Why are people saying you HAVE to buy the joycons?

The console comes with a set.

Also are they really that expensive? Perhaps but did anyone ask as to why? When the controllers cost that much, general public will wonder why and see HD rumble and be like oooh. Then they will see that the switch with these controllers costs $300 and be like well that is more than a 3DS but it has this new tech shit, I can see why the console costs $50 more.

Later on they will probably drop the price. Everything at launch is overpriced. You pay a premium to be the first.

I dont know where you're shopping but you can get Move controllers for much cheaper

I find it crazy how the Joycons can be overpriced but reasonably priced at the same time.

For a controller, 80 dollars certainly is hard to swallow. On the other hand, it's two controllers at the same time.

I think most people will just get a pro controller or their own switch honestly. 

Don't think the joy cons are expensive and since they already come with the system you don't need to worry about buying them.

The move controllers can be found cheaper, but most importantly, they are optional and barely needed.

I don't know how expensive HD rumble is to implement, but the Pro controller could be cheaper. I'm still hoping that by the end of the year Nintendo offer another bundle where you don't get joy cons, but you get a Pro controller instead. Just offer a home edition bundle Nintendo, it can't be that hard.

Your questions wans't about how useful this tech to the avager gamer is, but rather why it is so expensive. But funny that you mention that, a speaker, touchpad, light bar for a camera and motion contorls are way more useful to the average gamer, than the stuff in the Pro Controller :/ How do you know? Did you tried out HD Rumble for instance? The enhanced motion controls for the Switch? I guess we should let this argument postpone until that stuff is being released and tested by the average gamer.

I haven't tried those features nor can I determine their value for other people, but that wasn't the question here.

I also don't understand why I can't use my Wii U pro Controller :/ But that's probably because of the lacking feature for future titles.

Also, releasing to controllers with different features will split your userbase and support for certain feature could be dropped or not supported entirely by software. Wii motion plus is a pretty good example here.

Because you dont need 2 move controllers, you only need one

You're overlaying it a bit, it has limited functionality because to actually use it while attached to the console you have to take one hand off of the console (thus be holding it and controlling it with just one hand), when in two player mode only one person actually gets to use the motion detection, when using pro controller you don't even get the IR camera, so again what you are getting is:

+HD rumble

+NFC

-headphone jack

-Touchpad

-Lightbar for positional tracking

-Analog triggers

-Internal speaker

What I'm getting at is, the pro controller is significantly more expensive than the ds4 and only (supposedly) enhances the rumble and adds NFC, with a trade off of missing other features, and even if you don't see the value of most of the missing features, analog triggers is a pretty major loss on its own.

Looking back to the joy cons again, even if you can use a single controller for one player input, it's still essentially half a controller, and not enough to play a fully featured retail game without a loss of control options, for a fully featured second controller the price is higher than a fully featured controller for Xbox one or PS4, that's the issue.

Hopefully it'll be a non issue though, as long as Nintendo allow third party manufacturers to release joy cons too we should see some without HD rumble and IR camera that are significantly cheaper.

Because it's only overpriced when Nintendo does it. I bet many of these people complaining about the $299 price tag for instance were perfectly fine for spending $499-$599 USD on the PS3 back in the day..

Don't get me wrong, I DO find the joycons overpriced, just saying..

First off, what features do you really need on which controller?

Only the Right Joy-Con Controller uses the IR Motion Sensor.  The IR Motion Sensors first usage are party games, where you only hold the right Joy-Con controller. Party games aren't and won't be designed for the use of the Pro Controller.

The missing analog Triggers on the Pro Controller are indeed a bummer and as I stated somewhere else, I don't understand Nintendo for not implementing it. This is just stupid by Nintendo.

- Headphone Jacket. I have no controllers which have a phone jacket in with the exception of the Wii U gamepad . So, I don't see it as a loss or missing feature, because most controllers don't have that. That the DS4 controller has one is good for the DS4 controller and people who actually want to use it. But who knows, maybe bluetooth headsets will be supported?  Which, I don't actually really believe in.

- Touchpad, uhm.. don't see a purpose in it. But what are we arguing about it here. You deny the features of the switch, but accept the features of the DS4?

- Lightbar for positional Tracking, again, the switch doesn't need this fancy stuff. So why mentioning it? There is no purpose for it.

- The Wii Remote had internal speaker, and imo were a waste of time and resources.

"and only (supposedly) enhances the rumble and adds NFC, with a trade off of missing other features, and even if you don't see the value of most of the missing features, analog triggers is a pretty major loss on its own."

"supposedly" is the wrong word it. Did you actually bother of informing yourself what this HD Rumble feature is capable off and how it works? It let's you "feel" textures. There are several tiny vibrators (is this the correct word?) placed inside the controller. While moving your hand like you would do on a wall, you will be able to feel certain roughness or softness thanks to the several tiny vibrators in it. And I suppose this is the most expensive technique in these controllers.

So, if you want to know why those controllers are so expensive, there you go, HD Rumble.