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.
edit: Thank you all for the comments! I don’t post a lot, so it was kinda overwhelming :)
For clarity:
- I meant I want to “buy for life” (not really “life”, but, if the hardware survives you can play on pre-internet consoles forever - you can even buy more games if you can find them)
- I want to buy a physical copy of the games, not download them
I’ve decided to go with the Nintendo DS for now (I have a DSi - this week I bought a couple of games, 2nd hand). Reasons:
- I already had it
- Joycons on switch. Multiple people mentioned having problems with them. I don’t count on being able to buy them new in 10 years, meaning they will have to last.
Again: thank you all for the useful input!
Very difficult to predict the future, but my bet would be on no (to the in 20years question).
I doubt the hardware would last 20 years and eventually it’ll become hard to source parts as the popularity falls off, even if you could repair it yourself. I’m sure anything with an online dependency will not work either, but offline games have a chance.
But the real question is would you want to use the switch in 20 years (or honestly, even today)? There is already a better alternative (steam deck) with a much more open platform with way more capabilities and I believe it can already emulate Nintendo games (although no first hand experience with that)
I have a switch myself and would never recommend it to anyone personally.
My dude, the DS Lite is 20 years old already. There’s plenty of video game hardware still kicking 20 years out. The only hardware in the switch that shows any signs of wearing out over time is the analog sticks in the joycons and the rechargable batteries. Both already have replacements available and will likely continue to.
You can also play it docked, with a wired controller, if you somehow can’t get generic rechargable battery replacements for it.
Hardware does not break down that fast.
A steam deck can run all the games those two can and it runs Linux which means it will probably never be obsolete
Playing Nintendo first party games on Nintendo consoles is superior for many Nintendo first party games lover. It is just as it was when one was small 😄 that’s why right now, I go for 3ds.
Exact same game;
Switch: 30fps
Steam deck: 60fps
How is the switch superior?
There is a single aspect in which the Switch remains superior: Simplicity. Sure, you could take the time once to set up Yuzu and your Switch games and be rewarded with superior performance.
But the technically less experienced user might be put off by the fact that you can‘t just plonk in the game and play it. That‘s however not exclusive to the Switch.
I tried downloading Switch games from uuuuh… rather bespoke sites and they had a rather uuuuh… curious idea of what ads you could throw into the users face. Vivaldi‘s integrated adblocker simply couldn‘t handle those sites. That discouraged me from downloading games for now. Luckily MIG-Dumper is there to save the day and allow me to back up my games to later play them in Yuzu.
Is the Steam Deck emulating Switch games that much better? I’ve been thinking about setting up a few but I wasn’t sure if I would see a lot of performance dips with more demanding games.
Honestly, emulation is pretty nice and you can backup your saves without a subscription, unlike with Switch.
The battery is a notable exemption from this (as is the display), which is also the most likely to fail multiple times over a span of 20 years. It’s certainly doable, just not as simple as swapping out the thumb sticks for example.
Isn‘t the battery simply mounted with sticky tape and thanks to the case being screwed in still fessibly replaceable by the user?
Second that. It is a bit of a hassle to get all the games and to access them on the deck, but once you set that up, it runs great and you also are much less limited :)
The hassle is “search Pirate Bay for the game > download it into your games folder” after initial setup of emulators using emudeck
I would still steer clear of the Pirate Bay but depending on what you are looking for there’s likely a repacker or site that has what you need. FitGirl for example has some Switch games bundled with the keys that you need for Ryujinx. If you just needs ROMs I’d recommend checking out the /r/ROMs megathread.
I doubt any console is lasting 20 years nowadays.
I would recommend yuzu and roms if you want to future proof it, including the source code just in case.
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.
Even with the best care I wouldn’t expect it to last 20 years. The switch is nowhere near a well built machine as the DS was. The controllers will be lucky to last a year. They used arbitration to avoid a lawsuit over how crappy the switch is knowingly built. We’ve been through three since their inception. That being said they’re still a lot of fun. They are trying to integrate the sub more, but it’s still avoidable on some games. If you buy one get a hard case or at least a somewhat solid case to help support the console with the controllers connected if you decide to play it that way. The way that they’re connected with what destroyed them faster for us because you put too much pressure on the controllers and their connection when holding it. Using a case like this for reinforce the controllers and make them last much longer in my experience.
