Topic: Buying 2 Nintendo Switch Lite

@rsbhj I agree, there should be a way. On DS and 3DS you can play local multiplayer with one game. On DS and 3DS you use the console wireless communication and you can play as much of the game as the internal memory of the secondary consoles is able to store, so it's not that Nintendo was saying play with one character on purpose but the console wasn't able to store too much data on the volatile memory. On Switch we don't have this problem because it has so much more memory and could even store a "guest" copy of the game and I'm very disappointed to learn that you can't play local multiplayer with one game. It's really disappointing and I didn't know this until now.

With the current model, you can play most multi-player games with 1 Switch, @BlueOcean .... You could still do it on a Switch Lite, potentially, with 1 joy-con each?
Is it @morpheel in charge of that department, for further clarification?

We have nothing to announce at the m-oh wait.

Yes if you buy a separate set of joycons it should be possible to play in tabletop mode just fine, but the screen is tiny though... So it's a question of... Would you enjoy that?

I second the notion that the best would be getting a normal and a Lite, both are still portable, but the normal will be useful to play multi-player on a bigger screen (TV), and if you buy a bundle, it would be like buying a Lite + joycons + game.

I would give the normal switch to whichever is the most mature kid, someone who can share their console for TV multi-player. Make it a display of trust, that way they will appreciate it.

@BruceCM I played tabletop mode with my friend with one tiny joy-con each but I don't mean that and they are awful for playing Super Mario Odyssey to be honest, I mean each person with their own Switch playing local multiplayer like on 3DS. It even makes more sense now with Lite around the corner. You know, download play, something that Nintendo has done in the last two generations.

Well, yeah, it makes more sense with Lites coming, @BlueOcean .... Which is why I think they might well do it for those? If you had a spare pair of Joy-cons (or your friend had their own Switch, so detached theirs), you could play with a pair each!
Thing is, if you mostly played multi-player, wouldn't you do that on a TV? I'm thinking that split-screen multi-player on the smaller Lites wouldn't be great, anyway Sorry, I pretty much only play my Switch on my own, so I can't imagine it very well

@BruceCM Switch is one step forwards and five steps backwards compared to recent Nintendo consoles. We played on TV and tabletop mode. If we play Mario Kart 8 to say an example, we wouldn't get rid of the split screen anyway, right? So multiplayer would be split-screen even if we both have our own Switch console. This could become a big problem for multiplayer on Switch because if you and your friend have a Switch Lite you can't use them as handheld devices but you have to share one of the screens. It doesn't make any sense, Nintendo! Can't you use two consoles for Mario Kart 8 multiplayer?

Well, most people who'd want some local multi-player on a Switch game would have their own copy, @BlueOcean. ... Since they wouldn't always be playing it that way & with only 1 other person, usually But it's at least possible they're thinking about it, as Lites don't really come with the same options

@rsbhj I have 3 kids myself and understand this completely. If I'm getting them something like this, I always try to get the exact same model for all, with the only difference being a different colour for each (if possible).

Just catching up on this, so view is that the screen on the lite wouldn’t be very good for multiplayer spitscreen.

I’ve never played a 2DS XL but presume people play multiplayer on these. What’s the set up with a 2DS XL does each device need its own game?

Well, I think the screen would be a bit small on a Lite, personally, @rsbhj? Not that you couldn't do it but if that's going to be the main use for it .... ?
I'm pretty sure you could link 2ds systems locally & share 1 copy of some games but I don't know how many So, even with the smaller ones, that'd be a bit better than we're currently expecting with Lite Switches
The problem here is we have no idea about the plans for the implementation of that system beyond what has been said & so far nobody's asked them the question we're covering here So, it's possible they do have some ideas for it all that haven't been disclosed yet

@rsbhj The 3DS/2DS family had the option of linking the systems themselves so you could play games locally with only one copy of the game, so they weren't being split-screened as each person had their own device. Of course, the game had to have the option built into it, but it was an option nonetheless.
Currently Switch does not support this, more than 2 years into its life, so I'm not counting on it at this point. It's possible Nintendo may choose to implement it on Switch, given the inherent local multiplayer problems with Lite, but they've said nothing beyond the vague currently.

Not all games had that option, and as games got more complex, less and less games featured it. It worked fine on the DS because the games themselves were small enough.

You'd probably have to spend almost an entire hour sending a small copy of Mario Kart 8 to another switch just to play together.

@Morpheel However, Nintendo allows users to download the same game on different Switch consoles using the same account because they control digital rights via internet like Microsoft. After one purchase, we can have the same game installed on different consoles and that would make local multiplayer with one copy feasible, the only requirement being that the consoles must be online. For physical copies the guest console would get a prompt to download the game from the eShop. This would have to be done once per console, like when you download a game from the eShop. If you log in you can play, if you log in and you are not the owner of the game then you can be a guest player in multiplayer.

The account system letting you install on two consoles is in no way comparable to download play.

You own one copy, you can install it on multiple consoles, but you can't really play them at the same time unless you're offline on the primary account and online on the secondary account. Even then, that's just an inevitable workaround, not an intended feature. They don't want you to do that.

And I sincerely doubt Nintendo is going to start offering free "multi-player only" versions of all their games, because that would be a bit silly (they could just sell you more copies of the game). However, they have done it in the past, for Mario Party Star Rush.

Yeah, I think that'd be the difficulty with playing one game on 2 linked Switches, @Morpheel .... Isn't your department looking into this, though, to work out how it could be done?

Ok I see what you mean now so the DS when it’s multiplayer isn’t a split screen on each device you just play together but with your own console and screen the game is just linked.

This is what we want on the switch lite but currently with the info we have there is no way to do this other than to buy a copy of the game for each device and play multiplayer that way.

I guess we see what happens when it is released

Well, if there's going to be any further announcements, @rsbhj .... They'd probably be before Lites come out Only way to be sure anyone has asked them your particular question, though, is to ask them yourself, directly
Sadly, we don't actually have any inside information here, just what has been revealed publicly

Just watched a quick vid on the 2DS set up and it’s straightforward but the guest player has a lot of limitations, this was on Mario kart and the guest could not choose options they were stuck on one character pretty poor overall really that you can share full game options on a local network.

I guess if anything the lite may be the same but overall it’s poor, you really need to buy the games twice

Looking at it from the perspective of a parent, it does seem kinda ridiculous that you've already bought 2 or 3 consoles AND need to buy 2 or 3 copies of a game. But on the other hand, it's just basic sense that you need to own a game to play it, I guess.

But I do remember the days of some PC, Gameboy, DS games providing "seeds" or limited ability for other players to get in on the game without owning a copy of it.

I guess the solution to it, as some have pointed out, is to play couch multiplayer by just getting a regular Switch that can be docked.

That is not what I said! It's possible to do it the way that I explained and that's why I explained an alternative way to do it. Will Nintendo make it possible? It's up to them but I foresee anger if they don't think of a solution for Lite that should be extended to all consoles as it doesn't make any sense to rule the standard Switch out of local multiplayer with more than one console.

I explained this on this page:

There are solutions for playing local multiplayer on Switch consoles and with Lite around the corner Nintendo really should do something. @BruceCM Let's hope that somebody asks them and that they don't answer their favourite sentence, "We have nothing to comment" or "We don't comment on speculation".