you keep it to this thread.

I'm near the tipping point, as I pretty much have been since before launch, but I'm getting closer to tipping.

What's bringing me closer to tipping? I think it's the combination of Kirby Air Riders, Cyberpunk, improvements to No Man's Sky, the imminent Metroid Prime 4, and the slight reduction in European pricing for the hardware (along with a 7% discount I can get at one retailer), meaning I could get the Mario Kart World bundle, with DK Bananza, for just under the launch price of the MKW bundle (i.e., DK Bananza effectively free). The suggestion that the MKW bundle will disappear at some point is also slightly twisting my arm.

So for me the games are there and the price is looking a bit better, but I remain unsure because of the hardware: the iffy battery life and the increased size and supposed sharper-edged joy-cons. Then there's all the noise about the variance in backwards compatibility from one game to another ... I would find that annoying.

I feel like I'm talking myself out of it. Perhaps I should go and watch the Kirby Air Riders overview trailer again ...

Exactly that, the variant knows

And it‘s not just you. That‘s why I like to kick their shins from time to time.

But sorry for getting you dragged into it again @rallydefault and @skywake, especially as I know that‘s exactly why they are here.

And @OutlawGamer: critiquing or satirising an argument/a position that is being made/paraded AD NAUSEAM is not a curtailment of free speech. Just because it‘s proponents feel they are a small minority fighting the good fight, everyone who‘s just tired of hearing the same over and over and over again is not automatically working for "them" and not after your free speech. When you just keep repeating an argument over and over and once it’s been received and discussed at lenght (and oh boy has it been discussed in these forums), it stops being an argument and turns into blind activism seeking an audience. In a forum for discussions it should be fair game to call that out.

Edit: @OutlawGamer has as it seems deleted their profile.

Edit Edit (and I'm turning into an internet idiot now): Has @OutlawGamer been disappeared by Nintendo Elites? Or were they just a straw profile created by a rogue variant to bolster their arguments? I smell a conspiracy of epic proportions. Big if true!

I find it amusing how much time and energy some people will spend defending a product from a company and verbally attack anyone that speaks against it.

This thread asks if the Switch 2 is worth it. For some of us, it isn't yet. And we've explained why. The OP even asks for people not to argue so I won't.

With Switch 2 we finally do not have to worry any more that more ambitious (indie) titles – like the fantastic looking Skate Story or the 1st person puzzler ChromaGun 2 that has been announced yesterday – can competently run on the system. Good times if you are exclusively playing on Nintendo hardware. So if you are a Ninty only gamer (and love indies), in my opinion, it's well worth it.