MaaadMatt

I haven't read the books, but I've read articles/responses written by people who have, and apparently the TV series seems to have changed an awful lot from the source material too. So I don't think the makers of the show can really continue to use that "it's based on the books, not the games, so shut up" excuse if fans are miffed.

@Octane Not sure why you got over five downvotes for that perfectly sensible comment! Being able to buy and swap spare batteries as and when required would be fantastic. It also prolongs the life of the console, as it would no longer be dead and worthless when the sealed-in battery stops holding a charge. How is being able to avoid this fate a bad thing?!

If they release a SNES edition with with proper coloured buttons rather than the drab purple American version, I'll be interested.

"Shmups" Ugh. Shoot 'em up is not that hard to type...

@nessisonett I hope you're right. As a movie fan, even if it becomes a niche market, I want to be able to buy physical copies of films I love. The other day I noticed a bunch of films I'd kept in my watchlist at Netflix had vanished because Netflix lost the rights to stream them. Sad if that becomes the only option in the future.

@nessisonett I'm not saying the corporations themselves have explicitly said it, but the cultural commentators in favour of it have, and it that certainly will be the ultimate aim of any company offering a cloud service. We will no longer own our games/films/music and these corporate behemoths can decide what we can access, when and how. That is their dream. I'm old-fashioned - I like to own the stuff I pay for - so I find that possible outcome a depressing one.

@nessisonett Because the threat is that this will become the ONLY option at some point in the future, so those of us who don't want to surrender control and ownership of our entertainment to massive corporations are resistant to the idea.

I saw this 'bargain' and was seriously tempted, so I dodged a bullet there. As others have said Ebay is still a great way to get good deals, especially on smaller items, and also a good way to sell belongings you no longer want or need. You just have to do your homework - although that wouldn't have helped in this case. The good thing is that PayPal can protect you. Also, before being too judgemental about the morals of all sellers based on this particular crook, it's worth noting that honest Ebay sellers can be conned by dodgy buyers who make all sorts of claims to keep the item they bought while expecting a refund too! Happened to me a couple of times.

@Joeynator3000 Seeing as social media is full of very angry people ranting all the time, it's probably better for your mental health not to be a part of it!

@DartBuzzer Some people have inner ear problems and the severity and sensitivity differs from person to person. Sensory conflict is a theory behind VR sickness and therefore it could be worse for some people than for others. I don't see an issue with this assertion. I'm trying to be civil. Clearly you don't want to compromise or 'agree to disagree' here and life is too short to argue with a complete stranger over trivial matters, so I'm bowing out now. Have fun with the rest of the commenters. Cheerio.

@DartBuzzer Everybody is different and has different levels of sensitivity and susceptibility to different conditions and illnesses. Just because you're fine doesn't mean everyone else will be. That was my point. As was the idea that it's okay for different people to think differently and we don't have to insist on converting them to our way of thinking. Just like what you like and be happy.

Actually, contrary to some of the dismissive remarks, I believe motion/travel sickness and VR sickness ARE related. It's an issue with the inner ear in both cases. For instance, in a car your body is stationary in a vehicle while the world moves around you, and this contradiction causes problems for those who are sensitive to it. It's why if you do get travel sick it's better to sit in a front seat and look straight out of the windscreen rather than in the back with a seat-back filling your vision.

It's okay to be interested in VR. It's also okay for some of us not to be. Those of us who suffer from these problems - with travel, with FPS games and so on - know our bodies and what we can withstand better than the VR evangelists do. The latter shouldn't feel compelled to convince other people to like the exact same things that they do. I'm not having a go at anyone, but if you suffer from eyestrain/migraines/motion sickness anyway, being told that your concerns are irrelevant and for the good of gaming you have to keep subjecting yourself to something that makes you feel ill so eventually you'll be less ill over time, is a bit irritating. There is a religious element to the true VR believers I think, who act as if they have to spread the gospel and convert the rest of us!

I'm glad for the people who like this kind of thing that it seems like they will soon have another avenue to explore in a style of gaming that interests them. I'll have to give it a miss, though.

Pretty sure that recently even one of the top people at Nvidia admitted that streaming games will never be able to match a dedicated gaming PC, however good they get. There will always be a slight lag, which is no good for 'professionals'. I hope even if it becomes the norm (in the sense of it being 'good enough' for most normal gamers) there will be some resistance to a streaming-only future much like the resurgence of the once-dead vinyl market for music in the age of Spotify. Both Nintendo's games and the method of playing them - the unique hardware/controller - are equally important to the proper experience. If they become software-only they'll probably be as half-hearted and anonymous as Sega now are, sadly. This idea of a single-format future (now taking the form of streaming) historically is usually pushed by people who want to play Nintendo games but don't want to admit it and/or don't want to buy a Nintendo console to do so. Self-proclaimed 'hardcore gamers' whose manliness will be damaged by having a Nintendo 'toy' in their home. I dread a streaming-only landscape.

If they release a mid-generation version, I hope they don't follow Sony and Microsoft's current, slightly pretentious naming ideas of 'Pro' and 'X'. Go back to the glory days of NES and SNES and call it the 'Super Switch'!

Seriously, they should wait to offer a new version until they can provide a significant leap in performance for the same price. And by performance I mean battery life, passive cooling, sharper screen, that sort of thing. Full compatibility with the standard Switch, just boosted frame-rates and resolution on the Super Switch. (I'll keep calling it that until it catches on...) Put some extra processing power in the dock, so docked performance is a properly different experience. And use the great Wii U concept of a battery we can replace ourselves instead of the whole system being obsolete when the sealed-in one conks out.

I suspect when it arrives it will just be a series of refinements - a new chip (maybe Tegra X3 or a custom one?), better battery life, better screen, that sort of thing. Christmas 2020 or Spring 2021. Full compatibility with the original Switch (which will drop in price) on all games but better performance on the newer model. Like the difference between playing the same game on Xbox One S and X. At least I hope that's what it is. 2019 feels too soon to me, especially for anything that might have exclusive games on it that the 'standard' Switch couldn't play.

I do like that old rumour/wish - the idea of an enhanced dock being released at some point, one with separate processing power in it so games run better in docked/TV mode than handheld. Rather that than two separate consoles that each play different games, anyway.

This article certainly is putting a peculiar slant on the statistics, and I'm not really sure why, unless the author is eager for physical media to be completely obsolete. A key phrase stood out for me: "digital film sales (which include streaming services like Netflix)". To my mind Netflix is not 'a sale' it is a rental. You don't own anything you stream on Netflix, and you lose access to it as soon as your subscription ends (for whatever reason) or the streaming service loses the rights to that particular title. A rental-only future for any entertainment form - games, music or movies - depresses the hell out of me, so I wish articles like this didn't go for the clickbait headlines as often as they seem to...

The DS Lite was smaller, lighter, with a larger screen and better battery life. But it was the same system and played the same games. I guess something like that is in the offing in time for next Christmas. I'm tempted to wait before buying a Switch, but I guess there will always be something new around the corner and if you keep waiting you'll never get anything! (The thing they really ought to incorporate in a future version is a removable, user-replaceable battery so that becomes a non-issue going forward. It's not like the console is weather-sealed/water-proof, so there is no need to seal the battery inside the console, which just guarantees built-in obsolescence.)

@AlphaElite Yes, I'm always stunned by complaints about a device that actually lets you replace the batteries yourself at home in a couple of seconds rather than having to send it away and pay a company to replace your dead sealed-in battery at great expense! High capacity rechargeable AA's are pretty cheap. What's the problem?!

Number one: a user-replaceable battery like the Wii U had. I will keep going on about this although I know it won't happen. But it instantly guarantees the longevity of a device when the battery is not sealed into the unit. ('Longevity' in terms of still being able to use the thing in twenty or thirty years time. Unless every game eventually needs online connection/downloads to work in which case I guess no games would still be operable decades after servers have been switched off, but that's another topic...)

But basically I'd rather they wait a bit before they release a successor because I've only just got a Switch!

@OorWullie Thanks for the link - I've already got one of the SNES-ish style ones (slightly different colour scheme) ordered for my SNES Classic Mini, and I'd love to get the other 'pro' type for my Switch as well.

Tempted to get one of those new controllers with handgrips when they come out, but disappointed that despite being based on the SNES they only have a Game Boy colour-scheme. I want the UK-style red, yellow, blue and green buttons!

Surprised some people seem to think having removable, replaceable batteries is a bad thing. You can get very affordable rechargeable AA batteries and a charger these days, or you could simply stock up on cheap disposable ones and then recycle them. Either option is better than a sealed-in battery that leaves your entire device useless when the battery conks out. That's the only bad thing about the Switch itself. I hope the eventual second iteration will have a user-replaceable battery like the Wii U.

It depends what part of the world you come from and your accent, I think. The name 'Les' is pronounced less if you are American but lez if you are British. I'll keep saying Nez, thanks.

I have to agree it is a shame this won't be coming out on the Wii U too. I understand why it isn't, but it would be a nice farewell gift to the system, and a real treat for anyone who bought it.

It should be re-released in fixed form as a physical game, and some sort of exchange/discount programme set up for people who bought the original faulty product. That might encourage game developers to do their jobs properly rather than rush things out safe in the knowledge that they can just patch it later on.

No need for the snide comment really, was there? The Wii U may have been a commercial failure, but it was a great concept with some excellent games, some of which cannot be translated to any other console due to the lack of the dual screen mechanic. I love it and I'm glad I bought one. Lots of bargains still to be had and a great complement to the Switch.

It's a nice idea, but as with the modern day versions of the NES and SNES by Analogue, the problem is sourcing the games affordably if you don't already have a collection. I wish someone would figure out a way to manufacture new games cartridges at a low price, but I guess re-releasing them these days would run into all sorts of licensing issues, especially if the companies that made the games originally have gone out of business, leaving a mess with rights and who owns what.

@sword_9mm You could be right. It's hard to predict at the moment how things will turn out, so we'll just have to wait and see. I am glad that Nintendo have bounced back after the commercial disappointment of the Wii U, though. (I actually think the concept of the Wii U is a good one, just flawed in its execution.)

@sword_9mm My point is, we won't see a Switch 2 for at least three or four years, I expect. It's a hit - they won't want to make it obsolete while it is selling so well.* We might get the equivalent of a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X before that though - same software across all consoles, but some play games at higher resolution/frame rate than others. They'd achieve this quite simply - by making a new dock.

*Unless Nintendo plan on turning into Apple and constantly 'refresh' their hardware, making their consoles more like fashion accessories. They've already gone for the sealed-in battery option, which I think is a big mistake as far as console longevity is concerned. You won't be able to get a second-hand Switch that still works flawlessly in thirty years' time, unlike retro consoles from the 1980s. Which is a shame.

Referring back to other comments, Nintendo would be mad to release a new Switch so soon while the current model is selling so well. And is less than a year old! What is more likely, I'd guess, is a mid-generation refresh with an upgraded dock that includes its own processing power. Better performance in docked mode, that kind of thing. When a Switch 2 comes out eventually, the one thing they really should fix is making the battery replaceable by the user. It's one of the things the Wii U actually got right!

@Heavyarms55 Choice is good, though, isn't it? If you have a large collection of original games, it's nice to have the option to use them with a modern television without compromises. Depending on the individual, playing the original cartridges with original controllers - or close replicas - would add to the experience and help to evoke the era the games came from. That's something a download on a modern console can't replicate. From my perspective it's far too expensive to invest in something like this (or preferably the Analogue) but if I could afford it and all the original games, I'd love it. The mini classic is the next best thing for me.