Pemalite said:
Soundwave said:
The Switch 2 performs on par and better than a lot of those PC handhelds and is in many cases cheaper than them. Sure you can cherry pick limited sales events here and there (largely because no one buys those PC handhelds, their sales volume is pathetically low compared to a mass market device like a Switch 2 that a retail chain doesn't care if they if have to eat a loss on those PC handhelds collecting dust on their shelf, because their total inventory on something like that might be like 20 units total).
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Again with this silly argument?
The Switch 2 is more expensive than the Switch 1.
By your argument the Switch Lite is the best console on the market based on price alone, coming in at half the price of a Switch 2.
Are you going to tell me the Switch Lite is better than the Switch 2? Are you? It's your pricing argument.
You get what you pay for.
And if you are going to shift the goal post to number of sales of hardware.. That just means you lost any argument you had.
Remember that PC handhelds don't need to sell 60~ million hardware units to get games, they have games before they even release and will get games even after the hardware manufacturer stops supporting the device.
Device manufacturers also sell direct to consumers, they don't need Gamestop/EB Games.
Soundwave said:
That's fair to give Nintendo some credit for that and that certainly was not the case for the Wii/DS/3DS/Wii U ... this is more in line with the NES/Famicom, Super NES/Super Famicom, N64, GameCube era, all of which provided solid hardware for their time period, ability to run most/all of the modern 3rd party games of their time, and each of which was a tremendous upgrade for its previous hardware iteration.
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Keep in mind that potentially this year Microsoft may kickstart the next console generation, which will require a pivoting of developers to target newer hardware platforms, which may mean the Switch 2 will fall into the same position as the Switch 1 relative to it's competition.
Soundwave said:
The Switch 2 can do all of that too, it's power is beyond what basically 99% of this board predicted, even I who was probably the most optimistic poster on the Switch 2 here while many people were being negative and saying it would top off at PS4 power only ... the final product exceeds my own expectations. I was not expecting things like Star Wars Outlaws with ray tracing intact to run that well at all, and that's basically a launch window game. I thought if you had miracle ports like that maybe that might happen when the system is 2-3 years old.
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Actually my prediction for the hardware was pretty bang on.
I had HOPED for 16GB of Ram, but expected 12GB. - Tegra Orin was expected, which (If you do a search back when the Switch 1 first launched) I argued was going to be the chipset of choice for the successor. (Others argued against it as it was meant for nVidia's Driving platform with high TDP's.)
It's hard being right so often when it comes to hardware predictions.
And the games also fall in line with my expectations. I sold my ARC Intel Notebook and bought an nVidia RTX 2050 notebook for my work/firefighter video editing machine while ago... And the RTX 2050 is roughly equivalent to what the Switch 2's GPU is capable of... And the Switch 2 has provided results that are consistent with that.
Only difference with my laptop is that I have 64GB of Ram and a 10-Core processor which was the reason for the purchase for editing reasons.
Games like Cyberpunk, StarWars etc' are all pretty similar in expectation to what I see on my notebook. - Obviously I can run more Physics and better Texturing due to a vastly superior CPU and Memory subsystem.
Soundwave said:
The system is solid hardware, some concessions had to be made on the display to keep it at a $450 price range instead of $500 or $600 standard. You conveniently always leave out that OLED devices tend to start at a much higher price point, an 8 inch OLED panel Switch 2 would likely be $600+. $450 is already pushing it to the maximum for a device like this, a lot of people can't afford that, and I'm in the top 1%, I would happily buy a $2000 Switch 2 no questions asked, but that's not the reality for most consumers. Lots of people are hurting these days just at the grocery store, things like $500+ (lets face it everyone and their grandma will buy the Mario Kart bundle) to spend on new video games when the old ones work fine is a luxury for a lot of people post COVID era.
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Parts of the system has solid hardware. I wouldn't say the entire console is solid, not with the offensive display, short battery life, Joycon drift still being an issue.. And it even struggles with overheating in the Australian summer... Not to mention a lack of VRR support whilst docked and no true HDR on the mobile display.
Again the display is the shittiest part of it. And it's a big shitty part. The ghosting and blur, the lack of true HDR, poor colours and contrast... It was a poopy smear on what would have otherwise been a perfectly competent system in almost every aspect... And this didn't need to cost a lot of money to implement either...
The Switch 1 LCD panel is better than the Switch 2 LCD Panel and THAT is a much cheaper console on release.
OLED displays are also found in low-end phones these days like the Samsung A25 which includes a Super AMOLED display at a price lower than the Switch 2.
But you know what would have been a solution?
Release two devices at the same time.
An LCD model.
An OLED model at a higher price.
And then #profit.
Microsoft has proven you can release multiple SKU's with different hardware at once without issue.
Heck, Nintendo even attempted to do it with the Switch 2 with different bundles to hit different price points.
If Nintendo wasn't going to include an OLED display, then they needed to include a competent LCD display... One that is actually able to do HDR at the very least... They failed spectacularly on that front and they deserve criticism and ridicule in the hopes they will resolve the sticking point... Either via a software update (I.E. Overdrive) or a revision with a better LCD (VA?) or OLED.
The display is the absolute most important aspect of any mobile device, it's what you spend time looking at, it's what you spend time engaging with, it's what provides the first impression... And Nintendo failed in that aspect.
And no amount of mental gymnastics will change the fact that the Switch 2 display is atrocious.
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And some people would've liked to have the PS5 Pro day 1 too ... they had to wait and pay a lot more. A $600+ Switch 2 model really wouldn't be selling well in this economy, $450-$500 as is is pushing it for a lot of people. Holding off on OLED was the correct move, they can release an OLED model with a die-shrink 1-2 years down the line and get a sales boost then, if they had it now it would just be a $600-$650 device with a very niche audience.
For $450 there has to be some compromises to get a system in at that price point, which is already quite high for a lot of folks. Everyone knows an OLED model Switch 2 will happen eventually and Nintendo is saving it for a future sales bump (just as Sony saves things like Pro models for down the line).
The most important thing is it can run PS5 tier multiplatform games, that matters far more than what the numbers of anything are. That means its the first Nintendo game console since the GameCube that can plausibly run modern gen titles and as a result it's going to get games like Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Call of Duty, Monster Hunter Wilds, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Resident Evil Requiem, Indiana Jones & The Great Circle, 007: First Light, modern engine NBA 2K, FC Soccer, Madden NFL, etc. etc. maybe even GTA VI at this rate. The window is definitely open, whereas a year ago would some people have scoffed at the idea of many of these games being possible on the Switch 2 at all.
That matters way more than anything else hardware wise.
This is the first time in the history of 3D gaming hardware too that a mainstream portable console is able to run basically the current gen games of its time. The PSP and Vita could not and obviously the DS and 3DS weren't even close. The Switch had a spotty track record, the Switch 2 is really the coming of a new era of visual performance mainstream audiences can expect on the go, they can play essentially all/most of their home console games in a portable form factor. That's definitely a notable gaming evolution.
If back in the day with the Playstation 1 or N64, there was a portable device that could basically run games like Final Fantasy VII or Super Mario 64, most people's heads would've exploded. Today's kids get to play Star Wars Outlaws even with ray tracing effects on a relative affordable and portable device, that's fucking bonkers.
Last edited by Soundwave - on 10 January 2026
