Via C-Net, this sounds, well, awful.
When reports emerged of a lower-cost Nintendo Switch that wouldn’t have detachable Joy-Con controllers and couldn’t plug into a TV, my son had one question. What’s the point of a Switch that doesn’t Switch? Good question. But that’s exactly what Nintendo is releasing on Sept. 20. The Nintendo Switch Lite is handheld-only and costs $200. (UK and Australian pricing is yet to be announced, but that converts to £160 or AU$290.) That’s $100 less than the original Switch and also shrinks the previous model down a bit, with a 5.5-inch, 720-pixel screen. But it also ditches TV connectivity via USB-C, and no longer has detachable rumbling controllers.
So, smaller screen, no chance to play it on a bigger one, and — this is the amazing part! — when the goram controllers break you’ll have to buy a new Switch! This amazes me. I mean, I thought that the scam where you have to buy new controllers for seventy bucks whenever the old ones fell apart was malignantly beautiful, in its way. But the controllers are the most likely thing to fail in a Switch! And now they’re permanently attached! Whaddya gonna do, repair it?
Seriously: unless you enjoy it when your children cry — which I know none of you do — avoid the Switch Lite on general principles. Wait a bit, save the money, get a real Switch. And snarl at Nintendo whenever one of those controllers break. Geez, what are they made out of, platinum?
These are the same people that thought the Wii-U was a good idea.
I think you’ll still be able to pair other controllers with it, so you’ll still be able to play if the unit’s controllers break, but that sort of defeats the handheld nature of it.
This is just the official beginning of the end of the 3DS. Portable and more affordable solution, closer to the 3ds price point. Still plays all the current games, loss of motion control. Designed to transition kids who would otherwise get a 3ds as a portable game with modern tech and save Nintendo development cost of an updated 3ds and software conversion.
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Living room can have a full Switch connected to the TV for family game time and the kids can have their own lite version for travel/ car rides.
Let’s be honest. This gives me a way to keep their snotty little fingers off of Daddy’s Switch, by giving them their own. I’m all for it!
Semi-officially, Persona Q2 was the last 3DS title. A few will still wander in (I think a new Dreamcast title came out last year. And there’s been 2600 games released in this decade) but all the upcoming first party titles are on the Switch.
So .. it’s a GameBoy?
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Mew
Honestly? I know quite a few people who have never connected their Switches to a TV, just using it on the go. The target market for the lite seems to not be kids, but the person in their twenties who’d prefer to play Breath of the Wild or Pokemon Sword on their commute. (Heck, I know one guy who finished Mario + Rabbids solely by playing it on plane flights to and from cons.) And those folks also tend to be a lot easier on the controllers than the kiddies.
Think of this as, as others have said, the replacement for the 3DS. Bigger screen, more battery life, BETTER GRAPHICS, etc., etc.
It’s not as if you can’t repair damaged parts on a 3DS, either.