Topic: Is the "Switch is gouging on accessories" complaint valid?

@skywake
Yea, I mean, I can definitely see the attraction/cool factor in having a couple docks in a bigger house with more TVs. I could be playing on the living room TV, but the kids want to watch something, so I can just undock, go to my man cave, and dock again all within 10 seconds. That's pretty cool.

But is it like 90 dollars cool?

I think the fact that it's overpriced is all that matters, it doesn't matter if millions of people would have use for it or a thousand. The fact of the matter is for what's inside of it, $90 is crazy

could have used one the other day, tried to show off 1 2 witch and the left joy conn was flat.

@Octane well it has been out for a while. It's only natural that the price on a controller would go down if it's successful.

On this point I think it's worth me pointing out why I created this thread. I'm of the opinion that if you disagree with someone the first thing to do is to stand back and consider the possibility that you're wrong. The second thing you should do is give both of the points of view enough air that they can be seen for what they are. The best opinions will usually win out. As the saying goes if you give people enough rope.....

@skywake I think I'm with @Operative2-0 on this. It doesn't matter if it's a niche product. Overpriced is overpriced. I understand that a limited supply is more expensive to manufacture, but that should be the difference between €20 and €30, and not €90. Niche games aren't €90 for that reason either.

@faint That's true indeed. I was double checking for sure because I was 100% it launched at $60, and to my surprise they were $45 on Amazon. Still waiting for a USB-C DS4...

@Octane
I get that I just think it's a niche enough use-case that there shouldn't really be as many people complaining as there are. Also when you look at similar devices for phones and such it's not that overpriced.

For example there's a USB Type C dock for tablets/phones with charging, HDMI and USB 3.0 port expansion I saw at an online Australian PC retailer I browse sometimes. It's admittedly an aluminium dock but other than that it's basically doing what the Switch does. They're charging $140AU for it. There's another one which looks a lot cheaper and is more of a dongle they're charging $100AU for. The Switch dock is $130AU.

I'm 100% in agreement with the thought that for what it is that price is too high. I'm not buying it for extra functionality that, frankly, I don't really need. But I think that fact kinda colours my judgement of the actual price a bit. If it was an essential purchase I'd probably attach more value to the functionality. But the cost of the device itself, while ridiculous, is about in-line with what you'd expect to pay for that sort of thing.

Not really. I only bought the Switch and Zelda at launch, nothing else. I do think the prices of the Joy-Con and the dock is insane, however,

The Pro Controller is optional,, even if it is great.
A second charger is really unnecessary as you could just take the charger from the Switch dock.
The Joy-Con battery pack is really unneeded. They have a battery life of 20 hours; they don't need much more!
A second dock is just an amenity.
A second pair of Joy-Con is the only thing I can get.

Honestly, peripherals are always overpriced when a console launches. And most of them are silly. The prices on all those things will come down soon.

The only thing I take issue with is controllers, because those are things almost every serious gamer will need to buy and the price is pretty steep. Again, the price will come down, but I "needed" a Pro controller like a week after I bought my Switch. And if I go for ARMS I'll want another pair of JoyCon.

The "outrage" over accessories is totally overdone and predictable, though. It's all created by Real Gamer Dudez who have an agenda to make the Switch look bad. "Oh, look at all these hidden costs, now your Switch costs $500 at launch!" No, it doesn't, you idiots. It costs $300 and you get everything you need to start out with, or at least everything that a typical electronic device comes with. Did your smartphone come with a case and a screen protector? Did your XBone come with a third controller? No, and no. You paid extra for them. EVERYBODY does. It's kind of a sucky situation that works for the manufacturers and against the consumers - but it's a fact of modern life. The last time I bought anything that came with a case, it was a freaking Blackberry with a physical keyboard. (Which was awesome, I hate touchscreen keyboards, modern life sucks, get off my lawn you punks!!)

The phrase "haters gonna hate" is overused amd sometimes just exists to boost fans' feelings, but in this case it applies. People who didn't want to like the Switch, usually out of devotion to another console, preemptively decided that everything about it was bad. People who were excited about the Switch looked at all its little flaws (which do exist), remembered that every device has a few, and decided they could live with them.

I can live with them.

The Joy-Cons have an incredible density of high quality components inside them that for what you pay, it seems - and feels - quite fair.

The plastic dock, the battery pack for the Joy-Cons and the Pro Controller to a lesser extent are overpriced for what they do. I would not be surprised if Nintendo make at least 30-40% profit on the plastic dock alone.

At the end of the day, they are a business and they are in this business to make money, therefore some of their accessories are comparatively overpriced to other similar accessories on the market. The Joy-Cons, however, are a fantastic piece of kit that looks and feels like its asking price.

Just be glad that the optional accessories for the Nintendo Switch are just that - optional!

Did they actually use the term price gouging?

That's the wrong term.

Now if they noticed an accessory get real popular and then raised the price? Then you would have price gouging.

Also true. Those things have more tech than Iron Man. I think we tend to forget that. I know I just think of them as controllers. It may be partly because I haven't played 1-2 Switch and haven't seen any game yet that really shows off what the Joy-Con can do.

I feel the joy cons are a gouge, they should have come with the joy con connector part, you pay $99 CAD and you still technically dont have a second controller

Am I the only one disagree with the accessories pricing? I think the prices are expensive at least in Canada.

To be fair, I kinda understand what they are trying to do. I think they trying to make the Nintendo Switch follow the Nintendo Wii path with all those accessories. I think Nintendo make a lot of money from accessories and they probably learned that from the Nintendo Wii. I mean the third party could of made those docks, grips, pro controllers, steering wheels, and etc instead of Nintendo.

Well given that this thread exists at all clearly not. In general accessories for the Switch are a bit more expensive than equivalents for other consoles where they exist. Which is basically just the Pro Controller when you think really about it. But there's a bit of a difference between that being a thing, which I think most people here would agree with, and the level of whine that gets thrown about.

Just because accessories do exist and some of them are a bit pricey for what they are doesn't mean Nintendo are screwing us over. The high price of an extra dock isn't something that people need to factor into the cost of buying into the Switch as a platform. And the ~$10 extra for a Pro Controller vs their competitors isn't really that much. Especially when things like the XBOne Elite controller exists.

It's not even like the Wii era I'd argue. With the Wii I ended up getting a Classic Controller, set of three extra WiiMotes, Motion+, Second Nunchuck, Balance Board and rechargeable battery kits. All fairly standard things Wii owners ended up getting. With the Switch? I've got a Pro Controller, a case and I might get a second JoyCon set. That's it. I can't see myself ever wanting any more than that.

I bought a Wii Classic controller because it was affordable. I can't justify a Pro Controller until the price comes down, so Nintendo are losing a sale from me at least.

But it does make business sense for Nintendo to manufacture more and make accessories cheaper only later once the installer base has grown.

1. Nintendo gives you everything you need out of the box. Also given the nature of the console I didn't have to drop $60 on an additional contoler so the wife and I could play.

2. Even the other home consoles have a market for expandable memory.

3. There is a difference between need and want. Who knows what kind of widgets an gizmos will be made for Switch. Some good, some terrible I'm sure. Options though are always good.

If you feel you have to own every little accessory that's on you not Nintendo.

You get a lot from just buying the system itself - Console, Dock, Joy-Con Grip, Joy-Con straps and the Joy-Con Controller which is essentially two controllers. They also put a lot of stuff in both the Joy-con and Pro controllers with motion controls, amiibo, HD rumble and a 20/40 hour battery life (depending on controller). You don't need the Pro Controller since the Joy-Con with the grip are fine to use and the case and screen protectors are things you always have to buy separately when buying a handheld console. The only thing I'm a bit iffy on is probably the dock but other than that, I think Nintendo have been pretty generous. I honestly didn't expect this much stuff to be packed in with the console.

@skywake

That's a fair point. I agreed with you that those are standard stuffs but the Nintendo Joy-Con can be cheaper or more expensive than Wiimote depending on how you look at it. For example, if I want to play with my brother in Bomberman R then its a good deal since I can get two controllers for $100 CAD instead of $60 CAD per Wiimote. But if I want to play ARMS, its $100 CAD for one Joy-Con pairs to just play two players. In most motion sensor games for Wii just required Wiimote and an Nunchuck which is $80 in total.

I supposed its how you look at it. For games like Sonic Mania, Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8, Bomberman R, and etc only required the Joy-Con that come with the Nintendo Switch for two players. But for games like ARMS then you need to shell out $100 CAD just to play two players.

But I think you kinda convince me a bit so I should admitted its a good point.

Edited: @Eric258 I think you also convince me a bit as well.

@BiasedSonyFan People have brought up the Xbox One Elite controller too. I don't think it's a fair comparison, because both have a budget option; A regular Xbox One controller and a regular Xbox One (S). There's no ''budget'' dock, Pro Controller or Joy-Con Grip for example. I wouldn't have an issue with the €90 dock if there was a €30 dock available!