Well im in a construction union that pays 100% of my entire families medical insurance/expenses and has a really great pension plan.

If i had to pay for my medical insurance & retirement savings than we wouldnt be nearly as well off.

And maybe you live in an area that is more expensive than i do.

If I were making the argument, I'd say that the dock scratch situation would be a point in favor of Nintendo giving less care to the handheld since if you're playing primarily in docked mode, you could scratch it up all day.

Doesn't this argument require that Nintendo knew that the dock was scratching Switch screens and didn't care enough to fix it? That's actually class action lawsuit territory.
 

To state the obvious, when you run something at a lower resolution, it tends to run smoother.

To also state the obvious, the Switch is also running in a much lower performance mode when it is undocked. Games tend better optimized for undocked play modes than docked ones.
 

Even if true, it just means that they needed to make sacrifices in order for the hybrid to work at all, not that they favored one over the other.

What sacrifices did they need to make to make portable work? Even if they didn't underclock the processor in docked mode, I suspect that undocked mode would run pretty much the same, considering the user experience you already get in undocked mode.

Outside of some indie games, I can't think of any games that have made use of the touch screen in a way that gives it an obvious advantage over docked mode.

So what? Just because there might not be any games that use the touchscreen well doesn't mean that it won't be used well. Also, if it does go practically unused, why bother including it at all?

The only reason I can think of for not having a handheld mode is that a developer is too lazy to program in turning down the resolution for it.

Or, developers could be using the touchpad as central part of the game.

Everything you need is in the box for docked mode too.  I don't know what "best experience" means, other than extras that you prefer.  I mean, there's no carrying case, screen protector, or even a portable recharging cable for handheld mode.  Stuff I'd consider fairly essential.

I believe this has been pointed out to you, the Switch itself is a charging dock.  Myself, I think the charging grip is a rip off and actively advise people not to buy it since the Joy-Cons have such a long battery life and it's easy to just stick them back on the Switch when you're done using them.  Maybe it's essential to you, but I think that makes you the minority.

They're only "extras" because Nitnendo decided not to include them in the box. If every Switch shipped with a pro controller, the pro controller wouldn't be an extra, would it? Many of Nintendo's "extras" are... "aggresively priced" let's say. There's no battery in the controller dock, it's just a simple USB-C power pass-through with probably some simple voltage regulation to the charge port on the joy cons. It's extremely simple. I mean let's face it, it probably costs Nintendo no more than 50 cents extra to make the charging dock over the base one, but they're charging $20 more for it. You're right, that's hard to justify. The prices of a lot of the Switch's accessories are hard to justify

And again, i never said this was essential to me. I do not have a charging dock, and have no intention of getting one.

As for your other "essentials for portable mode", the included AC adapter works just fine plugged directly into the switch. And please let me know how things like cases and screen protectors are essential to playing the game undocked. Come on. There's nothing essential about either of those things. I don't think I'll ever hear someone say "Aww man, I took my screen protector off last night and forgot to put my new one on! Now my Switch won't turn on!".

Cheaper.

A case, and the additional packaging (the splatoon box is about an inch thicker than a regular Switch box) definitely costs more to make than it does to include a charging controller dock over a regular controlling dock. I'm having a really really hard time thinking cost has anything to do with it.

Price? Not buying it. The cost to have a simple circuit board that has a USB-C in and charges the joycon like costs less than $1 when mass produced by the millions.

The battery life of the joy cons is irrelevant. I don't see why you consider this important. It doesn't matter if a days worth of game play or a weeks worth of game play depletes the joy con, if your joycon ever dies for whatever reason, ever, you can't play in any other mode other than handheld mode unless you buy an accessory.

Just curious though, if is a completely pointless non-issue, why does Nintendo make and sell a solution for it, and why is it one of the most popular official accessories sold for the Switch on sites like amazon? Could it be that people are experiencing dead joycons, got annoyed that they had to stop playing in docked mode, and bought a solution for it?

No, it doesn't.

So you think Nintendo intentionally released a dock that they knew scratches screens, but didn't care enough to fix it because people are going to keep their Switch docked, and not use it anyway? I really don't get this argument. it's completely nonsensical.

To also state the obvious, the Switch is also running in a much lower performance mode when it is undocked

Sure, but the differences in performance are eaten up by upgrading the resolution.

No shit, the fact that the added performance of docked mode can't even run 1080p and run as well as it does in handheld mode speaks volumes. it's almost like they designed it to be a portable first, and a home console second. If they favored performance over battery life, it's entirely feasible that docked mode would run most games in 1080p as well as, if not better than portable mode.

It's your hypothetical, not mine. I'm just explaining why it doesn't prove anything even if correct.

What did I say when I created my list? That any point alone doesn't prove anything but collectively they do? And that people were going to treat my points as if each one was supposed to prove something. Great job.
 


It's the lack of games that undercut your argument, not the potential for such games to exist.

Non sequitur.

Ahh, but see, there is actually games that are portable only, because they do use the touch screen as a critical input.

See: Severed, Voez.

I have no doubt there will be more.


They're only "extras" because Nitnendo decided not to include them in the box. If every Switch shipped with a pro controller, the pro controller wouldn't be an extra, would it?

And?

You're only calling it an "extra" because a Switch hasn't shipped with one. That doesn't mean that it's absence doesn't cause annoyance for anyone who happens to allow their joycons to die.




More than that presumably. A quality USB-C cable alone is worth a lot more than that.

You seem oddly fixated on Nintendo making a controller that needs to be plugged in the standard. More likely, Nintendo just wanted to get rid of the wires and put the money into nice internal batteries where Joy Cons running out of juice is pretty much never a problem.

Don't kid yourself. Cables have some of the highest margins in the electronics industry. A quality USB-C cable (say the one they include with the pro controller) costs far less than 50 cents to make.


What's the issue then? Why so fixated on this unneeded feature for most people?

I'm not. People can't seem read or understand my point (yourself included) taking me to task for a position I never took.


That's a lousy portable solution.

Instance #3732892928 on this site where someone acts like something is/isn't an issue for them it should/shouldn't be an issue for anyone else. After all the shit you've given me for using the fact that you can't charge the joycons and play in docked mode out of the box, this seems like an absolutely ridiculous thing to start complaining about considering Nintendo actually provides a means of charging the Switch on the go out of the box, but you just don't like it.

Perhaps you should blame Nintendo for not spending the extra dime or two to toss in a USB-USB-C cable in every Switch, or for including an AC adapter with a massive transformer on it instead of that USB-USB-C cable, and the USB wall plug they included in every NES and SNES Classic. In fact, such a solution might have been cheaper to include than the AC adapter they chose . But instead, you want to act like the AC adapter which charges the Switch, Pro Controller, and Joycons via the charging grip just fine is a "lousy portable solution".

To not get scratches. Sheesh, I got one for my screen and I hardly ever take it out of the dock.

I've had a PSP, a Vita, and DS for years and never once have gotten a scratch on any of the screens. Is this the part where I'm supposed to dismiss your issue as a non-issue because I haven't experienced it? The Switch only needs a screen protector if you treat your Switch improperly.

For clarification,  you think it's reasonable to expect people to always dock their joycons after use so their batteries never deplete, but it's unreasonable to expect people to treat their Switch with enough care to not damage it.

I missed that you went on about the charging grips again instead of just the Pro Controller.

Charging grips cost cents to make over the non-charging grips they already include. The Pro controller obviously costs a fair bit more to make than either added cost of a charging grip and a case. Why would I suddenly pivot and act like it's reasonable to expect Nintendo to include a Pro controller when it obviously isn't?


Carrying cases are a lot more useful.

That's the third time in this post you treated your opinion like fact. Besides, cases and screen protectors are "extras" aren't they?

No worries man. I generally try to stay away from Nintendo threads these days because the fans can be...well, you know, no need to elaborate there, lol.