Krazzar

@Rygar They cut the video output on the board to reduce the constant power consumption. It maximizes the battery life in exchange for removing a feature that is the antithesis of what most people interested in a handheld would use.

@Yorumi Or don't buy Mario Party and then it's $200. You're really just making accommodations for a very short list of games. The focus of the system is handheld, 1 player per Switch gameplay.

From another angle, the Switch Lite costs around the same as two sets of controllers (two sets of Joycons/Pro controllers or a Pro controller and Joycons) , enabling same-room multiplayer with better performance than split-screen with most games. In fact, there are far more games that support online or local multiplayer requiring two consoles (no split screen) than those that require detached Joycons and motion controls.

@Yorumi Mario Party and 1,2 Switch work with an extra set of Joycons. LABO may have a different kit in the future but LABO VR should still work. The games that require additional Joycons are also the ones most likely to be played with a TV.

Removing the TV output simplifies the chipset and lowers the constant power draw, something that is more important to a handheld. Battery life is weighed more heavily than TV output, which is good for those that don't use a TV at all anyway.

@Yorumi It's not incompatible, it just requires a set of Joycons. Those are also edge cases like Mario Party that require a detached Joycon. Most games can be played in handheld mode and the extra control schemes are just that, nice to have but not required.

@Rygar It's cheaper to buy multiple kids (or even one kid) a Switch Lite than a Switch and a TV.

Now that this is official the next topic to tackle is if you already have a Switch this is not targeted at you. This is targeted at kids to increase the player base. If you already have a Switch buying a second one does not increase the player base. Nintendo bases many financial points on units of software sold because they are far more interested in a large player base than simply selling hardware.

So that's the point of the Switch Lite. If you have a Switch already there isn't much of a point to buying a Lite. And now it's time to read a million more "I already have a Switch so why would I buy this" comments. Protip: you don't have to buy every single thing Nintendo makes. I swear, some people must think Nintendo makes decisions with just them in mind.

@Krull That's not quite how Nintendo works with pricing. This is the Switch price drop.

@BionicDodo It ramps up quite a bit after a certain point, but the progression in Everspace definitely is not evenly paced. I can't get over the massive downgrade Switch got compared to PC with Everspace and I'm wondering if this game will be the same deal.

Obviously we need a Pokémon/FarCry 3 mashup for this. Just replace the toughguy models with Machamps and so forth. Bam! They can even reuse the animations, since they love to do that.

@Bunkerneath The Nvidia Shield Tablet came first by three years so any kind of refresh wouldn't be a rip off of the Switch. Nvidia's Tablet and TV Box products also do things the Switch doesn't, like media box functions and multiple game streaming options, so they are distinct. An upgraded Nvidia tablet was even canceled because of the Switch due to not wanting to cannibalize sales of devices running the same chips.

@Aurumonado Yes, you can. There are some references, but it doesn't get in the way. I have all three Witcher games but I couldn't stand the first two for a few reasons.

@JaxonH It's still used in a game montage as a demo for 4K TVs to show how great 4K can look. I saw it the other day and thought it odd to see TW3 being used in an advertisement.

@JnFnRu The Witcher 3 is like being a character in the deepest and most engrossing drama you could ever watch. The quests are provocative, you have a great deal of freedom, and the characters and stories are way more realistic than most games. Some quests for me are truly unforgettable, but I won't spoil them for you. Combat is pretty good, but the stories you get to experience is the real strength. It is an incredibly highly-rated game because there really isn't anything else like it. The only way to not like it is if you need constant mindless action. I started playing again a few days ago and I am still as blown away as when I first started playing it.

@Mountain_Man Playing these old Bioware games on my phone with touchscreen controls can be a pain at times, but those are few, even on a small screen. Even inventory management is workable. I'm sure controller support would make it simple.

@Itzdmo My tablet with a Snapdragon 600 processor can run the android version of these games at around 120 FPS, according to the counter. Switch shouldn't have any problem.

@AG_Awesome Nothing like Dark Alliance. Dark Alliance is in the vein of Diablo and Gauntlet. This is old-school Bioware so the same combat and RPG mechanics as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which came after these titles.

I'm not too interested in these bundles since I already have all these on PC and Android. I have actually been playing Neverwinter on my phone recently. If they're new to you they're worth a try, but be warned they are not modern games by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully the console enhancements will make the experience smoother.

Phone pricing is out of control. It's pretty ridiculous that phones can be compared with gaming PCs and laptops in terms of price.

@Jayofmaya That isn't any different than the Switch, except the Switch has a two hour battery life. Actually, I have a 7,800 mah battery case for my last phone loaded up with older games on the play store and Nintendo emulators. An 11,000 mah battery can go pretty far. I also have some 20,000 mah battery packs I use with both the Switch and my phones. The big difference is the Switch has the games while the best offline games on phones are usually older ports.

@BitBoink Because China is a giant market that doesn't have any loyalty to Nintendo. Some would argue China would prefer to have such Chinese designs over anything else.

@SmaMan It's a service. Without the distribution channel it doesn't run the games that were purchased unless you install them and never delete them. That also means no future fixes which can break games. It may be possible to root and flash, but then you just have a cut-down Shield, although the specs don't seem to be all that great.

@Alucard83 Physical media won't go anywhere as long as some people care about 4K content. The hardcore home theater types are all about physical media, streaming just can't touch the quality of UHD discs. I think streaming games is pushed by "service providers" that want to have complete control, most end-users would say it's a flawed concept based on convenience alone. In the long run it is not economical if you care about a games library over simply playing a game for a while. Streaming has too many issues to become the primary format of games; it's really just the e-books of gaming, sounds like it could be nice, but doesn't really provide enough benefit to give up the old ways.

@LordMolecule Every console has controllers with either orientation of the joysticks. I have a couple PS-style Switch controllers for those that prefer that layout.

@nintendolie Mostly for the cool factor of seeing the effects of ballistics. As I recall, the effect can be limited or disabled if you prefer.

@StevenG I know multiple parents that have complained about Joycons going missing and now won't let the kids use the Switch unattended. Going for a classic handheld design for kids makes sense, especially if it costs less.

@Jeronan Detachable Joycons are not a requirement. For the odd game that does require detached Joycons buying a set of Joycons solves the problem. There is no issue with a smaller Switch accessories cannot solve. The target of a smaller Switch wouldn't be very interested in adult party games. It's mostly targeted at kids that would be playing games alone. A cheaper model would have some sacrifices, that's why it's cheaper, but it still expands the playerbase and is good for the longevity of the Switch and Nintendo.

It's a singleplayer game so I'll wait for it to drop way down in price or get it in a Humble Bundle. Such a game isn't a good fit for the Switch; this game is destined to be a very good looking game with not a lot going on. Games that do well on Switch place gameplay over graphics. This game wouldn't even be on the top of an indie list if it didn't use the Star Wars IP.

I would much rather see a remake of Rogue Squadron 3 on Switch than this, better yet a Rogue Squadron trilogy.

@KingdomHeartsFan It's almost like building a product line involves building an accessory line for those products. Seems like you're unfamiliar with general business mechanics and/or clouded by the fear of somehow missing out on something if there were to be additional Switch versions. More models are an inevitably, especially out of Nintendo. Everyone in the field does it and it makes sense since certain market segments are still hesitant on the Switch, namely parents buying for children that will be the sole user. What doesn't make sense is arguing the Switch is perfect and everyone should love it. It really just sounds like you don't want any kind of change because you already have a Switch and don't want to feel left behind.

@KingdomHeartsFan "Labo for the new Switch mini". It's cardboard and NFC cards, hardly a major design challenge. Nintendo, and aftermarket companies, made and still make accessories for all the various 3DS/2DS variants. Why would Nintendo be incapable of making accessories for their own products, especially when those accessories are made of cardboard?

@KingdomHeartsFan As already mentioned in my first comment, accessories make up for any lost functionality. Need HD rumble, or detachable joycons? Get an extra set. What do you mean "how would you charge them? ". The same way we all charge extra joycons, with the Nintendo, or myriad of aftermarket charging stands. A kids unit would be by design limited, any edge-case where HD rumble is required is justified by a lower cost that allows that individual to play Switch games in the first place. I have about 40 titles on Switch and I can't think of a single one that regularly requires HD rumble. HD rumble, or any rumble at all, is not required for the majority of games. I'm sure some rhythm games might need it, but the majority use it as an added effect and to help find extras in games. BotW doesn't even utilize HD rumble. I've spent time testing aftermarket controllers that don't have any rumble and it is far from required.

I don't know how much exposure you have to kids, but the parents I know have expressed the Switch is simply too expensive and delicate for children. They go to tablets or a 3DS/2DS instead for their kids. They are more likely to use the Switch themselves and only allow kids to use it while supervised. One major reason that kept coming up from parents that actually have a Switch is that the joycons kept going missing, rendering the console useless if all they had were joycons. Replacing them is more than the cost of a new game. Removing that issue with static joycons would entice parents to hand the Switch over to their kids without having to worry. That would mean more households would have a Switch solely for kids and increase households with multiple Switch units. A "pro" model would be seen as an upgrade for adults, so another scenario is the adult user upgrades and hands down the standard Switch to kids. Of the expensive tablets I have seen kids using most parents say it was their old or now unused tablet handed down to the child.

A "kids" unit and "pro" unit means more accessibility, and that means a broader base. A broader base buys more games. More game sales means more publishers will want their products on the Switch. More games on the Switch attracts more players, and the cycle continues, all the way to the next console years down the line. It's only the single most important thing to the longevity and financial viability of the Switch and Nintendo as a whole. The Switch might be doing well now, but what about after next-gen consoles are announced? What about when the Switch isn't new and exciting? New models add back some excitement without requiring a completely new console that would actually fracture the base and be costly and opens new market segments. New models could be 6-12 months away or even further out, if they're coming at all. Model refreshes are a normal business move in gaming and even many other industries like automotive. It wouldn't make sense for Nintendo not to have a model refresh eventually.

@KingdomHeartsFan There doesn’t have to be any core functionality missing. HD rumble or any rumble is a battery-saver that isn't core, just like 3D was dumped on the 2DS. Permanent joycons don't negate the design and for the odd game that does require detached joycons another set of joycons fixes that, but then again a smaller, more portable Switch aimed at kids logically wouldn't be the choice for adult-oriented party games. There's no reason a smaller Switch with permanent joycons couldn't be docked, it requires a USB-C port. These are minor design changes that would retain functionality. You make it sound like we're comparing an original Switch with a Gameboy Color. Nintendo can handle these low technical hurdles, especially since new versions of a Switch would only exist to get different kinds of people to experience Switch games (kids on the go and new features for more discerning players). You're still trying to shoehorn faulty logic by using the wrong playbook. If you have a Switch a different Switch version is not designed for you.

@MarkieMAN64 Except humor.

@NintendoFan4Lyf You forgot to factor in internet access cost and backward compatibility. PC does not have any subscription to use the internet you already pay for. My oldest game installed on my PC is from 1996, PS4 and Xbox is limited to some titles from one generation back. With PC you don't have to upgrade or buy a new system either, if you're fine with console-level graphics you don't have to replace a decent system for about 12 years, and even then you can find a purpose for the system (it still plays almost all the games you have). Consoles are cheaper in the short run but they don't have the performance or longevity. That doesn't mean they are worthless, but your valuation was a bit off.

@KingdomHeartsFan Why did Nintendo make so many iterations of the 3DS? None of that made sense. I mean, a version of the 3DS that doesn't do 3D? What's the point since 3D is two-thirds of the name and it cuts out an important system-selling feature? How about the XL, New 3DS, various themed skins, and so on. Who would pay for a slightly larger 3DS, or a slightly faster 3DS, or a 3DS that doesn't fold, or a 3DS that doesn't do 3D, or a 3DS with a Mario Maker skin? Turns out a lot of people did and some bought more than two units. Seems like making iterations of a platform is Nintendo after all.

@Medic_alert Depends on if they're targeting repeat buyers or new buyers. New buyers bring all the profit because they need to also buy games and accessories, repeat buyers only increase primary hardware sales, which isn't a metric Nintendo likes to use for growth. Nintendo focuses on software sales to indicate the strength of a platform. Having more options increases the playerbase of new buyers, which is a more diversified approach. A smaller Switch version obviously is targeted at new, young players, a more feature-rich Switch would target the opposite, the older, more discerning player. Assuming this is designed for current Switch owners, and thus placing the bar quite high to meet a replacement threshold, isn't realistic because it's not based on the actual purpose of diversifying the product line. Future software and accessory sales are Nintendo's focus, not keeping current Switch owners perfectly happy. In that context such incremental improvements (more portable with less cost and more powerful with more cost) makes sense.

@Medic_alert Graphical improvements are a big reason. The Switch has some games with incredible art, but in terms of post processing effects there basically aren't any. Running my Switch through external post processing with my projector's image enhancements and a Darbee 5000s and there is a big difference. More power allows for more effects to be rendered natively, which improves the picture without changing the gameplay. Games would run on every version of the Switch, but the more powerful version would have more effects enabled. It would be like changing the graphics settings on PC games; some games run on a potato but the graphics look like a potato while the same game can look dramatically different with more powerful hardware that allows more effects, post processing, and better texture rendering. Look at the Cemu comparison videos of BotW for an idea of the difference a more powerful Switch could make.

@WOLF13 There is some benefit to more power. The Switch has a poor ability to process visual content. When I use outside image processing via my projector post-processing effects and a Darby 5000s the effect is quite striking compared to the vanilla image. Perceived depth, color representation, contrast, and sharpness are lacking with the vanilla Switch image. The Cemu crowd demonstrates this neatly with some of their videos showing enhancements more power can provide without fundamentally changing the game.

@KingdomHeartsFan There are certain rendering processes that can be added without rewriting the game. Anti-aliasing, draw distance, pop-in (particularly bad in BotW), higher resolution, higher framerate, and a number of other benefits can be added with beefier hardware. These don't fundamentally change how a game plays. A small patch can add the features and would be able to identify by the model running the software whether or not to use the enhancements. It's essentially like changing visual settings on PC, but hard coded and as shown by PS4 and Xbox1 there would be settings to disable such enhancements. It wouldn't be very different from the hardware revisions of every other console. As long as there is wireless connectivity every controller can be used, and if there are non-detachable controllers every control scheme is still present.

Obviously the Switch Pro will use Max-Q design and run a custom 1080ti solution from Nvidia, since the 2080 RTX is out the 10-series is old news. This way the Switch will outpower both Sony and Microsoft until they unveil their next generation.

More likely a new Switch SKU would just be a different color shell and joycons. I don't expect any radical changes. A budget option seems likely eventually, but improving processing performance would be difficult to do. That would change the fundamental chipset which would increase cost quite a bit.

@kuromantic Most likely you can connect joycons and other controllers wirelessly but the joycons on the unit would not be removable. So no detachable joycons would be the more accurate term.

The card game actually made more sense than the videogame when it came to trainer picks. It makes no sense for a trainer to keep only one type of Pokemon across their entire roster, like all electric type Pokemon, when it is so easy to overcome with a single counter type Pokemon. In TCG it is easier to manage one type of energy card and the elemental bonus isn't so incredible.

Nintendo started off making playing cards, it's only natural they would want multiple avenues for a game series.

When TCG came out cards were like money. A few physical altercations and cases of theft got them banned from school.

@John_Deacon It is an old English expression made famous by Alice in Wonderland.

I played this on PC a bunch. After getting the base game for cheap and playing for a while I I quickly got the expansion. I preordered the Switch version as soon as it was in the eshop. The Switch version includes the expansion. I've played the Wing Commander series, X-Wing/Tie Fighter series, Freelancer, Starlancer, the Rogue Squadron series and I can say Everspace is a really good space game.

It is a roguelike, but you do save your progress between runs, and the devs actually made a convincing backstory to support this. You jump from zone to zone and each zone has a differing level of difficulty and resources. You can upgrade your pilot skills and ship stats, which is where most of the pull of the game comes from. There is decent difficulty in the runs and I found the progression to feel meaningful. It wasn't painful to start over on Switch because I knew what to focus on first.

Having played many hours on PC I did notice a drop in graphical fidelity from a 2K resolution maxed out. The screenshots in the article are not what the game looks like on Switch. In some congested scenes the Switch will scale down to below 720p, even in docked mode with external cooling, and the textures aren't as high of quality. That doesn't really matter because I wanted a travel-ready version and this still plays well and is the same game as on PC.

Games I always want to have I buy digital. That includes Smash and Civs6. Sometimes digital makes more economic sense, like Starlink Digital Deluxe (with everything included) being $4 more than the physical starter edition (with a couple ships and pilots). I like to have physical copies if I can, but all games are a license, not a product. Any game that ever has a patch is a license, physical cart or not. Even running the Switch is a license; if Nintendo wanted it could brick every console with a patch and gatekeep running games. I have a 256gb sd card and a few others I could use, so storage space isn't a problem. SD cards are dirt cheap anyway.

I bought this title digital, since it is so popular I always wanted to have it available on my Switch. I did order many other games on Amazon and lately it has been a toss up. They claim you get release day delivery or two-day shipping with Prime, but they use incompetent carriers (USPS and independent contractors) that don't even know how to use the system or in some cases know how to swap out products for themselves, but that has never happened to me. Multiple times I would get false delivery notices and then the actual delivery would be delayed by a few days. Amazon used to refund the product if for any reason it didn't arrive on release day if you pre-ordered it, now there is no guarantee you will even get it. It's only an annoyance, but one I don't have to put up with.
My Prime account ends in a few days and I am not renewing. Amazon has moved to market maturation and is in steady decline in terms of service and benefits. Cost cutting means quality cutting.

I got Let's Go Pikachu because Eevee does nothing for me. In usual Nintendo fashion I am greeted with Eevee and not Pikachu when I started up Spirits mode.

I also wanted to say that was the first shop I unlocked, so no, you don't need the amiibo. There are also tons of shops all over the place and they all take one spirit battle to unlock.

@EasyDaRon That's really the point of SSB. Every fighting game is pretty much the same, except SSB. SSB has more freedom on the strategy and tactics side while also being more accessible, especially to kids. Toss in characters everyone knows and some random elements and you get a game that is really all about fun that can also be a fighting game with the right ruleset. There's nothing out there like it.

So many people missing the point. These have my interest because I used the joycons detached and found them to cause pain in my hands for the next few days. I thought it was due to more physical activity at work, but once I gave the Switch a break my hands felt better. The joycons are simply too small with buttons too close together for me for anything more demanding than Mario Party. These may solve that problem. It's really not that complicated and for two controllers for some games it's a great price. It will be interesting to see how they review.

Tried it with young kids (6 and 4) and it was very difficult for them to grasp. The attacks require precise spacing and timing and the jumping system is pretty odd. They both did well understanding Pokken, including counters, blocking, and chaining combos, but this game was just too odd and the maps aren't very forgiving. They do fine with prior Smash titles, so I'm sure Ultimate will be their preferred game.

We look at whether it can be done, not if it should be done. Bethesda looks at whether it can make money, not if it should be done. Bethesda knows this would flop on Switch, even though some people have asked for it. Previous titles would be better options (Elder Scrolls and Fallout), but again, there's no money in it.

The Digital Deluxe edition is still way better than the physical for a few bucks more because you get so many more pilots, ships, and weapons. Today the game kept crashing, though, so I'm going to leave it alone for a little while.