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This was inevitable. Everybody who was ever going to buy a Switch has already bought one. How else are they going to make more money? Keep increasing prices and keep cutting costs (enshittification essentially). These two will be the centre of all big business for the coming years.
Not a problem. I wasn’t gonna buy one amyways.
dint buy the original switch, considered how they kept trying to keep ahead people tried to homebrew it, also because the lack of quality games. also all the bloatware they adding as a requirement to use some of thier services.
Great video. That’s a disappointing outcome though.
It was interesting to hear though that Nintendo hasn’t made any replacement parts available for the original switch, despite the fact that New York State apparently requires this by law.
I wonder if they’ll be forced to comply with that at some point. There are probably other jurisdictions that require this or that will require this soon. I’d love to see some pressure applied to companies that don’t make replacement parts available.
At this point I trust in the EU to force Nintendo to play the right-to-repair game.
Not that Nintendo can’t just withdraw from regions that have some level of consumer protections.
The EU is way too big to just withdraw from
Yeah, the EU has shown they’re serious when it comes to consumer protections. It’s great to see!
For example, coming into effect in 12 days, on the 20th of June, for smartphones and tablets:
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Durability: Devices should be resistant to accidental drops and protected against dust and water.
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Battery longevity: Batteries must endure at least 800 full charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their original capacity.
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Repairability: Manufacturers must make critical spare parts available within 5 to 10 working days, and continue offering them for 7 years after the product is no longer sold in the EU.
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Software support: Devices must receive operating system upgrades for at least 5 years from the end-of-sale date.
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Repair access: Professional repairers must have non-discriminatory access to any required software or firmware.
They will also have to include a sticker on packaging that has standardised information on it concerning energy efficiency, battery life, repeated drop test results, battery endurance in charging cycles, repairability score, and water/dust protection rating:
Does that go into effect for all devices on sale, or only for devices released after that date? Also, that software support section is great. That basically means all phones need atleast 6 years of support
Only new devices released after June 20th.
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I really appreciate iFixit and how they help bring the discussion of repairability to the forefront.
i was looking at them originally to fix my pixel 5a phone, than realize it wasnt worth the cost. not because ifixit, but because of the unreliability of the 5a at the time, i changed to a non-google phone this year.
Not surprised, given it’s Nintendo. My Switch Lite has seen very little use since I got my Steam Deck, tho.
I mean yeah, I wouldn’t expect otherwise. Nobody hates their fans more than Nintendo does.
Ironic because apparently the fan is actually pretty easily replaceable.
Not surprising. Nintendo is turning into the Apple of the video game world.
Nintendo has been the Apple of the video game world since the N64.
NES actually, a good number of PC games got made because folks didn’t want to deal with Nintendo and Sega arguably got into the market cause Nintendo was too strict in their publishing policy. That last bit is ironic given the AI slop and hentai on their online store, nothing against the hentai I just think it’s funny.
Even Apple makes more repairable hardware.
Yeah once sued. They weren’t going to offer it up otherwise, I suspect something similar is going to have to happen to Nintendo.
Part of the difficulty is that Nintendo have hitsquads that will blow your city if you even look sideways at one of the screw.
Blow a whole city? That’s dedication
There is nobody with more dedication than IP lawyers and Nintendo.
I implore people to watch the teardown guide itself, which is way more nuanced than the clickbaity The Verge article.
I’m not a fan of the use of glue in the joycon sides and the fact that the color strips under the controllers are hiding screws. The bigger complaint is the battery glue, especially because you can imagine aftermarket parts with bigger capacity could be a thing here. I definitely wouldn’t open this thing unless it has a problem.
Some components are still modular, which is nice. I can’t imagine the sticks not having changed design is great, but it’s entirely possible they’re way more durable, which the teardown acknowledges. Keep in mind that, while all controllers can drift, most controllers don’t fail that way. It’s possible to build this type of stick without widespread issues. Time will tell, though.
I’m not a fan of the use of glue in the joycon sides and the fact that the color strips under the controllers are hiding screws.
I’m not even surprised when I find screws under stickers or rubber pads anymore, it’s become all too common. And like a dad, at this point it doesn’t make me angry, just disappointed.
It does tell me a lot about what to expect from the manufacturer though. Anyone who actively hides their screws is no longer on my side, they’ve just branded themselves as an adversary. At that point I know I’ll be better off buying 3rd party replacement parts, I know to ignore any “recommendations” from the company.
Well, the sticker is in the body of the thing. I get why they wanted to color code the controller slots here, you can definitely insert the things backwards, but the sticker in question is at the bottom of the slot to connect the controller, so getting in there is going to be a pain. The teardown guide uses heat to soften the adhesive, glossing over that challenge, but I imagine the average home user has a much harder time accessing that. I predict most refurbished or sold-for-parts Switch 2s will either have the stickers torn to reach the screws directly or a bunch of heat damage from people trying to use heat guns incorrectly.
We’ll see how that goes.
It mostly feels like Nintendo just didn’t consider anybody having to open these as part of the design process at all. Which they never do.
Still not the most challenging Nintendo repair I’ve seen (I don’t wish reinstalling the ribbon cable through the DS/3DS hinge on my worst enemy), but they’re clearly not moving towards more repairable hardware even in areas where they are supposed to by regulations.
The switch 2 gives out complete apple vibes. It’s repairability is pretty horrid after watching the teardown guide.
Controllers will fail sooner or later and will have to be replaced. Here it will end up replacing the whole stick just due to glueing small parts of the controller.
Battery will also fail sooner than later. The whole thing yells planned absolesence…
It absolutely does not. Nintendo hardware is built like a freight truck. The teardown guide references the JerryRigEverything “durability test” and I am pretty sure unless you use it to bash someone’s head in this thing will last (and even then).
What it reeks of is Nintendo wanting to make things cheap and sell you multiple of them. Which they do. My launch Switch 1 lasted until I got a Lite and then an Oled and I expect this one will do pretty much the same. That doesn’t mean their joycon won’t need fixing or replacing (and I did have to open and mod my Lite, which wasn’t easy).
I think Nintendo hasn’t adjusted its industrial design to modern repairability concerns yet, which is a very Nintendo thing (and definitely not the same as Apple artificially holding down the repair ecosystem to itself artificially). I like neither option, but I’d take Nintendo’s approach over Apple’s any day. They absolutely need to comply with modern right to repair regulations, though, and that will mean doing more than they’re currently doing.
What it reeks of is Nintendo wanting to make things cheap and sell you multiple of them
That’s the “apple like” planned obsolesence part I was refering to. Think about airpods for example.
The teardown doesn’t touch on part serialization, although the ability to brick your device if they “feel like it” is on PAR with Apple.
Although I’m not sure we should be arguing about which of the two is shittier when both are already deep in non compliance of “modern right to repair regulations (lmao)”
No, big differences at play here. Nintendo won’t plan obsolescence, they will give you a base version at launch (multiple, if they can, since they’re handheld devices and a single family may conceivably want a couple) and then they will iterate on the form factor with a cheaper, slimmer alternative and a bigger, premium alternative. None of those will stop working or break at any point, though. They don’t care about them being replaced. In fact, they prefer if they aren’t, given they make a cut of the software, too.
They are planned to stack on each other. Sell you multiples for multiple users. Apple can’t do that trick, because everybody already owns a phone and the software is backwards compatible and interoperable, so they need to push you to replacement hardware. Nintendo’s on a different business.
The remote bricking is not planned obsolescence, it’s Nintendo’s draconian opinion that they own every part of the hardware and the software fundamentally, so emulation, user modding and jailbreaking are crimes against humanity. They are wrong, but they will continue to enforce it aggressively even beyond what is legally established. This is because it goes fundamentally counter to their hardware design, which relies on cheap-but-robust devices you can give to kids that are built with imaginatively repurposed older tech. They see enthusiasts improving on their price-optimal design as a threat and will send ninjas to stab you if you disagree.
I disagree, but there are degrees of separation here. Nintendo still needs to be forced to provide replacement parts, specs and so forth, though.
I feel like you’re biased in favor of Nintendo. “They make durable products” while also being infamous for the joysticks drifting. Those don’t seem to gel together. Maybe they’re hard to totally break, but they seem to be fine with selling products that degrade pretty quickly.
I don’t think I am. They had a significant isue with joycon drift. I do think some of it was overreported, in that a big issue with joycons is that they have absolutely garbage-tier connectivity, which can also manifest as the stick being “stuck” as the receiver keeps the last direction held to mask intermittent connectivity. But even with that, the sticks were prone to physical issues, at least in the earlier runs. It’s unclear how well newer sticks hold up in comparison.
But that is perhaps the biggest technical issue Nintendo has ever shipped, and their handhelds have been knwon for being insanely rugged since the original Game Boy. The Switch is perhaps the most prone to cosmetic issues, but it’s still a remarkably solid little tablet. It breaks under extreme abuse, just like the DS ended up with torn hinges and scratched plastic screens, but it’s nowhere near fragile. It’s a toy built for kids, so it’s built for more physical abuse than your average phone. That’s not a defense of Nintendo, it’s a very conscious decision they’ve made as an industrial design approach and a business model. It’s not good or bad in itself.
If you design a product to be intentionally difficult to repair, using subpar parts, is it not planned obsolescence? I really don’t get what you are about there. Unless you require some sort of an internal clock to force brick the device to be considered planned?
Everything else is correct and I agree.
It’s not planned obsolescence if your device is meant to last for decades. You could argue about the joycon if they had done that on purpose, but given that they ended up having to replace a bunch of them it seems pretty likely that their business model is to sell you four pairs to play with friends, not to keep reselling you more as they break.
Nintendo’s business is not based on the product becoming worse artificially to upsell you on a replacement. Their model is to keep making incremental replacements and then drop a generational upgrade every decade or so. That’s not how planned obsolescence works. You don’t get artificial performance degradation, deliberately fragile parts or artifical restrictions to repair via signed components. People can (and many do) repair Nintendo hardware on third party repair services with third party replacement parts, and from what iFixIt is saying that doesn’t seem to have changed.
Which is not to say Nintendo put ANY thought into repairability here. They clearly expect you to buy a Switch 2 and keep it until you buy a Switch 2 Lite. This thing is very new and that may yet change in both directions. But so far all I see here is the same old “we built this to be cheap and durable”, which is fundamentally not Apple’s “you’ll buy one of these every two years and if it breaks you will come to us for a replacement and like it” approach.
I mean, it’s clearly not meant to last decades given the battery situation.
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I owned a Switch 1, and it certainly was the Nintendo console I touched up the most. I replaced the back panel once before I got a Lite and then an OLED.
I will say given how much I took that thing on the road and the beatings it took I never found the issues unreasonable and I only ever had to fix cosmetic damage (joycons aside). I’ve seen Switches get a TON of usage, too.
It’s not Nintendo’s most rugged console, but it’s certainly not a “fragile little thing” as I would define it.
Let me put it this way, I’d much rather fix a broken Steam Deck, but I was way less worried about breaking a Switch.
joycons aside
It didn’t break and need repair, except for all the times it broke and needed repair.
Not to mention those things are expensive AF. If I had to replace a part on my car that cost 25% of the cost of the entire car EACH time, I would just not buy from that company any longer (which is what I’m doing). Not sure why this person is writing paragraphs and paragraphs of excuses for Nintendo.
I mean, it’s not a car. The joycon are expensive, but not THAT expensive. Still, they absolutely had to provide replacements to stick issues (which they did, to their credit).
It’s extra important on this run, because the new ones are even more expensive. They better last.
Also, I’m writing responses to things people say, not excuses. Companies aren’t football teams, I don’t need to root for or against any of them.
No, the main unit didn’t break and need repair beyond cosmetic scuffs. The joycons cycled through the console’s lifetime, which is also true of my Xbox (had an Elite controller die on me, that one hurt) and the PS4 (I don’t think I have a single DS4 left without a broken usb port).
Accessories are accessories, but the console still works to this day.
All the more reason for me not to purchase it.
After the initial excitement I think the Switch 2 is gonna bomb. Offers too little for too much.
I hope you’re right. Nintendo has turned into a bunch of cocky assholes and they need to be taught a hard lesson. I hope the Switch 2 flops so hard, costing them so much that they don’t have any spare money left to continue suing the Palworld devs. They need to be put in their place.
Maybe if it was 349 or 399… but 499 is wild
That’s not even the biggest issue for me. The $80 games that never get discounted will cost a lot more than that pretty quickly. Plus I know they push their subscription service too.
As a PC gamer, fuck that. I’ll play cheap better games on my free operating system that I actually control on my hardware that I can repair and replace easily. Nintendo games interest me, but not nearly at the price they’re asking for with what they’re offering.
Also on PC you don’t need to pay a premium for mobile device parts if you have no need for them.
Just yesterday I spent 3 hours playing MK8D on my PC. Cozy on my bed and a controller + a remote keyboard.
Felt like the real deal.Edit: Why the downvotes? Is emulation so frowned upon here?
The guy doing the teardown recommended you wait until a third party company makes a drift proof module to replace the same as last version joystick decoders
What’s the appeal of the switch for when PC handhelds exist ? I just don’t get it why you would buy this unless you had children. Nintendo Games are good but they’re really not that good either.
Battery life and weight. That’s what keeps me from getting a pc handheld. Although the switch 2 is so big I don’t know if that holds true anymore
The switch 2 would have better battery life it was powered by the life force of a mayfly.
2 hour battery time
The steam deck has great battery life (better than my original switch by a lot) unless you’re playing something super heavy, and it’s so much more comfortable to hold that the bit of extra weight isn’t that big a deal. I don’t think I’ve touched my switch since I got a deck
There are PC handhelds that do old emulated games pretty well with good battery life. Sorta like a modern version of a DS or PSP.
Switch 2 battery life also isn’t fantastic.
I have children, like their first party titles, and dislike piracy. I also have a PC handheld that gets more use than the Switch, and I like both.
and dislike piracy.
Because you cant just… You know, Fucking Rip the game from The cardridge?
I can’t, because I don’t have the 1st gen or whatever with the faulty firmware. Maybe there’s a new exploit, idk.
I’d be fine downloading a digital copy if I own the cartridge, I’m just too lazy to actually find a suitable emulator and just play on the Switch. My kids like to watch me anyway, so the TV is usually a better option, hence the Switch.
We take it on trips as well, so it’s pretty nice. I bring my Steam Deck as well, but that’s for me, not my kids.
People like playing Nintendo original games. Mario games, Zelda games, etc.
The only way to legally play those is on the switch.
Yes, even non children play those games.
You can legally play them on an ROG Ally or other Pc handheld . It is not illegal to emulate a game that you own.
But I get that it’s just that I don’t think Nintendo games warrant buying an entire system anymore. If their consoles had more third party support maybe, but I just don’t see the value at the current price of the console.
It is not illegal to emulate a game that you own.
In a lot of place it is illegal to circumvent technical protection measures, which is technically required for almost anything starting from NES era. Making it impossible to “legally” rip your own games (yes, even in places where there IS a tax to allow private copy of content you bought). So the only way you can do that is by downloading it, where there is no “legal” way to distribute it in the first place, so “legally” you can’t download it either.
I’m not defending the practice, I’m saying that if you’re going the “legal” defense, you’re going to have a bad time if it gets attention. Fortunately, suing every single gamer on earth is not an attractive prospect.
In those place it’s usually sharing which is illegal, downloading is fine as long as you already own the media.
And where would you download from, that is seen as legal sharing of someone else’s IP?
The closest you could get is by locating the ROM file in some PC remakes, assuming there’s no “protection” on them.
Again, playing around the “legal” way to do things. In reality, it’s different.
Mario. Zelda. Metroid. For a time the occasional Splatoon. Maybe a Wario once in a while too. Some Pikmin. Even the built-in (paid) list of emulator games are attractive.
Also, you severely underestimate the convenience factor for a lot of people. Yeah, I have a Steam Deck, and 95% of the time, it’s a completely seamless experience. With consoles, it’s 100% of the time. People want a “I turn it on, I start a game”, not a “I turn it on, I might be able to start a game, and sometimes it needs a bit of fiddling, not much, but, more than zero. And sure, I could have this or that other thing by going there and running that, you know, sometimes”.
with consoles, it’s 100% of the time
Several Switch 1 games are facing issues on Switch 2, including broken textures, crashes and weird behavior. This whole “consoles are 100%!” idea has been dead since the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation.
People buying the console for the games that are on that console, not generations before, are 100% fine.
Beside, it’s not something you have to fiddle with to get it work. Either a patch come, or you’re on your own.
not generations before
If by “Generations” you mean the literal previous generation that was advertised as backwards compatible and where many of the games won’t receive specific patches precisely because running natively and better was one of the key features of the new console… Sure, I guess.
From my friend, the main advantage the switch have is the UI for games is being design for handheld from the get go, so big, readable font and icon is by default already there and is made to fit. PC game tend to made for either a 24inch or so monitor or big tv for couch gaming, games that doesn’t have UI accessibility option on a handheld PC is unplayable for a lot of people.
Also that damn controller can be split so coop is so accessible. Not to mention that first party games.
Friends with Switchs to play Smash Bros and Mario Party. Occasional Nintendo game but everything else PC. It’s lighter than almost every PC handheld. The Ayaneo Air 1S is lighter but has a 5.5" display
I have a PC handheld but they’re all too heavy in my opinion. The holy grail to me is a Steam Deck that’s about the same weight as a Switch 2 or lighter. 7" display
My Switch Lite is far more comfortable for me to play with than my Steam Deck. I know there are people who say that the Steam Deck is more comfortable and I believe them, but I get tired holding something big and heavy.
Hope the drift issue is fixed. Ran into the issue with two of mine. The paper under the joystick hack didn’t work and one of the brand new replacement joysticks I installed isn’t responsive. 🙄
Spoiler alert: it’s not. Same joysticks as last time.
Are you fucking kidding? They didn’t switch to Hall effect?
Still has an LCD panel, and still has regular sticks. I guess saving 0.10$ per unit adds up
Idiots will buy it no matter what, may as well use the cheap stuff.
It’s the same joystick design. As the video says that doesn’t mean it will have the same issues as frequently, but it does mean it can have the same issues. The question will be at what rate.
Given the coverage I have very low hopes that we will get a good idea of that from the press. Instead I expect the first Switch 2 joycon to drift will be put on an auction sale for every clickbait article to parade in front of people with rotten tomatoes at the ready. Still, it will matter if it’s one in two or one in a million.
They could have easily fixed it with hall effect sticks. That is a proven and inexpensive solution, but Nintendo prefers to sell more joycons and create waste, it’s that simple.
It’s kind of wild, especially given how much they must have lost in that lawsuit requiring them to repair joy-cons free of charge
It’s a known and proven shit solution. Have any of you ever actually used hall effect sensor joysticks? The centering is worse, the polling rate is far worse, they use a ton more power (already a limited resource in the individual joycons) and most of all they get absolutely screwed by electromagnetic interference… Interference like, say, magnets holding the joycons on.
Ifixit is kind of full of shit here- the joysticks are the “same” only in that it’s using the same general design as every other non-hall effect sensor joystick that’s ever been used and most of those didn’t have problems with drift.
It’s not the same part as the original joycons, so the issue could be fixed- from what the switch welcome tour was saying, it seems pretty likely in fact.
I use hall effect on the daily and have had none of the issues you’re discussing. I suppose time will tell, but I much prefer hall effect.
Probably depends entirely on what games you play, and how sensitive you are, but hall effects feel like trash and destroy the joycon battery life. I tried playing Celeste with hall effects and wooooow was it bad. Basically unplayable past the early chapters.
As a fellow celete player, I’m sorry your experience was like that, but I’m also currently using hall effect sticks on both my 8bitdo ultimate and my guillikit kong 2, it feels absolutely mint on both with no tinkering. I’m gonna have to ask you to name and shame the hall effect sticks you’re using, please. Thanks!
It’s not.
Hall effect sticks probably would have increased the price, and then people would complain about how greedy Nintendo is even more than they do now.
It’s always the same story. Whatever they do, it’s not good enough or too expensive or whatever. In the end, the thing will be sold out nonetheless.
It’s not, and the joycons are even HARDER to repair due to a piece of plastic glued over a screw on the inside…
Thanks to 3d printing I have litres of isopropyl. What sucks is you probably want to replace the glue since it’s there to protect against liquids, and Nintendo don’t care to provide a seal kit
You also need to remove stickers to get at the screws
Also you need a security screwdriver (three blade) for those screws
There are no replacement stickers, we wait for iFixit to provide guidance on adhesives
Congrats it’s worse! Harder to get to :)
I wonder if Nintendo will ever embrace repairability like some phone companies have
I guess there’s more competition in phones than in devices that can run Mario Cart
Or Mortal Combat.
If you consider how hostile they are with everything else, I highly doubt it. Nintendo never again
Haha when they did that blog post to change the switch from 8/10 to 4/10 saying they don’t normally do that but wanted to make sure you could compare the 2 properly against the original, I thought they were making space for the 2 to be above the original, not that they were going to mark it as worse 😅
Just don’t break it smh.
you forgot the /s
“smh” serves the same purpose here.
Oh good idea I hadn’t thought of that
