Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Greiger]

I have managed to secure a nintendo switch at only slightly more than retail.   A coworker obtained one they intended to scalp on ebay but ended up deciding it was too much of a hassle since noone would likely buy from an unknown seller.  They will bring the box with them to work later this week (whenever we both get scheduled at around the same time again) and we will do a shady looking drug switch deal in the parking lot.

So a switch + zelda for $380  Not sure how good of a deal that is.   But I still feel dirty.  I have contributed to scalping.  I'm gunna have to donate extra hard to charities and toady to feel clean again.

[Nighthawk]

So a switch + zelda for $380  Not sure how good of a deal that is.   But I still feel dirty.  I have contributed to scalping.  I'm gunna have to donate extra hard to charities and toady to feel clean again.

Actually, once tax is considered, that's probably close to exactly what you would pay normally. The switch itself is $300, and the game would be $60, so... yeah. You don't really have much reason to feel bad.

[umiman]

You know shit is real when CrowbCat makes a video of your shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb-srOfRqNc

[Frumple]

Is it really that hard for Nintendo to build-in NES/SNES/DS/whathaveyou emulators, which take negligible HD space and resources, into their modern consoles and provide a proper online store with most old classics available for a reasonable price, would it not make perfect sense?

For what it's worth, it's probably not that hard from a technical standpoint. What'd be a bit more rough is doing something that wouldn't end up with in-house created emulators roaming in the wild. Be of relatively questionable fiscal wisdom, too. Probably anyway. There's always pretty strong incentive to make sure customers effectively have to discard their older systems, and making it increasingly more annoying to play their games in conjunction with new ones is one of the ways to do that.

Concern's basically that they'd be trading a temporary increase in sales (that would honestly not be that large, since as much as us older folks would like to think it so, the market for older games isn't the most amazing in the world) for a long term decrease.

[Neonivek]

The PS3 did backwards compatibility not through emulation but through hardware. That is where the difficulty comes from.

[Krevsin]

PS3 didn't do backwards compatibility.

[TheBronzePickle]

The original PS3 also basically had to have the guts of the PS2 in it.

Though, at least in that case, the PS2's hardware was a big part of it. The PS2 had several purpose-built processors that allowed it to pull off cool visual trickery that gave it an edge graphics-wise over competing hardware... even well into the PS3 era.

It's something you'd think modern console makers would be trying to do, given that as it stands they're trying to compete with not just each other, but PCs, and taking a loss to do so.

Back on the topic of the Switch, emulation is certainly possible given that there are probably actual refrigerators on the market with good enough specs to emulate the NES, but Nintendo has some very... Japanese rules on the use of their assets. As I've said before, they're willfully ignorant and dismissive of non-Japanese copyright and fair use laws, so if I had to speculate, there are probably some things going on Japanese law-wise that they're trying to exploit in this scenario.

That or they just have some exceptionally strange ideas for how to handle their business and don't mind hemorrhaging money and opportunities to do it their way, which seems more and more like a possibility.

[Frumple]

Eehhh, I wouldn't entirely agree that consoles are competing with PCs, exactly, particularly in the same way they are with other consoles. Bit more complicated than that, given the amount of overlap involved between the markets. They want more to increase the overlap rather than push PCs out, and trying to out compete them latter hardware wise isn't likely to really help that much.

Honestly don't really expect their way forward so far as competitiveness goes will be hardware advantages, at least performance wise, though. Meeting a minimum'll still be important, but what'll win things is more ease of use (UI, integrated and painless shops, ergonomics, maintenance related stuff, etc.) and mobility. Consoles don't really have reason to be too worried about PCs so far as future sales go,* and the same's fairly true in reverse. They've both got a much bigger worry building up steam, heh, particularly as more and more people switch partially or fully to mobiles and tablets and whatnot.

... though again, I wouldn't be comfortable claiming full backwards compatibility/emulator implementation would be gaining the console makers money or opportunities. There's fairly significant fiscal risks involved with that, and a questionable amount of return from it. Both the possibility of the emulators getting loose, and the increase of people playing older (cheaper, possibly disconnected from in-production franchises) games rather than newer ones makes the proposition somewhat dubious. The market for the older stuff would have to be a lot larger than it seems to be. It's definitely something I'd be happy about (I'm not saying it's because of those emulators shortly getting loose, but...), but I can see a number of reasons why console makers haven't been going that direction. They're mostly pretty good ones from their perspective, imo.

*Most of what's been getting the PC somewhat of an advantage in recent years has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with differences in pricing and distribution, which consoles are slowly catching up on near as I can recall.

[Culise]

Yes it did. The original did, at least.

Still does PS1 games, too, even after they stripped out the PS2 emulation.

[Neonivek]

>_< the non fanboy reviews of the Switch... are pretty damningly lukewarm >_<

But apparently it is still pretty decent as a portable system... and even runs better undocked for some of its games.

I add Fanboy but really I should say "hyped"... But maybe I should look at more reviews... the only ones I can think of that are "Fanboyish" are from people who would have given it positive reviews no matter what.

[Krevsin]

Yes it did. The original did, at least.

Huh, so it did. Well colour me wrong about that.

>_< the non fanboy reviews of the Switch... are pretty damningly lukewarm >_<

But apparently it is still pretty decent as a portable system... and even runs better undocked for some of its games.

I add Fanboy but really I should say "hyped"... But maybe I should look at more reviews... the only ones I can think of that are "Fanboyish" are from people who would have given it positive reviews no matter what.

What I'm getting from the reviews is that as a home console, the Switch really nothing to write home about. It makes for a good handheld, but the battery life while playing something like Breath of the Wild (i.e. the only big game out for the sistem ATM) is not particularly good.

It's a decent enough handheld, some would go out so far as to call it great, but as a home console it's decidedly meh.

[Neonivek]

Luckily for Nintendo it SEEMS to be selling well?

Then again... given they are not meeting demand they are REALLY risking people catching onto the system's quality.

Luckily for me even if I wanted the switch... their general marketing issues scare me away such as

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-1) Overpricing their games regardless of content
-2) Overpricing their store regardless of content
-3) Overpricing their extras, especially with how needed it is and often undersupporting them because of:
-4) Gimmicks that do not aid the overall experience and are often ergonomically decrepit.
-5) Ohh yeah... pay to play multiplayer... on a portable system... where many of their games rely on multiplayer... especially with the 3ds near the end of its life cycle.
-6) Poor internet features.

So... >_< I am going to have to wait until "The Good Switch" before making any real judgements. MAYBE Nintendo knows this list... and fixes everything within a year or two.

Maybe it will justify its internet price with actual good internet, a lack of reliance on friend codes, great features, and quick and speedy internet in that time instead of leeching off their customer base and charging money for doing nothing.

[Nighthawk]

Then there are the looming hardware issues that cropped up day one, such as unresponsive joycons, wrist-strap attachments that totally break the joycons if you put one on wrong, and a dock that damages the Switch's screen when used.

You have to wonder... did they even test these things for more than ten minutes? I mean, when a guy solves the joycon connectivity problem by soldering a wire to the inside of his joycon, it begs the question: why didn't the folks who made the system do that before it was released?

I'm still getting the Switch for Legend of Zelda, and I still love Nintendo, because I believe they make some of the best games in the world, but every time I see the stupid, obvious mistakes they're making, I just end up shaking my head and sighing. People shouldn't have to jump through hoops to ensure the health and effectiveness of their hardware while using the system the way it was meant to be used.

[TheBronzePickle]

I'm still getting the Switch for Legend of Zelda

Get it for Wii U. Seriously, get it for Wii U.

I've heard so much about how it has framerate issues, control issues, and other various problems on the Switch, but my Wii U has no such problems, and the few other people I've asked say the same.

If Legend of Zelda is the only game you want, the Wii U is cheaper and runs it better. There's no reason at all to buy a switch for Zelda, and they've outright stated there's no difference between the versions, not graphically nor content-wise.

[Leafsnail]

The Switch is portable though. Also the Wii U will not be getting any new games. I wouldn't want to buy into a Wii U at this point (although if you already have one that seems like a reasonable choice).