Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

@UpsideDownRowlet Or maybe you can just chill out? I swear people still take video games and crappy forum talk too seriously...

We're on page 4.....

@skywake Yes, thank you for your enlightening observation.

One wonders why those who seek to create drama are the most fragile when people disagree. Something to that I think. Anyways, to respond directly to this post:

From my perspective, as one of the people who has commented in the thread who thinks it is worth it. Three points about my situation that disagree with this assertion:
1. I have a Steam Deck and a decent PC. I have other means to play modern third party titles
2. I have to this point purchased no multiplatform titles for Nintendo's hardware (Switch or Switch 2) since the release of the Switch 2. I would have purchased Hades 2 but I already had it on Steam. I would have got Mina the Hollower but it was delayed
3. The third party titles on the Switch 2 thus far, excluding some of the smaller titles which fit well within the Switch 2's capabilities (think indies and the like) do not really factor into what I like about the Switch or the Switch 2. Even remotely

The Switch 2 is appealing because it's very capable for how compact and portable. And then additionally because of how soft the generational transition from the Switch has been and how low friction it is to swap between play modes. It's all the things I liked about the Switch, just with hardware from this decade

Maybe for the funny haha's, and not taking anything seriously in throw away forums?

Y'all have too much time and money on your hands, but how you all waste them is your business.

@NotASockPuppet
I mean, you are also on this forum making posts. Pots and Kettles and all that jazz. And in terms of expense what are we talking about? Let's be real, it's not like the other platforms are cheaper

Also let's just sit back and bask in the irony of someone who made a post saying "let's summarise the thread" both failing to accurately summarise the thread and then proceed to suggest that other people have too much time on their hands

@NotASockPuppet That's at least two posts in a short space of time where you belittle this forum. Reflect on that and what you're doing here, because I'm not sure anyone's getting much positive out of it currently, other than a growing Ignore list.

For me, I own consoles just for the physical editions. I like the install & play factor. PC does not offer that to this extend (except GOG, where I can make myself kind of physical edition of a flash drive).

Currently the Switch 2 does not offer me enough of this. If I want to play digital only games on a handheld I will just play them on my Steam Deck.

I hope, next year there will be more games that are as normal editions (not GKC). Then the Switch 2 will be worth it to me

It's worth even more

I don't think you can rely on a healthy amount of third party multi-platform titles as it seems commercially they have sold very poorly, below the publishers worst expectations. So it feels like we will get less of such games going forward and those we do get will be less optimised in order to reduce their development costs. I think at the beginning the publishers had good faith and put the effort in but I just can't see that happening in the future if sales continue to be low. It feels like this will continue to be a console mainly about first party games pretty much. The only third party games that might sell well are exclusives for the Switch 2. That's what it is looking like in the sales figures and I don't think that is surprising based on Switch, wii u etc. I was picking up wii u third party multi-platform titles for £2.99 years ago brand new for titles that I think had a full retail price of £40. They were generally weak titles compared to ps3 and 360 but significantly under-priced those versions so I bought them. Yes the wii u hardware sales were low and that is a significant cause of the situation but even on wii which was a huge success I got many third party titles very cheaply. However again that was technically a very weak console so such conversions were disappointing technically.

My point is I don't think you can rely on third party multi-platform games coming to Switch 2. These could well dry up or end up being technically very weak. I don't think you can consider the Switch 2 if you are relying on third party multi-platform titles to come to the platform in the coming years. I feel many will be cancelled. I thought there was talk of a Red Dead Redemption 2 coming to Switch 2 but now its just a version of the original Red Dead Redemption that is 15 years old and playable on old consoles like the Xbox 360 etc. Easy to port and even emulate nowadays. Surely they wouldn't have to spend much money at all on such a conversion to Switch 2. Probably an afternoon's work with existing assets and code and no need to optimise as well beneath the capabilities of Switch 2.

This is useful for me, it seems I have made a choice

Regardless what one says it's your Money and how you spend it. But if you a portable DLSS experience capable hardware Switch2 is the way forward. Sure it's cost more but then you compare that to other portable devices they cost more and are bigger and have weight to prove it. Also you can for the most part with Nintendo game updates compatibility are able to play Switch1 games on Switch2 and if you transfer system your saves moves to the new system aka ACNH. Price is but one factor there are other portable consoles costing more but you paying for those extras as well. Also if you are a Nintendo game player why loose out on your options to get better frame and higher game play??? No one said a better hardware was going to cheap by any stretch of the imagination here.

I personally think the Steam Deck is stronger hardware than Switch 2 and capable of more and here in the UK when there is a sale which you get maybe 2 or 3 times a year the original Steam Deck sells for £280. In CPU performance the Steam Deck is an easy 4.5x stronger whether docked portable as the Switch 2 has a passmark cpu score of around 2000 and the Steam Deck is 9000. Then you have memory where the Steam Deck is 16GB and the Switch 2 is 12GB. After that it gets more complicated as the Switch 2 has 2 states docked and portable performance. The Steam Deck is about 88GB/s memory bandwidth (quad channel memory), the Switch 2 is about 67GB/s portable and 102GB/s docked. The Steam Deck is about 1.6/1.7 Teraflops in GPU performance, the Switch 2 is about 2.2 Teraflop docked and likely sub 1 Teraflop in portable mode. Yes it can peak to around 1.2 Teraflop in portable mode but when you see the comparison between docked and portable mode and you calculate the battery runtime on a sub 20Wh battery with a mainly 10Nm fabricated SOC you know its running at sub 1 Teraflop, I would estimate around 700-900 Gflops. The Switch 2 native resolution can be as low as 640x360p before being upscaled by DLSS. Here the Switch 2 is far superior to the Steam Deck in AI upscaling. The Switch 2 can render at lower resolutions and produce good quality higher resolution images on the portable screen.

The Switch 2 is basically offering PS4 performance portably but the Steam Deck is far more powerful than that. The Steam Deck can run more complicated and demanding game engines but because it renders many games natively struggles with the same visual fidelity however in recent times there has been more effort to match Switch 2 upscaling so we are seeing improvements in upscaling and frame generation. Even the Steam Deck LCD screen is a huge improvement in many areas, its far more responsive, is smoother and delivers a great experience and the OLED version goes well beyond that. The thing that stands out to me on Switch 2 is input lag when you combine the slow display panel with the added input lag of DLSS games can feel a bit jerky and slow to respond. It's not a great experience on the portable screen in my opinion for some games. Skyrim is a good example of this, they have put no effort in to reduce DLSS input lag and you end up with a inferior experience to many other formats. Even the notorious worst version of Skyrim on PS3 never had that level of input lag, it had choppy frame rates the further you got into the game but at least at the beginning it was playable.

Many of the Switch 2 problems in portable mode are due to the poor panel and using a dated fabrication process for the main SOC which means they cannot afford to overdrive the LCD panel to improve many issues. It feels like the next revision of the Switch 2 console will improve many of these issues, i.e. maybe a OLED panel and a SOC on a better fabrication process.

Cyberpunk now on Steam Deck has been improved for better visual fidelity and higher frame rates using FSR4 etc and lets not forget its the full game, there are no fixed platform optimisations here, the Steam Deck is running the full PC game. It's running it at up to 90fps (OLED screen is 90Hz).

It has Wario World.

Yes.

I am thinking the Steam home console is going to make the Switch 2 not worth it for those who want value attached to the TV. If you never pull the switch 2 out of the dock and don't really need Nintendo IP, it's probably now not worth it just because Steam is a better market than Nintendo.com

But again, it really depends on how much of a need you have to play a handful of well crafted games.

Steam is such an outlier in capitalism. It's the only company on Earth that hasn't pushed the gas pedal all the way down on greed (yet), and that provides huge discounts on PC. Now if the Gabe cube acts as a quality device, I would consider making that the console of choice for controller based games just because I know it will be 40-70 on Switch 2 while it's on sale on steam for 20. It happens all the time.

@BonzoBanana
It's worth remembering that most people don't care and can't even notice most of this stuff unless you make them play on consoles side-by-side, which nearly quite literally never happens,

For me, from the beginning of all this nonsense, I've really enjoyed the handheld visuals on my Switch 2, and it's primarily how I play. I was initially tepid about the increased size, but after actually owning it and using it, I like it. It's bright and supports higher frame rate possibilities. I haven't noticed a lick of this input lag people keep talking about, and I play a ton of twitchy action games and platformers. I didn't know it was a "bad" screen until I started seeing stuff on the internet about it. I would wager, pretty confidently, that most people (even "gamers" lol) fall into that same bucket with me.

Nobody is gonna debate that having access to Steam isn't awesome - the selection of games and sales on there are amazing, and I have a solid gaming PC to take advantage of that. But when it comes to practical handheld gaming that may take you beyond the confines of your living room, in my opinion, you can't beat the simplicity, the form factor, and the 1st-party exclusives the Switch offers.

That's what they can't demostrate...cry to the wind would ya.

This is the end of the day...accessiblity and people can enjoy and not have to buy a niche product to shout into the wind.

This is what they sorely forgot and Steam is a niche product can they demonstrate 15+ millions sales figure and 1billions games sales on a single console? No they can't but whine they must.

It’s worth it if you like games.
It not worth it if you don’t like games.

If you don't want to play handheld or play Nintendo games, why would you buy a Switch 2? I would argue you should go buy a PS5 for the polished console experience but with higher power. I suppose steam console will also be an option (and xbox is as well), but I assume PS5 will remain the go-to choice in this scenario.

Looking at the insane Capcom sales on steam right now... some are 10-50 cents cheaper on Steam than on Switch although others are the same. Steam has more games than Switch does, but it's pretty common that the best sale prices are very close to the same on both devices. It's mainly just first party Nintendo games that don't play the sale game.

My thoughts.

I love Switch 2, both for 1st party and 3rd party, and the freedom of both docked and handheld play, and seamlessly switching between them.

Some mentioned Steamdeck. I have one. It's a nice system, but no, it's objectively not "more powerful"- even the NS2 in handheld mode runs games better (like Star Wars Outlaws and Cyberpunk 2077, for example). That's not to say there aren't some games that perform better on it due to poor optimization on NS2 (Persona 3 Reload can do 60fps on Deck, but not because it's more capable, but rather because it was rushed out on Switch).

Keep in mind, even if it was "more powerful", that really wouldn't make a difference. There's a reason Vita did Wii U numbers despite being "more powerful". And PS2. And Wii. And Switch. And now Switch 2. Most normal people do not care about power pissing contests. They care about games, ease of use and functionality.

If I didn't like Deck I wouldnt have bought it. But it can't seamlessly dock out of the box, not even with a separate dock purchase which requires plugging in a cable manually, it won't automatically turn on the TV and switch inputs, etc. It has problems playing games offline unless you specifically enter offline mode, most big new releases can't hold a stable 30 anymore, and it requires a lot more tinkering than you'd expect. That said, if it really appeals to you, then you should buy one.

But the fact is, Deck hasn't even cracked 5 million units sold. Its sales fell off a cliff years ago. It's just not something most people care about. So recommending it is kind of pointless, because the vast majority of people simply will not be interested. And the numbers prove it. It's essentially a device for diehard PC fans, and if that's you, you probably already own it.

I own a PS5, XSX, PC and Steamdeck and I only play 3rd party games on Switch 2 nowadays. The system has spoiled me to where I simply don't have the patience for games tethered to a single screen, nor for games with aiming as a core mechanic which lack gyro/mouse aiming. Most NS2 games include that (Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Star Wars Outlaws, Tomb Raider, Red Dead Redemption, Resident Evil Requiem, etc). It's something to keep in mind.

Ultimately, only you can decide what's "worth it". All I can tell you is I'm loving it and it's so good I don't want to play on any other platform I own anymore. Don't let that trigger you if you're a fan of other consoles because I'm not saying other consoles are bad or they suck or they aren't also fantastic. I am simply saying NS2 has made them irrelevant for me personally. Not because they're bad, but because they simply don't satisfy my hybrid freedom and gyro/mouse aiming needs.

@BonzoBanana
Evidence to the contrary- 3rd party games are doing just fine and we can expect more than ever. Hence why Capcom just announced Pragmata, to follow Street Fighter 6, Kunitsu-gami, Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil Requiem and Monster Hunter Stories 3, with MegaMan down the line.

Whatever narrative was floating around has proven false by not only the hard numbers we see in Japan (which are ALL key carts, and yet NS2 versions are already matching the PS5 and Switch versions despite only being on the market 6 months, and we see the rankings on the eShop chock to the hilt with 3rd party.

So ya, don't be surprised when the games keep coming and the releases keep intensifying. There's a reason we've seen more 3rd party on Switch 2 than any other Nintendo platform in decades.

NS2 Versions Already Matching PS5

NS2 Versions All Over Best-Sellers List