Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

@skywake
I get what you're saying, I really do, I just don't think it's more complicated than: you need games.

@OmnitronVariant
We're getting a Direct the first week of February. Save the hyperbole until after we see what they have to say.

I would argue Nintendo allows it because they sell enough. 2 million sales is nothing to scoff at for a game. And rank 51 of the Switch best sellers is not actually that low. If the games sold 200k instead of 2 million? They would be on the chopping block.

But I actually agree with you that a new xenoblade would count as a major game. It's just, from Nintendo's point of view, it's quite possible they put it in the same bucket as Yoshi - a relatively but not hugely popular fan favorite series which sells decently but not enormously. Xenoblade tends to review better but Yoshi (the character) has more name recognition so they also both are decent but not at the top as console advertisements.

It might end up being a great game, we just don't have a ton of information about it yet. But yeah, it's a shame they did the game key card thing even though it is a first/second party game.

@FishyS
Yea - I mean, on one hand, Pokopia seems like the type of game that will get tons of updates throughout its run, updates with lots of new items and areas - things that people who love those creation sim games will want to download. Sort of like Dreamlight Valley and stuff like that. So I can see why a full physical release doesn't make much sense because that initial game version is quickly going to be antiquated for the folks keeping up with the dlc.

But on the other hand, there are plenty of people like me who would have been content just playing the shipped version to experience the game and not necessarily keep up with the dlc in the future. It looks like a fun game, but I don't really keep up with games that receive constant updates like that. Would've been fun to play the original version, though, but I won't if it's just a game key card.

And to tack on... I mean, I'm sure prices for the cartridges are cheaper for their own games. They've gotta have some sort of deal worked out that even their closest third-party partners might not get. Just a shame, like you said.

I get it's a Switch 1 only game but I think the biggest 1st party release of the 1st half of 2026 is Tomodachi Life. The 3DS game was huge and there's also the nostalgia factor for Nintendo's blue ocean strategy.

@Grumblevolcano I really think we're going to see a Switch 2 edition of it at the coming direct when they tell us the release date

I think we forget that all the games that sell Megabucks subsidize the games that don't, allowing for more niche games that wouldn't otherwise exist, broadening the library to attract more players.

The switch 2 might be the best selling system of all time because I think it's going to last a decade.

@Bolt_Strike
Your statement was that the Switch wasn't backwards compatible so didn't have the Wii U library to hold it up. But it very obviously did, because they had a fairly aggressive strategy to port those games. And now you're trying to make a different argument saying that I'm talking about backwards compatibility and that BotW doesn't count and Mario Kart 8 was the only Wii U game on Switch that "mattered". But that is clearly not the case but more importantly wasn't what I was replying to....

..... you pull this crap all the time. Stick to an argument, defend it. Don't keep shifting the argument each post and trying to frame my points as if I'm saying something else

In terms of what "evidence" I have for this. Well anecdotally everyone I know who has or is planning to get the Switch 2, many of who already had a Switch, in part are doing it for the existing library of Switch games. Either to revisit them with improved performance/features or to dive into them for the first time. These games are clearly part of the equation. And more impirically you only need to look at the eShop charts. Those upgrade packs always seem to top the charts. The Animal Crossing upgrade is third on the Australian charts ATM, under some new Cult of Lamb DLC and MKW. The Switch 2 edition upgrades for TotK/BotW are still pretty high in the Switch 2 charts also

People buy consoles to play games. They don't care about these labels

I feel like this thread has a habit of going in circles.

[Just so I'm somewhat on-topic: it's been worth it for me, even though the only real exclusive I've got so far was DK Bananza.]

@BrazillianCara
That's cause it's a pointless thread. It necessarily will result in going in circles.

People who are actually curious if the system is worth it will decide not based on some forum thread with people going back and forth, but rather on the exclusives, upgrades, improved performance of BC titles, 3rd party releases, improvements to the Joycon and added features like Mouse Mode, Gameshare, Gamechat, etc, higher res and refresh rate screen with VRR, and so on.

Either they will decide that it is... or that it isn't. And then go on with life.

@Bolt_Strike Nintendo's already stated that while physical Switch 2 editions count as Switch 2 software sales, digital Switch 2 editions count as Switch 1 software sales. So talking about the top 10 all time sellers list is meaningless as the data will always be incomplete.

Figured I might put my thoughts down in a post that's in a slightly less argumentative format. Basically, people buy gaming hardware to play games. The value of that hardware only exists as a measure of how many games you're interested in it can run and how well it runs them for you. That's it

Now in the past with previous console generations things were different. SNES -> N64 there were entirely different kinds of games being made, entirely different processes, entirely different ways of everything going on. These systems where wholly incompatible. Even if you were to "port" a SNES game to the N64 it would come out as a different game. And to some degree it was a similar thing between N64 and PS or N64 and Saturn or Dreamcast. There were some overlap but, broadly, these were very different systems. So most of the value of the N64 was in the count of exclusives

But even so, this was just the same thing as above. The value of the N64 only existed as a measure of how many games you were interested in it could run and how well it ran them for you. It just so happened that that generally aligned with the count of exclusives

With the Switch -> Switch 2? It's obviously a different kind of transition, and presumably one that's also a bit foreign to the Nintendo fandom. Especially given it has been a decade since anything has happened at all. But it's still the same thing in the end. But maybe the question here should be flipped. Of course in some part the value of the Switch 2 will come from the games only it runs. But in my mind the value of the Switch 2 is less about what the Switch 2 adds, instead it's more a question of what the Switch was ceding

The Switch 2 has great exclusives and it'll continue to get great games. No doubt in my mind about that. But more importantly it's not asking me to boot into a 720p OS in 2026. It's not struggling to maintain a stable framerate in largely 2D games. It can run modern multiplatform titles and gives me the option to get them on it rather than somewhere else. And of course like the Switch before it it's still portable, which I personally value in terms of "how well a game runs for me". The point being, the Switch had a solid amount of value, the Switch was "worth it" to answer the thread title. But the amount that it was worth was eroding. The Switch 2 winds the clock back

Yes, of course, the big hitters matter. For marketing purposes especially they want that big, clear, in your face reason for someone to buy their hardware. No question. But at the end of the day...... the end user just wants to play games. They want access to those games. They want those games to run well. Those are the things that matter. And that can, and often is, a complex list of multi-platform games, ports, cross-gen, remasters, remakes and backwards compatibility in addition to the shiny new AAA exclusives

@skywake
It's all good, man.

It's an awesome system, and more people are going to realize it as time goes on and the internet's whole "we hate anything new, we hate anything popular" thing passes.

Just imagine how much hate PS6 is going to get. Or... literally anything xbox does 🤔

@FishyS
Oh yea - Xbox is toast regardless of what they do.

I do feel like the internet tends to give Sony more grace, but once they announce the PS6 starting at 600 bucks and no more disc drive… buckle up lol

Although that won’t be until next year for just the announcement, it sounds like.

@skywake You're hyperfocusing on one specific comment I made instead of the overall point. Even when I made that statement in the first place, I didn't just talk about the backwards compatibility, I talked about how the sales data shows that new games outsell old games. There's no weaseling out of this going on, you keep focusing on the technicalities of BC vs. ports as if that is some sort of gotcha and not addressing the larger point that there is ample data to show that people buy new games more than they do old games. And then when I ask for evidence you do not provide any and just continue to spout your unsubstantiated conclusion.

The alternative, far more substantiated explanation for why the Switch took off was because it had a lot of major tentpole games early. Some of them were Wii U ports yes, the Wii U ports had more of a benefit because less people had a Wii U, but not all of them were. Mario Odyssey is not a Wii U port. Splatoon 2 is not a Wii U port. The following years also had original, non-port tentpoles like Smash Ultimate, Luigi's Mansion 3, Pokemon SwSh, and ACNH. I get sick of people calling the Switch a Wii U port machine because they seem to completely forget that these games exist, and in fact not only did these games not exist on Wii U but for most of them there was no game remotely like them on Wii U (the only exceptions on this list are Smash and Splatoon, other than that all of these IPs either failed to get a main series entry on Wii U, or in Odyssey's case got an entry that is very unlike Odyssey). This is the far more likely explanation for what happened with the Switch. Having a first year lineup consisting of a new 3D Mario game, a new cross-gen Zelda, a new entry in their biggest new IP in recent memory, a port of a big Mario Kart game that most people didn't play on Wii U + DLC + even MORE new content was above and beyond. There's a reason why the 2017 lineup is highly regarded, it's because we usually do not get this many tentpole titles in one year.

Fast forward to the Switch 2, and it gets off to a strong start with MKW and Bananza. MKW is absolutely a tentpole title that will sell 10+ million copies and Bananza is ambitious enough and in a recognizable IP that it could potentially crack that threshold too. But after that, you really don't see those kinds of tentpole titles. And unlike the Switch, ports don't work as well for the Switch 2. They looked at the Wii U ports on Switch and think "Huh, I passed this game over because of the Wii U, but it looks interesting, I'll give it another chance". They look at the S2Es and think "Meh, I already played this on Switch, not interested in buying this again". There is FAR less of an untapped market for S2Es than Wii U ports. Pretty much the only people interested in these games that didn't play it weren't born yet. Do they like wide, varied lineups? Sure, who doesn't? But the notion that they don't care about new vs. old games is soundly disproven and you continue to ignore the proof and ramble about your viewpoint. Either address the sales or stop talking about them buying old games on new hardware. We get that you THINK that way since you've said it multiple times already, but without any kind of proof in favor of that viewpoint or counter-evidence against mine (which you continually fail to provide), it's completely detached from reality.

1) Pokemon is also a huge tent pole title regardless of what anyone feels about its quality.

2) Of course NS2 Editions won't have same appeal as Wii U ports, because NS2 Editions are of games already sold to an install base 10x larger than Wii U.

3) Despite Point 2, NS2 Editions will still have appeal, particularly for evergreen titles that continue to sell to this day even on the original Switch.

4) None of this really matters, imo. Switch 2 is estimated at 16m as of Dec 31st, in just under 7 months. Why? We can only speculate. But it's safe to assume it's based on a whole slew of various factors, some more than others, which will evolve over time as different demographics buy in.