-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
WSJ: Nintendo to Launch Two New Switch Models. Premium "Enhanced" Model and Cheaper Portable Model.
- Thread starter JehutyRunner
- Start date
- Status
That's only $100 less than the launch switch model. It's been 2 1/2 years since then and this model should be cheaper to manufacture. I thought the whole point of a mini was a lower entry price point for children?
If Mini turns out $50 cheaper I'd rather buy the original console (assuming the mini doesn't come with a dock or joy-cons)
What do you think?
(Edit) - maybe you mean with a game?
A charging solution already exists.
Controllers can update wirelessly.
There are no problems here. You buy the base Switch if you want all the home console stuff out of the box. You buy the mini if you want a handheld unit/second unit at a lower cost; you can buy the other stuff separately if you want it, or use your accessories from another Switch.
Thanks for saving me the trouble prid13!
This is my final take on the supposed leak.
Elfotografoalocado your scaling was much closer than my original take, I have it as 8.3in wide now, with a 6in screen. The vertical bezel in the screen section is wide enough to be realistic for a modern ips phone screen, which it might not have been in the previous version.
Looks quite beautiful!
250 with a game imo. I'm not sure how much it will cost here in Europe, maybe they'll be nice and 280€?
That looks stunning, quite honestly. Makes me wish the leak is indeed true.Thanks for saving me the trouble prid13!
This is my final take on the supposed leak.
Elfotografoalocado your scaling was much closer than my original take, I have it as 8.3in wide now, with a 6in screen. The vertical bezel in the screen section is wide enough to be realistic for a modern ips phone screen, which it might not have been in the previous version.
Thanks for saving me the trouble prid13!
This is my final take on the supposed leak.
Elfotografoalocado your scaling was much closer than my original take, I have it as 8.3in wide now, with a 6in screen. The vertical bezel in the screen section is wide enough to be realistic for a modern ips phone screen, which it might not have been in the previous version.
This, for U$200,00 and we will see Nintendo selling 20~25 Million of Switch's family for the next FY.
What if the Switch mini/light ends up being digital only with more than 32gb of storage, better WiFi and longer battery life? Indies sell extremely good and better battery life means longer play time away from the TV/home. Could it be different enough for people to buy it? I have no idea if it would justify and price tag of 200-250 though. Just a blitz idea of mine.
One big reason for console manufacturers to remove physical support is that they can strangle the living daylights of their customers.
I didn't know Joycon can update wirelessly.
Yes a charging solution exists for $30 on top of $70 for a set of Joycon which means $100 just for a set of controllers even before you add the cost of a dock if you want to also play on the TV. So unless the Switch Lite will cost ~$160 less than the original Switch (which it probably won't be, or at least would take the removal of more functionality than the dock and joycons to reach that price), there isn't going to be a reasonably priced upgrade path for people who want the functionality added back to the system in piecemeal fashion. In fact, the minimum you'd have to spend just to be able to play on the TV (since you can't use your built in controls in TV mode) are $60 for a dock and $60 for a Pro Controller or $30 for a charging grip, $40 for half of a joycon set, and $60 for a dock, which means you are either spending $120 or $130 for a worst set up. That's what I mean, you are paying more for half of a joycon set when a pair will cost more but you are also getting way more versatility and functionality by buying both instead of half to save a little extra money. What costs Nintendo cents-a few dollars to add some of these parts and functions to a system will cost the end user way more to buy them after the fact.
I don't know how you can justify a premium cost for the basic functionality of the base system.
I get that such a feature-dense system will have to make some tough cuts to get the price down a substantial amount, but you make superficial cuts before you cut basic functionality. Even that fact that they are still doing to make it so it can play on the TV, and all the design that would entail keeping just to make it possible, that means that not only does Nintendo believe that ability is important to the philosophy of the system, but they also believe it's important to the consumers, beyond a handful of people willing to pay a $120-$160 premium just to play their portable system like an OG Switch.
I don't see any reason to remove the cartridge slot for the Switch Mini, especially when said model is gonna be aimed at kids.
2019
Switch Pocket - 200$
Switch - 300$
2020
Switch Pocket - 150/175$
Switch - 250$
Switch Pro - 300/350$
Nintendo could always add some type of "family share" functionality, making it easier for kids to share games, even potentially making sharing a digital game for local multiplayer possible in a way that a physical game just can't do. Physical games are also easier to lose and trickier to carry around all of them with you.
Tablet and mobile games don't use carts and kids handle it just fine, but it would take Nintendo to take some big steps forward with their digital policies to really be as easy as sharing a game with a friend or family member. Currently, sharing digital games on the Switch is pretty good, allowing people to share full libraries, with some limitations to playing the same game at the same time, but if Nintendo is able to make it even easier to share games across multiple consoles with people still having their own profiles and saves, it could be huge for families and preferable to physical games.
Of course, that would be a big IF, since that would require Nintendo to make other changes in tandem with an all-digital console to make it viable and not a dud like the PSP Go, but it's possible. It could mean that Nintendo would be more willing to bundle a couple games with it.
Plus with the way that physical cart costs are going these days and how many developers are opting for a mandatory download to play a game anyways, it's almost arguable that saving the cost on a cart reader and putting it towards more built-in memory is a better use of that money.
I hope that the Lite model also has a kickstand despite of probably lacking the multiplayer functions of the OG Switch. The kickstand is really underrated since it allows for a really confortable way to watch cutscenes in handheld mode and is especially good for visual novels where there's minimum gameplay. A more resistant version would be great.
I don't know about the original switch price.
It needs to go down this year, I feel.
Either $249.99 or bundling a game at $299
It needs to go down this year, I feel.
Either $249.99 or bundling a game at $299
Well there are quite a few factors in there which could be out by a factor of 2 or more (most notably the cost of 20nm wafers relative to average), so it's a really rough estimate all around. In fact, if you were to take conservative estimates of how many 20nm wafers TSMC are producing (so 0.7% revenue rounded up to 1%, and 20nm wafers costing 4x the average wafer), you'd get less than 4000 wafers per quarter, which wouldn't even cover Nintendo's requirements, so it's possible that TX1 has already stopped production, and Nintendo are clearing out any remaining stock before introducing new models in a few months time.
No chance, huge majority of sold Switch games are still physically not digital, also its not like card slot take much space or costs,
so there is no point for only digital Switch.
I actually see something like this:
2019
Switch Pocket - 200$
Switch (bundled with game) - 300$
2020
Switch Pocket - 150-180$
Switch (bundled with game) only until there are stock available and until it's completely replaced buy New Switch - 250$
New Switch - 250-300$
Kids don't buy 20/30/40/50 dollar/euro games on tablets and phones. They play F2P games and eventually engage on micro-transactions. That's not the business model of consoles, especially Nintendo's. So limiting the avenues for software purchase would hurt Nintendo's bottom line for no reason. A cart reader isn't expensive in cost nor in real estate it takes.
the comparison to mobile breaks down when you add the fact that the majority of stuff kids play on those systems are free. of course they'll handle it fine when they don't have to beg for their parents credit card, nor have to do chores to get money for cash cards.
Agree, they won't make people pay 150 euros for basic functionalities.
I'd be willing to wager that a bulk of the library of games on Switch is download only and costs under $20. I know I've picked up many games for a dollar or two on sale and the average price I've paid for a game on the Switch for how many games I own is probably on the lower end of the scale. Outside of first party games, the number of $30-60 retail games I own is a small part of my collection.
There are free to play games on the Switch right now and I've put over 700 hours into one of them, Fortnite, easily my most played game on the system.
There are free to play games on the Switch right now and I've put over 700 hours into one of them, Fortnite, easily my most played game on the system.
Nintendo doesn't sell their games cheap and people still buy them. They've held firm on pricing and I don't think it's hurt them. Nintendo feels their games are of high quality and consumers have agreed that the price they ask reflects that polish.
Their pricing won't really change.
I'm gonna talk about my country. 3DS games were usually 35 euros at launch, max 40, Switch games are 45-50, while digital games are 59. There's a huge difference.
I don't really care for the cheap version but if the Pro could do 1080p in handheld then I'll pick one up.
I'm unsure about the colour, but think this looks awesome! I would buy it without hesitation.Thanks for saving me the trouble prid13!
This is my final take on the supposed leak.
Elfotografoalocado your scaling was much closer than my original take, I have it as 8.3in wide now, with a 6in screen. The vertical bezel in the screen section is wide enough to be realistic for a modern ips phone screen, which it might not have been in the previous version.
And kids buy games physically, with money they can come up with, (Cash) often second hand, and they trade in old games for new ones because they have to be thrifty. A digital only Switch lite would entirely miss the point.
That's what Eshop gift cards and services like gamepass/EAAccess ect are for. If Nintendo had their own version even if it featured only games 7 years or older from past platforms that's a valuable resource to a kid who would essentially have Nintendo's whole history for $10 a month plus the occasional new game for a birthday or Christmas.
Nintendo would be printing money.
Re game sharing. If the Nintendo online family pass had a better account system and allowed a shared "family" digital library that would be incredible. Just have some accountants do the math and work out how much this should cost a month.
Do you think they would make a new product with those old chips to clear out remaining stock? Does that kind of thing make sense to do? Or would it be better to let the original switch use up the last of it?
I'm not sure Pro is happening any time soon which kind of messes with speculation on that front.
If they were coming this year I would imagine the normal switch would get phased out.
If no, maybe a price drop on the normal switch with the lite being the main model
Based on what's been said, I think a revision replacing the current Switch model is coming, whether it's a 'Pro' or not. From 20nm to 12nm, probably.
In my experience, parents are not willing to pay subscription services for their kids, and they are generally wary of using their cards on digital purchases for kids, out of fear of card fraud. But maybe I'm wrong and it depends on the market.
The lite model would phase out the OG till they just run out of stock on that
I can't believe a few of you guys are even entertaining a digital only Nintendo system, and the Switch at that, and the cheaper family friendly model! this thread is jumping the shark 🦈
Yep, but then the games would start to be sub native resolution i doubt its worth it for 1080p
You sell subscriptions via gift cards in the supermarket. Most platforms have that option. (Xbox, PlayStation, Spotify, Netflix, ITunes, Googleplay ect)
As for parents being Wary. It depends on the value proposition. Netflix does family plans and they are hugely successful. iTunes has home sharing. Parents are more then happy to subscribe to subscription services if they are easy to cancel and present a good value proposition. They likely wouldn't subscribe every child to their own service/subscription, but a family plan at a reasonable price for the content offered would do well.
A child could ask for a years subscription at Christmas and have access to more games then they could play in a year. Pay for 1-2 games and get 2000 for a year is an easy sell to parents
It's a speculation thread where there isn't a whole lot of concrete details to speculate on.
As someone who has gone all digital all generation, and the majority of last generation, I feel I have at least some perspective on how practical it is.
There are deals on the eShop all the time, not always great deals but deals that means more games at affordable prices. Nintendo also offers more gold coins for digital purchases, which I could imagine them offering more for a digital only console.
Maybe regional pricing makes it impractical for some like Bowser said, but there are aspects like kids being more likely to lose or misplace a game card than having the same happen with a digital game. Same with if you lose a console, you can still have all you games and saves in the cloud. Even trading games is something kids could lose to deliberately not return, but it isn't a problem in a digital age.
It's not perfect, but I think most people are so caught up on the used aspects of physical games and game rewards themselves that they don't think going digital on console makes sense, but we are on the verge of a store like Gamestop going out of business and kids aren't just all digital on mobile, but PC as well, and that means that hunting fot deals isn't just about how you can get a new AAA game for cheap, but some of the biggest games to them are F2P and indie games they see people stream.
Nintendo would have to do something to make it appealing to lose out on the physical option, just like Microsoft will, but it's not as bad as some paint it.
It won't be digital only. Especially if it's aimed towards younger crowd. It would be DOA
It's not a very a good idea to release a digital only switch in 2019. At least MS and Sony have a reason to go more digital this current generation, because the disc drives can't keep up reading the large games.
But for Switch, the vast majority still buys physical over digital games this generation. By making it digital, you are going to potentially lose a big market. Not just adults buying for the kids, but adults buying retail physical copies themselves. Maybe it will be different in 3-6 years, but the revenue is too big for Nintendo to pass up.
Last edited:
Not sure what's the point of discussing a digital only switch.
It's not part of any of the rumors and if it were to happen it'll be at the end of the life cycle if that
It's not part of any of the rumors and if it were to happen it'll be at the end of the life cycle if that
But at least with PS or Xbox, you are buying a game on a disc, even if it needs to be installed. With carts still being expensive and publishers opting to use the smallest carts, we have a scenario where you still have to download half the game or a "physical game" is just a box with a download code and even indie devs trying to self publish is too expensive to have a physical game. It just seems that as long as carts are expensive, going digital will have an added viability on Switch.
I don't even necessarily think going all digital for Switch is the right move right now, but I think there is a chance for them to make a device like that viable, if that is the direction they want to go, potentially by having a low enough price point and to emphasize the convenience of all digital, whether by improving sharing or gold coins for purchases or whatever. There may be less options for deals but there are more options for games, even cheaper games, versus going all physical.
Last edited:
- Status