I don’t blame them. Nintendo fans buy anything at any price. I don’t see it being different this time.
Mario Kart 8 never goes on sale and sold 70m copies; Pokémon Scarlet/Violet sold 30m despite looking and playing like dogshit; they sold Skyward Sword HD, the remaster of a 10-yo game, at full price and still placed a few millions.
Nintendo is basically like Apple at this point, the brand is enough to convince people to spend more than they would for the competition, regardless of quality. I personally know a lot of people who loudly groaned/complained at the price announcement, but will still buy it day one, just like they always had in all these years.
And people terminally online should stop pretending the Steam Deck is competition to the Switch 2. It couldn’t even compete with the Switch 1, which was five years older, had worse performance, and had been easily emulated for years at that point.
You’re not wrong, Nintendo fans will buy this. As a Nintendo fan, I will buy this - though, it’s gone from a Day 1, no-brainer purchase to “when I can justify the expense” - but Nintendo fans make up a small fraction of people who bought a Switch 1.
See: Wii U, 3DS
The Wii and DS printed money, and they assumed most of those users would move on to the new hardware. They did not. They had to slash the 3DS price within months, and nothing saved the Wii U.
Probably not going to happen, but I think it would be awesome if it’s like the 3DS where they realize the cost is too much, then they lower the price significantly and the early adopters who sacrificed their firstborns for it will have some sort of ambassador program.
The question is how many of the Switch 1 buyers are Nintendo fans. Many, like me, bought Switch entering for 1st time to the Nintendo, but i am not consider myself a loyal mindless fan. With kids and families is harder though.
I will just skip Switch 2 and just play only in my PC like i always had. If they release a good Steam Deck that it is worthy, i will consider it. If the market slaps them and they return to reality, i will consider Switch 2 for 2026.
As someone with kids and a Switch, I think I can chime in.
It’s easy to pick up, my kids play some games on it, curiously it’s always in handheld mode, never docked.
The literal only thing that might change when I get a Steam Deck is them not being able to use touch controls. They sometimes prefer them for some games, but I think it’s worth learning to use a controller in the long run. Pretty sure we’ll have both Switch and SD for a while so I don’t think it’s much of a problem.
I’ll miss some games, but in the end I don’t really have that much nostalgia for Nintendo as I grew up with a PC and only consoles I had were a NES knock-off, and a Gameboy Color
Nintendo is basically like Apple at this point, the brand is enough to convince people to spend more than they would for the competition, regardless of quality.
People spend more on Apple/Nintendo because of quality. Windows is ten years gone to enshittification. The ps5/xbox have ads on their home screen and are one bad GTA away from a full industry crash
No. They buy Apple & Nintendo because of brand loyalty and their social significance.
Have you not seen how deranged they get about those companies products? Nintendo fans lose their minds if someone dare criticize a Mario, Metroid, and especially Zelda games.
Apple fanatics think every new product is a revolution even though some other company or organization has usually already beat them to the punch.
Further, Windows, PS5, & Xbox are are not their only competition. And even then, they are enshitiffied now but that doesn’t explain Nintendo and Apple fans behavior before those competitors became this way.
Apart from both being TV/Handheld hybrid consoles, I’m not understanding why people think Switch/2 and Steam Deck are in direct competition with each other. They aren’t. They’re in totally separate leagues.
Does the sales reflect if Mario Kart 8 was bundled with the console as a purchase? So are they paying the full price in the end? Obliviously the prices are totally outrageous which is why I think I only have 4 games on the Switch and half of them were included with the console.
I don’t blame them. Nintendo fans buy anything at any price. I don’t see it being different this time.
Mario Kart 8 never goes on sale and sold 70m copies; Pokémon Scarlet/Violet sold 30m despite looking and playing like dogshit; they sold Skyward Sword HD, the remaster of a 10-yo game, at full price and still placed a few millions.
Nintendo is basically like Apple at this point, the brand is enough to convince people to spend more than they would for the competition, regardless of quality. I personally know a lot of people who loudly groaned/complained at the price announcement, but will still buy it day one, just like they always had in all these years.
And people terminally online should stop pretending the Steam Deck is competition to the Switch 2. It couldn’t even compete with the Switch 1, which was five years older, had worse performance, and had been easily emulated for years at that point.
Counterpoints: Wii U. 3DS at launch.
You’re not wrong, Nintendo fans will buy this. As a Nintendo fan, I will buy this - though, it’s gone from a Day 1, no-brainer purchase to “when I can justify the expense” - but Nintendo fans make up a small fraction of people who bought a Switch 1.
See: Wii U, 3DS
The Wii and DS printed money, and they assumed most of those users would move on to the new hardware. They did not. They had to slash the 3DS price within months, and nothing saved the Wii U.
Probably not going to happen, but I think it would be awesome if it’s like the 3DS where they realize the cost is too much, then they lower the price significantly and the early adopters who sacrificed their firstborns for it will have some sort of ambassador program.
Iwata is gone, and it really shows.
The question is how many of the Switch 1 buyers are Nintendo fans. Many, like me, bought Switch entering for 1st time to the Nintendo, but i am not consider myself a loyal mindless fan. With kids and families is harder though.
I will just skip Switch 2 and just play only in my PC like i always had. If they release a good Steam Deck that it is worthy, i will consider it. If the market slaps them and they return to reality, i will consider Switch 2 for 2026.
As someone with kids and a Switch, I think I can chime in.
It’s easy to pick up, my kids play some games on it, curiously it’s always in handheld mode, never docked.
The literal only thing that might change when I get a Steam Deck is them not being able to use touch controls. They sometimes prefer them for some games, but I think it’s worth learning to use a controller in the long run. Pretty sure we’ll have both Switch and SD for a while so I don’t think it’s much of a problem.
I’ll miss some games, but in the end I don’t really have that much nostalgia for Nintendo as I grew up with a PC and only consoles I had were a NES knock-off, and a Gameboy Color
The Steam Deck has touch controls.
People spend more on Apple/Nintendo because of quality. Windows is ten years gone to enshittification. The ps5/xbox have ads on their home screen and are one bad GTA away from a full industry crash
Perhaps we had very different experiences with the JoyCon…
Joking aside, I agree. I used to buy Nintendo for that reason. Then came JoyCon drift and out of control Nintendo lawyers.
No. They buy Apple & Nintendo because of brand loyalty and their social significance.
Have you not seen how deranged they get about those companies products? Nintendo fans lose their minds if someone dare criticize a Mario, Metroid, and especially Zelda games.
Apple fanatics think every new product is a revolution even though some other company or organization has usually already beat them to the punch.
Further, Windows, PS5, & Xbox are are not their only competition. And even then, they are enshitiffied now but that doesn’t explain Nintendo and Apple fans behavior before those competitors became this way.
You’re overreacting to other people’s social media overreactions. I’m talking about the actual products they sell.
Apart from both being TV/Handheld hybrid consoles, I’m not understanding why people think Switch/2 and Steam Deck are in direct competition with each other. They aren’t. They’re in totally separate leagues.
Similar form factor, similar price, similar use case. The big difference is that one plays Nintendo games and another plays PC games.
I own a steam deck, therefore the appeal of a switch 2 is their exclusive games. I don’t need both, they scratch the same itch.
They both play nintendo games, dont give money to bad companies.
Does the sales reflect if Mario Kart 8 was bundled with the console as a purchase? So are they paying the full price in the end? Obliviously the prices are totally outrageous which is why I think I only have 4 games on the Switch and half of them were included with the console.