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.
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.
My DS Lite battery still works. If it doesn’t, it can be replaced.
What’s stopping you from replacing the battery?
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.
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.
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.