I am trying to choose between buying a Nintendo Switch or a Nintendo DS.
This may not be the perfect community to ask - but I can’t think of any better place.
The reason for my question: I don’t want to own obsolete hardware in 10 years. Lately most games seem to depend on a “phone home” feature, which is not really an issue for my pc because it is always connected, but a console is something I want to play always and everywhere.
I already did some searching and found that games can be played offline fine (most of them, some exceptions are there like Multiplayer and Mortal Kombat), but:
- There is something like the paid Nintendo Online Account. I am not planning on having a paid account. How much of the system depends on the account?
- Can I have progression in a game (let’s say: one of the Zelda franchise) and will my Wife and Kids all have their own progression, without having to pay for X accounts?
- People who own a Switch, let’s take this to extremes, do you feel like in 20 years from now you can still do the same things on your hardware as you can do now? (No multiplayer is fine)
Also, feel free to rant about “paying is not owning”, the state of the gaming industry is horrible.
i have a switch too and 9 times out of 10 im booting it up to play light games with friends. it gets me a lot of use but hardly for real gaming. main exceptions are the zelda games, the mario sunshine reboot, and the ace attorney reboot, plus some of nintendos unique titles. the main upside to people is that you can get it pretty cheap compared to a nice gaming computer or a console so for casual gamers it gets you access to a lot on the online store, but if you are looking for pure longevity the ds is not a bad choice.
For future reference, consider !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
Unless it has gotten better, the joy cons on these things always fail. That’s 1 reason I never got one
Even if the games run, the joy cons will likely not last long before drifting
tbf i think dualshock 4 controllers die about as fast as joycons. but also joycons cost 70$ while you can get a new dualshock 4 for 25
I’ve been using a pair of dual shock 4s for something like seven years now without any drift. I had to buy new stick tops because I wore them out.
OTOH, the dual sense I bought started drifting so badly, it was unusable after a year.
For me, the Joycons feel really cheap. I don’t have a switch though.
Also, was unimpressed by the way Nintendo treated Wii U and wii customers (I had both)
I’ve got my Switch since 2018 and am still on my first (Splatoon-edition, bought shortly after the Switch) Joycons. No problems, no drifting. And the OEM Joycons are in a drawer somewhere as backup.
Do you play a lot of Zelda? Just asking because my suspicion is that the joycons go bad quicker depending on how they’re used which is dependent on the games you play.
I play a good amount of Zelda on mine and have had to replace the sticks multiple times.
I played the first Zelda for half a year and Ocarina of Time, but also lots of ego shooters like Doom, Doom Eternal, all the classic Dooms, Quake, Duke3D, etc. And Animal Crossing. And racers and space games.
Yeah I don’t play any FPS games, and way more Zelda than you have. So it could be certain movements on the sticks wear them out quicker.
Of course it could just be how we’re using the controllers is different. Maybe I’m just hard on equipment.
Or you just got better sticks.
I mean it is a problem on all controllers really, PS and XBox controllers can have drift problems too. But the Switch controllers are notorious for it, so I always wonder if it has something to do with the games that are exclusive to the Switch. But maybe Nintendo just has quality control problems with their controllers. Who knows?
I already did some searching and found that games can be played offline fine (most of them, some exceptions are there like Multiplayer and Mortal Kombat)
Yes, most games will work offline just fine even with a multiplayer mode. (You just won’t be able to access multiplayer.) I believe you can still play Mortal Kombat 11 offline but it locks you out of a lot of content IIRC.
There is something like the paid Nintendo Online Account. I am not planning on having a paid account. How much of the system depends on the account?
The account creation is completely free. You can even make a local account but you won’t be able to play games online or use the eshop without making a Nintendo account. The only thing you “need” to pay for is a $20 annual Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play your games online. (Note that all games don’t require the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but most do. This includes all of Nintendo’s first party IP’s.)
Can I have progression in a game (let’s say: one of the Zelda franchise) and will my Wife and Kids all have their own progression, without having to pay for X accounts?
All of your games will have separate saves with different profiles. Note that all of the accounts you make don’t need a Nintendo Account, so you can make a Nintendo Account for yourself (which is free) if you want the features it comes with, and local accounts for your wife and kids, and any game they play will have different saves that won’t conflict with your saves. The only exception to this that I know of is Animal Crossing New Horizons. You can have different accounts and players on one Switch but you are limited to only one island per console.
People who own a Switch, let’s take this to extremes, do you feel like in 20 years from now you can still do the same things on your hardware as you can do now? (No multiplayer is fine)
Personally, I’m not sure how long the Switch’s hardware will last. If the durability and longevity of Nintendo’s other consoles are anything to go by, I’d say it has a fair shot of lasting a while; with the exception of maybe a battery replacement and/or new thermal paste. I have both the OG model and an OLED model, and I can say for certain that the OLED model runs cooler and quieter than my OG model. Even if the Switch’s hardware fails I will always have my games and saves backed up on my PC so I can always play my games through an emulator on more powerful hardware.
Edit: I completely forgot to mention joycons. I think these will be the first things that get replaced with any amount of long-term use. I’ve already gone through 4 pairs on my OG switch because of joycon drift. My OLED is holding up fine though (thankfully), but I think the cheaper option would be to just replace the joycon’s thumb-sticks with hall-sense sticks, and they should (in theory) last quite a bit longer.
or, better yet, get a pro controller and forget joy cons entirely
Not going to comment on the software ecosystems because that is pure speculation and anyone claiming otherwise is talking out of their ass.
What I will instead point out is: your hardware is likely to fail in that time period. “Planned obsolesce” or whatever, I don’t care how you justify it. The reality is that these contain batteries that will degrade, and eventually fail. That is why anyone with a PSP or a Vita should check if it is bulging and dispose of it accordingly. And I think it is the xbox 360 that has a capacitor that people should cut before it leaks? Or basically any PC from 20 or so years ago where you need to repair the system clock on the mobo.
Hell, people love to talk about how unbreakable and amazing the NES is. Except… just look at GDQ where they have had multiple (?) instances of consoles failing during runs and the runners even talk about needing to source functioning consoles and scrap them for parts. This is why the speed running community went from gatekeeping “Rawr, only original hardware” to “So… those FPGAs are fucking cool, right?”
Much like with PC gaming: having the hardware or even the license does not mean you can play it in ten years without jumping through some hoops that often involve emulation and/or cracks.
What’s stopping you from replacing the battery?
My DS Lite battery still works. If it doesn’t, it can be replaced.
Good news is it’s really easy to replace the Nintendo Switch battery. Bad news is if the LCD goes bad or you get the blue screen you’re fucked. You can replace the LCD but the digitizer will give issues after messing with it 9/10 times. Reflowing is only a temporary solution to blue screen. I guarantee one or the other will happen within 20 years.
That assumes there are good quality batteries and displays and whatever other parts you need. I think the (launch?) switch uses the same batteries as the wii u tablet? But there is no guarantee the switch 2 will us that and just look at how companies like apple lock down access to replacement parts.
In ten years (honestly? if the switch 2 really is 2024/2025 then I would give it less than five years) the issue will be finding old switches on ebay and hoping they were well maintained and have parts you can salvage. Because buying a compatible battery pack or display or radio or whatever will be a shitshow because those parts won’t be accessible unless you are buying in bulk from electronics companies… who will probably want to sell you newer components anyway.
Digitizer issues are usually from getting the wrong digitizer. They are programmed differently for the HAC-001(-01) (v2 classic switch) vs the HAC-001 (v1 classic switch).
More specifically the game card reader board that the digitizer plugs into needs to match. So make sure you buy your digitizer to match the game card reader version, or buy a game card reader to go with it (you can get them for ~$14). Unfortunately many digitizer sellers on eBay don’t say which model it is designed for.
Alternatively you can mix and match those versions if you have an unpatched/modded switch. Just launch Hekate, go to tools and run the digitizer calibration.
I haven’t repaired too many switches but the first time it happened to me I had a spare v2 game card reader and that fixed it immediately. Second time I used the Hekate method and that worked just as well
I used to work at a tech repair company. I’ve probably repaired close to 50 switches. Even without replacing the digitizer just replacing the LCD and not even messing with the smaller PCB for the digitizer just unplugging the ribbon cable and plugging it back in would sometimes mess with the digitizer. I didn’t realize that Hekate had a digitizer calibration but if I ever feel like picking up my modded switch again, I’ll keep it in mind. Personally I’m not a fan of the console.
My switch died after about 4 years. A capacitor burned, tried to replace it, but still nothing happens… dont know if Ill get it to work again
Nintendo doesn’t have always-online DRM. Some games won’t work 20 years from now of course, but your cartridge of BOTW or Pikmin 4 will still work as long as the hardware is in good repair. The Switch is a fine system and should last for years and years of quality game time.
Off topic but does the game cartridge slot have a known amount of cycles until failure?
I’m thinking about how phone’s charging/data ports are stress tested by simulating hundreds of connections.
The cartridges are just SD cards. So however long SD cards last for is thier life span.
I’m talking about the cartridge system not the cards themselves
I would be shocked if the newer versions don’t have a software hack way before that.
The fact that the first version was easy to hack made later versions lower priority, but at some point for the sake of preservation or to have the OLED, the new ones will catch up.
I would be reasonably confident in offline games running in 20 years if you bought the cartridges, if you bought the estore versions I would be significantly less confident.
If you don’t count multiplayer and buy only physical copies of your game, you will be able to play for as long the hardware will function. You can also hack your switch and keep a copy of every game you may need somewhere in an hard-drive too.
If you’re assuming “as long as the hardware will function” in the first place: even digital copies, DLC, and updates installed on the system before the servers shutdown will continue working even without hacks. There’s no check-in requirement except for the subscription-locked things like SNES games.
However, the result of a nonrepairable hardware failure when you have no hacks nor official servers is rather bad no matter how your games are obtained: OFW does not allow you to transfer save data from one system to another without going through Nintendo servers and a vast majority of cartridge games are incomplete without updates or DLC.
Not always true: Not all physical copies contain full copies of the game and will require downloads before the game can be played.
Animal Crossing being a prime example. Mario Kart 8 requires 4.4 GIGABYTES to be downloaded before the game is playable. There have also been cart revisions where earlier versions of the game were complete on the cart… and newer versions of a cart were partial and required downloads as a cost saving measure.
Assuming it is kept in working order, you’d be able to do everything you can do with it now, with the assumption the online services stay up. If they go down, you would lose your non-physical games and the ability to play online.
Your progression and everything is saved on the unit itself, and the hardware used likely will last for a long, long time if kept properly.
Almost nothing other than games you’ve bought on the store and online functionality in games is tied to your Switch account. And in 20 years time, who knows if that service will still be online.
The hardware (joy-cons) breaks itself in months.
Ok yeah. You got me there. The joysticks absolutely suck. The console will probably still work, but your left and right sticks are gonna be forever moving in opposite directions
The switch is very weak hardware wise but also very reliable I feel. For being a handheld device they’re surprisingly tough and cartridges do have a much better chance at longevity than disks so I’d say of all consoles I’d put Switch on the top for longevity and best odds of working well 20 years from now. Do note this is ONLY true of cartridge games. If you have Nintendo eShop games I don’t expect them to work 20 years from now because that eShop might not be around and I’m confident it uses some form of phone home checkin to verify DRM. That is likely fixable but out of scope for this discussion.
As for Steam Deck / other handheld PCs the games are less likely survive 20 years, games have already started to disappear from Steam (unpopular ones) and I very much doubt every game I have today will be available/playable. Because Steam will be dropping support and not every game is DRM free in ways that mean you can run them once they’re dropped from Steam. The PC handhelds also tend to work very poorly without Internet since Steam wants to phone home from time to time. As for the hardware I think the Steam Deck might last 20 years given it’s Linux based. Stuff like the ROG Ally will be hard to make work due to the outdated Windows on it and the likelihood that you can’t upgrade it and games/steam won’t work without an upgrade.
Unfortunately there is a fair number of games with a physical release that require downloads to be playable as they are not complete on the cartridge.
What i find to be cool about the switch is that you can still buy hardware game cardridges. I don‘t see a reason why these cardridges wouldn‘t work in 20 years anymore. I also never had issues playing the games offline.
Yes, your wife and your kids will be able to have seperate game progressions. I think you are able to create up to 8 of these „profiles“.
Nintendo is really shitty , I would not trust them that a device or a game will work after 10 years. They will do something to make you buy the new thing.
Just because you don’t like a company doesn’t mean you need to make up random bullshit about them.
I don‘t see a reason why these cardridges wouldn‘t work in 20 years anymore.
Because, just like discs, they’re a crappy pre-launch build that relies on day one patches or additional content to actually work correctly.
Nintendo is actually one of the better companies regarding this in my experience. It doesn’t happen nearly as often with them as it does with PS5/XSX
For first party stuff, Nintendo launches finished games (though Sony does too).
For third party, cartridges are expensive enough that it’s not uncommon at all for companies to straight up make a bunch of content download only. A lot of “multiple game” collections only put some of the games on the cartridge (not counting the ones that tie some to keys).
The problem is, several publishers don’t want to pay Nintendo for the larger storage cartridges. Many Switch games only have part of the game physically and you have to download the rest.
Diabolo III made a point of saying the whole game was on the cart for example.
I would lean towards either a DS, or switch emulation (using a device such as the Steam Deck, so games that require gyro input such as Super Mario 3D World - can still be played fine)
The DS is really affordable second-hand, and the usual third party SD card carts work just as well. People seem to really like the XL models, so may be worth considering one of those
As for the Switch, you’ll likely be able to play your existing physical carts in 20 years time. It’s still Nintendo’s latest console though, so there’s no telling what they may decide to do in future. I think if you have a jailbroken switch you could be in for a difficult time if newer carts use different hardware encryption keys that require a newer firmware…
With emulation though you get to actually own the games and play them on whatever device you want, at any time. The Mii maker and gyro setup does require following some guides to get going, but this stuff is well supported for the Deck (probably similar story for the alternative Windows handhelds but haven’t checked). Yuzu’s early access Android app already has gyro configured, using the sensors built into your phone. Lastly you can do multiplayer with other Yuzu players over the internet, completely independent of Nintendo’s online functionality
I think people are forgetting the DS part of the question
DS are very cheap second hand and all the game cartridges work in offline mode natively. If you haven’t ever owned a DS before you need to pickup a few 3DS XL models ASAP and catch up on that whole generation of gaming!
As for switch people are right below, if you want longterm playability you might need to emulate on a different device like a steam deck. Some switch games need that online ‘phone home’ to download the game
3ds with hshop and ghost eShop is just awesome 🥰
