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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2017-02-26, 05:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by dglow View Post
As for a Switch-lite, it would seem like an obvious move. But can they get away with changing it that much? Games are being designed around the removable motion-controller joycons (and the rumble and IR camera features), so 'building-them-in' doesn't seem an option. Likewise with the display; UIs already need to work from large 1080p TVs down to a <7" LCD. Could they go smaller? The 3DS only ever scaled up in size, but never down.
I think they could get away with building in the controllers for the smaller model. The back of every Switch game box has a set of three pictograms showing the supported play modes (plugged into the TV, kickstand mode with controllers detached, handheld mode with controllers attached); the smaller model simply wouldn't support the second mode (and would require extra joycons or a pro controller for the first). Already, not every game supports every mode, and the modes that aren't supported have an X in the box (like how 1 2 Switch doesn't support handheld mode), so it would be easy to see which games are supported. (I wouldn't be surprised if 1 2 Switch is one of the only games that doesn't support handheld mode.)

It could still be attached to a TV, so it would still be a "Switch."

I agree that the accessory pricing is a little high. They pack a lot of tech into the joycons but I really wish they were $40 and $70 for two instead of $50/80. And the TV docks certainly aren't an impulse "get one for every TV in the house" sort of thing. I think the $299 price for the system itself is fine for now, but I would have really liked to see a pack-in (*cough* 1 2 Switch) like every other game system includes these days. We'll see how it fares against PS4s and Xbones that'll be widely available on a semi-permanent sale for $199 this holiday season, though. I think Nintendo might need to come out swinging with a Mario Kart or Mario Odyssey bundle.

You'd be surprised how many people feel like consoles should come with two controllers, even though no console has for decades. "It only comes with one controller?" is like the most common question people ask about PS4s and Xboxes, even though most multiplayer on those systems has moved away from split-screen toward online. So including two joycons in the box should be a meaningful increase in value for many of the families that are going to be getting it, and it plays toward Nintendo's strength as the king of local multiplayer.

I feel like Nintendo's plan to charge for online, even though they're said to be charging about half as much as the other guys, is going to be a hard sell though. Nintendo is a "second console" for many, and I don't think many people are going to want to subscribe to two different services, however cheap the second is. And it kind of bums me out to think about kids getting Pokémon Stars or whatever and not being able to trade or battle over the internet without begging their parents for a subscription. I hope those games at least come with like a one-year "Poképass" code or something; that would seem like a reasonable compromise.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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