Bright-colored controllers were so much better. Also the way they were attached before is much better.
Switch 1 was the work of art. This one looks like the work of A/B testing and “we are losing customers as they choose Steam Deck over us, so let’s make it look like Steam Deck”
> switch has sold 2 orders of magnitude more copies than Valve ever will.
In the first year Nintendo sold 13.2 million Switches. In the ~2 years since the introduction of the Steam Deck Valve has sold somewhere between 5 and 6 million units.
Nintendo had a enormous, loyal, and obsessive user base and decades of history selling portable consoles. The Steam Deck is Valve's first portable console and it's running a new OS that no one is used to. It also cost $100 more than the Switch.
Furthermore--now that the platform itself has proven itself--Valve is going to allow 3rd parties to use SteamOS on their own portable consoles. If those 3rd parties have similar successes I think Nintendo will become a minor player in the portable console market in comparison.
> If anything it’s following the same pattern as Wii (white) WiiU (dark) for the successor to be a bit more serious and grown up looking.
The Wii U also comes in white. My grandparents own one.
Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch 2 came in more colors than what's shown, just like the Switch did.
The old mechanism had one serious usability flaw. This is a common sequence:
1) Put console into dock when you get home. 2) Some time later, remove controllers to use them
To remove them you need to pull them up, while the console is in the dock. That's a bit fiddly. Just being able to pop them off sideways sounds much better.
I really don’t like the old attachment mechanism. It was robust when connected, but it’s annoying to connect and especially disconnect, and it’s especially awkward that are two different retention mechanisms that need to be released depending on what’s connected.
I imagine the new connection will have a mechanical match of some sort and generally work better.
it definitely does look a bit like a steam deck
From the trailer the way the new controller attach to the console seems fragile, but they might have done some apple-like magnet magic..
I think the updated "click" sound present in the trailer indicates that yes they will snap on pretty forcefully with magnets.
Nintendo sold an all-gray Switch 1, that’s the one I got.
Yes this console does feel like a more “grown up” Switch but I don’t think it’s a sign of chasing after Steam Deck; switch has sold 2 orders of magnitude more copies than Valve ever will.
If anything it’s following the same pattern as Wii (white) WiiU (dark) for the successor to be a bit more serious and grown up looking.
Kids who got their Switch 1 when they were 10 are now 17, ready for a more grown up console.