Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

Apparently we're all masochists 😆 Or bored.

Joking aside, there were a half dozen 'complain about Switch 2' threads in the early days of Switch 2 and this is the one which has survived. I feel like the name of the thread should be changed since half of the debates have nothing to do with the title of the thread. A few of those discussions have even been interesting such as discussing game release schedules in general.

It's kind of like the unpopular opinion thread — stick most of the negativity in one spot so that the main Switch 2 thread can be more positive. The unpopular opinion thread is only sometimes negative, but you get my point. I'm not sure if @MrHorse is still active, but if they renamed it 'the Switch 2 debate thread' or 'Switch 2: complain and defend' or something like that, I feel like it would be more accurate.

If MrHorse is gone, a moderator could step in of course... though I doubt they will since it is an organizational issue rather than a moderation one.

I don't think it has to be like that at all. I've bought many consoles and have favourites and others I'm less impressed with but still enjoy many games on them. Just because I say the Switch 2 is poor value or the games are poor value or the console is a little underpowered doesn't mean people are not enjoying owning it its just on reflection you can see the issues with the console. I had a great time with the wii u but it was still technically weak console and had poor ports of multi-platform games and when people asked me about it I would openly admit it was weaker than ps3 and 360 in many ways despite being a new console at the time. It doesn't mean I didn't have a whale of a time playing Mario Kart 8 etc.

When I had a PS2 I remember being very disappointed with it overall but still it had many games I really enjoyed. I thought the Gamecube and original Xbox were much better consoles for the type of games I enjoy.

I'm not seeing people that truly hate the Switch 2 I'm seeing people disappointed with pricing, maybe disappointed with performance for some games and disappointed with some of the games which turned out good rather than great in playability. We are right at the beginning though really. In a years time maybe it will be better or maybe it will be worse if pricing of components remains high and sales of Switch 2 decline significantly. All opinions are valid because they are individual opinions and based on that person's criteria which maybe different to mine or yours.

What I find most disappointing with the Switch 2 is the value. The upcoming Super Mario Bros Wonder is a £70 cartridge and it just feels far too much for such a game. It's just the old switch game with minor enhancements. There is much more innovation and value on PC it seems. I just find Nintendo pricing really annoying to be honest. Also multi-platform games are often inferior on Switch and Switch 2 but despite that the most expensive versions.

@skywake
I remember the confusion of the wiiu's reveal, iirc even with those who knew it was a new console were confused by the reveal trailer due to the emphasis on "the new controller" and the console itself just being in the background, it also didnt help that the games shown in said trailer seemed to either be mockups or tech demos, like that NSMB thing they showed.

on the flipside the switch reveal trailer clearly showed what the systems whole deal was, it also feels smart that they saved some detail like some of the joycon features for that japanese showcase thing later on (the one where they revealed a bunch of games) instead focusing on that its a handheld device you can play on your TV and it has a new Mario!

A bit of a ramble i apologize, but just reminiscing about said reveals.

In my humble opinion as a lover of the Switch OLED I personally think the Switch 2 should have not been developed just yet. I think that Nintendo could have done more for the Switch than bringing out the 2 at this point. Of course I have nothing to base my opinion on since I never touched a switch 2.

There may be some truth to this seeing as how controversies that people discuss on internet forums don't seem to bare out in sales (for example, complaints about the NSMB games rehashes don't seem to have affected that series selling, and Pokemon continues to sell despite being slammed online for being unpolished and lacking content/ambition). But when it comes to old vs. new? No, there's a pretty clear trend there.

So I don't think you're being entirely honest about the Switch 2 and what people are criticizing about it. And there are some vague but non-neglible similarities to the Wii U that are concerning people. First, while the Switch 2 isn't quite the confusing mess the Wii U was in terms of what the hardware offers, the hardware design, lack of new features, and marketing doesn't really convey that it's a new generation. It largely feels like just another Switch. Third party support hasn't quite fallen off a cliff like the Wii U has, but it also hasn't taken off either and is being stymied by the GKC situation and a lack of dev kits. First party support also feels slower compared to the earlier years of the Switch (it's about on par with the later years, but no one really expected that to be the new normal and thought that was the result of the pandemic and working on Switch 2 games behind the scene and expected the output to turn around when the Switch 2 was announced). Look around at what people are saying about the lineup. "Where's 3D Mario?". "Why is Animal Crossing getting a S2E instead of a new game?" "I want 3D Zelda, but sadly it's years away". That's the kind of discourse that's occurring right now. There's people that don't feel that the games are enough. So like the Wii U, the Switch 2 so far has arguably failed to convince people that it has any must-have hardware or software.

Because you haven't actually proven that they're false?

And I replied, that is not an honest rankings that shows how well the games are doing overall, just what's selling right now. Which you ignored.

Statistical trends are almost never 100%, there's some variance and other factors involved. I highlighted several others of them earlier, such as earlier games outselling later games and 3D games outselling 2D games. Another is just the IP in general, some IPs just seem to have broader appeal than others.

I thought I mentioned this one but apparently not. Now this one is interesting because it defies some of the trends I mentioned. If I had to guess, it's because NSMBU had 4 more years on the market than Wonder. Other potential reasons could be because Wonder was late and people were waiting for Switch 2 and because NSMBU just seems to do well with the casual audience for some reason.

Another misunderstanding, I did not say that all new games outsell all old games, that's a ludicrous claim and you need to look no further than MK8D to disprove that. But a new game of THE SAME IP almost always outsells an old game for that same IP (not always, you've pointed out several exceptions, but this is largely a trend). You can find numerous examples of old games in highly popular IPs outselling new games in more niche IPs, it's best not to make those comparisons.

On the surface this seems like another exception, but EoW is a bit difficult to classify because it's somewhere in between a main series 2D game and a 2D spinoff. It's possible that Zelda being the protagonist of EoW may have negatively affected it. It could also be a similar situation to NSMBU Deluxe vs. Wonder where Link's Awakening had more time on the market.

Okay this one is just out there. You're talking about two different consoles that operated under different circumstances. If you pick another set of games, like MK8 vs. MK8D, it becomes obvious why the port outsold the original.

In Skyward Sword's case, the likely factors are that it came out on the tail end of the Wii's lifespan and because the Wii had a more casual audience. But comparing games from different consoles invites factors in the console itself that could affect game sales.

The truth is that sales tend to follow the cycle of the console itself. Games tend to sell better in the middle of the cycle, when interest is at its prak. And naturally games released earlier in the cycle tend to sell better overall because they are available to purchase during that period. You can't buy a game that doesn't exist. And obviously the smaller that peak is for a platform the lower that potential

That's basically the only real pattern that exists. It's why a sequel can do better on a platform with a larger audience. It's also why a port or generally "less new" game can outsell something more interesting that comes later. There's no real "remake penalty" or anything like that. Especially not for evergreen titles and brand new releases

And the hardware is just a means to an end. It's just a way to access games. Which is why on Switch 2 there's not this massive difference in interest between cross-gen games, exclusive games and so on. It's just an improved piece of hardware that has access to games

And if you want evidence, well, just look at any game sales chart. People are clearly buying the Switch 2 Editions
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/01/japanese-charts-ani...

@skywake They're buying S2Es right now for the same reason that earlier games sell better than later games. They can only buy games that actually exist on the market. It's not much of an accomplish to beat out this lineup of Switch 2 games. Come back in a year or two and see if these S2Es can beat out the likes of Pokemon Gen 10, 3D Mario, Luigi's Mansion 4, or whatever other tentpole games are out that point. Past sales data implies they probably won't.

The Switch 2 was actually meant to be released much earlier. The T239 chip was purposely designed for the Switch Pro and that was developed back in 2019/2020. The Switch 2 was originally designated the Switch Pro it seems and development kits did get sent out to some developers back then. I'm sure it would have been a slightly different spec. Maybe 8GB of memory, 128GB of storage, maybe a 720p screen but Nintendo cancelled it as the Switch 1 was still selling so well and hugely profitable. Also of course there was covid. So the Switch 2 is a hugely delayed console as it is, perhaps 3 years later than it was planned to come out. The T239 chipset in the Switch 2 is still on a fabrication process from that era which is mainly 10Nm but partly 8Nm. I can't imagine them delaying it much more without having to re-design the chipset etc. The CPU performance is fairly weak in the Switch 2 but hats off to Nvidia their graphic chip has some decent functionality and performs very well thanks to fantastic DLSS AI upscaling. However that does seem to bring some input lag, more input lag than games that don't use DLSS typically. Lets face it they probably couldn't have released it in 2026. I could imagine Nintendo scrapping the launch if they were faced with the cost of RAM and NAND chips today. I feel the time to release the Switch 2 ideally was probably Christmas 2024 about 6 months before they did. That would have given them two Christmases before they hit RAM/NAND hyper-inflation.

The Switch 1 OLED does represent a superior console in many ways, a fantastic display panel, greater portability, longer battery runtime. A decent 1:1 pixel map of 720p Switch 1 games making them clearer compared to standard compatibility mode of Switch 2. I don't think anyone who has a OLED should be too upset if they can't upgrade currently for whatever reason. I found battery runtime annoying with the original launch Switch 1 and Switch 2 seems to be a little worse at 2 hours rather than 2.5 hours and of course the OLED is a minimum of 4.5 hours. It's a world apart in battery runtime combined with its truly fantastic OLED screen are two huge wins for the OLED model.

@BonzoBanana The battery is so disappointing on Switch 2, and whenever I've recently used the OLED, the Switch 2 display just makes me sad. You can notice movement blur even in a game like Animal Crossing. I do like the bigger display size, and I think VRR is a good tradeoff, if only more games actually used VRR.

Let's keep it civil, please

https://www.nintendolife.com/rules

Thanks!

lol

Oh, man. This is the thread in synopsis haha

No, it's failed to convince you (and maybe a few others). You can't generalise to the broader market.

The Wii U comparison is also unfounded. The Switch 2 has basically outsold the Wii U in as little as 7 months. Third party support is blowing Wii U out of the water (just this week we got the acclaimed Final Fantasy VII Remake). It had nothing close to MK World or DK Bananza at launch.

How about we all declare a truce for a week? There will be more ways to argue in an informed manner after the Nintendo financial report next week.

Also, I see the creator of the thread finally returned only to get deleted for 'inappropriate formatting'. My fault for summoning them I suppose.