If we’re going by anecdotes…I know far more people with a switch than a gaming PC. Same goes for PS5 vs PC. And even amongst those that I know have a gaming PC, for most it’s not their preferred platform. Most people I know that have PC as their primary platform have been PC gaming for a long time and are fairly enthusiastic about PCs in particular.
I can see PC making a dent in the market, but tbh I think it’s mostly gonna take Xbox’s slice of the pie. I think PS and especially Nintendo are safe.
To address the topic here of “worth it?” A bit further:
I got the original Pac Man World: Re Pac during a used game sale, and I’ve been playing it on my Lite. Fun game, but the framerate is total garbage. Reminded me of Crash Bandicoot 4 on the Switch - really struggled. In an action platformer, a low framerate like this really affects the gameplay and makes the whole thing drag.
So I figured I’d just pop it in my Switch 2 to see if anything was different, and lo and behold, the framerate and load times are soooo much better. Didn’t download a patch, didn’t need to do anything other than just put it in my Switch 2 and it’s a much more enjoyable experience. (And this is all in handheld.)
If we’re going by anecdotes…I know far more people with a switch than a gaming PC.
You don't necessarily need a gaming PC. Even dirt cheap laptops were sometimes more powerful than Switch 1 and could play lots of games. That is less true for Switch 2 but you still don't necessarily need a gaming PC for some games to be comparable.
My laptop could play some games Switch 1 couldn't but I rarely used it that way just because I hate keyboard/mouse gaming and it was a nuisance to hook up to tv and controller.
Now that I have Switch 2, my gaming power is
Switch 2 > mobile phone > laptop and Switch 1
I do some gaming on mobile but the small screen and naturally bad control scemes makes it very limiting for many game genres. And, again, it's a nuisance to hook up to tv and controller.
@rallydefault
Most Switch 1 games nowadays, I can't stomach them on Switch 1 without outputting docked image to the handheld screen and overclocking the GPU from 307/384/460 MHz to 844 MHz, just to get 720p with a stable 30fps.
On Switch 2, it outputs the handheld image on the handheld screen but because dynamic resolution doesn't drop, and because most handheld images are 540p which scales perfectly to the 1080p screen, they look pretty decent, on top of which they all max their framerates to 30, sometimes even 60.
Ni No Kuni 2 runs at a locked 60 on Switch 2, yet fluctuated all over the place on Switch 1. Same for Monster Hunter Stories 2. Same for Bayonetta 3. Even Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle runs at 60 on Switch 2, vs 30 on Switch 1.
Then there's games like Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter which run at 25-28 fps on Switch 1, at 480-540p in handheld, yet on Switch 2 has a 60 fps performance mode and looks sharper in handheld than the docked image on Switch 1.
Fantasy Life i is the same way. 480-540p sub-30 fps on Switch 1 handheld mode. Yet on Switch 2 it's locked 60 1080p. Can't tell if docked is 1440p or 4k but it looks crazy sharp. Probably 1440p I imagine.
It's just example after example after example of games which, unless you have a modchipped Switch to overclock with (and most don't), are virtually unplayable on the original Switch, yet are pristine experiences on the Switch 2.
Even if All NS2-exclusive releases were taken away, and all the system did was run games that were also on Switch 1 (or have a NS2 upgrade), the system would be worth it, imo.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
So I figured I’d just pop it in my Switch 2 to see if anything was different, and lo and behold, the framerate and load times are soooo much better.
I was using my Lite while traveling over the holidays; the worse frame rate of the few games I played didn't bother me too much but I had almost forgotten how insanely slow the load times could get every single time you load a new map.
That's something I completely failed to mention and is deserving of its own discussion outright.
Booted up several games on my Switch Lite OLED last night and was agast at how long the loading took to boot into some of those titles. Bayonetta 3, Cruise n Blast, DKC Returns, Octopath Traveler 0, Tomb Raider reboot, Fantasy Life i, Zelda Link's Awakening... it was insufferable, as all those games on Switch 2 boot in half the time.
Excessively long load times are one of those things that can actually turn me off playing a game entirely. I gave up on Drive Club 2 and A Hat In Time on Switch because of excessive loading times. Felt I spent as much time in load screens as I did playing the actual game.
Not that Switch 2 has completely eliminated load times, but they're actually managable. They're within reason. They're noticeably faster than on Switch 1.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
@FishyS
I don’t usually mind framerate if I’m playing an rpg or something, but for a 3D platformer… ugh, yea, it was very noticeable and very annoying.
Switching it to my S2 was like playing a new game, no exaggeration. Really nice upgrade with no patching or anything required.
The funniest thing about load times is those 'helpful hints' a lot of games put in loading screens while changing scenes. Switch 2 keeps loading too fast for me to read those and I kind of want to 😆
No kidding! I was just noticing that yesterday! What game was I playing... was it Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter? Pretty sure that was it. Tips kept showing up on screen during loading transitions and I'd read 4 words before the loading screen disappeared and I was back in the game.
Like, uh... this is kind of a double edge sword! But I'm here for it.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
Hogwarts Legacy was a game on the S1 where I reaaaaaaaaaaaally hated the load times. It was more annoying than the muddy graphics, honestly. Going in and out of shops in Hogsmeade, certain areas in the castle, fast traveling basically anywhere... it was awful. It made me stop playing.
@FishyS by “gaming PC” I mean “PC that they use for gaming”. Just because people have a PC doesn’t mean they want to use it for games. And again, many that do use their PC for the odd game (in my experience) are doing most of their gaming elsewhere, unless they’re an enthusiast.
Personally I just bought a new laptop that’s more capable than the Switch 2, yet I’ll choose a Switch 2 game over a PC one in a heartbeat. Switch 2 is just so much more frictionless.
@Buizel There are a couple big gaming reports which attempt to give stats every year. The different sources give different numbers since it's hard to figure out accurately, but they all pretty consistently have mobile > PC > console in terms of number of players.
This one claims 3 billion mobile gamers (seems reasonable), almost a billion PC gamers, and more than half a billion console gamers:
Interestingly, it said consoles made more money ... but I think that counts console hardware but doesn't count non-specialized PC hardware so it is a bit misleading.
Note that the stats are drastically different in different parts of the world. China, for example, does almost entirely PC and mobile gaming.
@FishyS Yeah, that's pretty much it. Mobile gaming is the norm, PC gaming has more players than consoles, even if it's mostly very low-end, and console gamers are living in a bubble if they think otherwise.
That's all aside from my main point which was that, with console prices rising, people will be inclined to switch to those other platforms as cheaper alternatives. The people who can't afford to spend 700 dollarydoos on a new console, and then 110 on each new game for it, might just decide to see what they can play on the hardware that they've already got and be pleasantly surprised by the results.
Worth remembering that the kid who has Minecraft installed on the $300AU laptop they had to get for school counts as a "PC gamer". And the boomer who is still playing Pokemon Go counts as a mobile gamer. Fair to say these kinds of users aren't traditional console gamers
Also if we're doing anecdotes. Amongst my colleagues and people I went to UNI with PC gaming is the default. Everyone has a decent desktop PC, everyone has a dedicated modern GPU. Some of also have a Switch for the convenience but the default is PC. But amongst my family? Half of who have a Switch. I'm the only one with a full on desktop PC and most of them don't even have a laptop (they just use their phones). I only know one person IRL who has a PS5
That is to say, we all live in our little bubbles. None of us really have a decent view of the broader market
@rallydefault Some of them use active player counts and such to help estimate. So if your wife occasionally actually plays Bejeweled I assume she would be counted as a gamer.
@FishyS
Makes sense. Everyone has a phone. And then by the very nature of mobile games (quick to pick up for a few minutes throughout the day), I’m not at all shocked by those stats.
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Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???
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