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JackHandy on 05 October 2025
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firebush03 said:
JackHandy said:

The Gameboy, N64, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, DS, Wii and Wii-U were all affordable at launch. The Wii had free online play, an a la carte system for their vintage games (no subscription needed), affordable accessories and controllers, and the Wii-U had the same. Games were affordable, as well.

That's all changed.

So really, the only four times someone could point to them as being less consumer-friendly is the NES, SNES, launch 3DS, and mid-Switch to Switch 2... and what do all of those have in common?

GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, GameCube, and (to a lesser extent) DS were all very affordable at launch, this is correct. However, it is not true that N64, Wii, nor Wii U were any more affordable than Switch nor Switch 2. The N64, for instance, launched as the most expensive system on the market (for a system that wasn’t something super niche like the Atari Jaguar). N64 literally had a price cut from $350USD to $300USD pre-launch because it was just too much for consumers to stomach compared to the $300USD PS1. Wii ($250USD) was only $50 cheaper than XB360 despite running on significantly weaker hardware; Wii U launched at $350USD — only $50 less than PS4 — despite running on weaker hardware. And while online was free, it was also significantly weaker than the online available on Switch 2 (which has seen a significant improvement over Switch 1). Not to mention, those systems asked $5-20USD/game from retro consoles, whereas Switch 1/2 only ask $20-50USD/year for the entire catalogue tanging all the way through GCN.

Where are you getting your numbers from? lol. The N64 launched at $199.99. The Wii-U launched at $299.99. And a la carte is always more pro-consumer than subscriptions. Always.