This is far from a Nintendo exclusive problem.

It is the way entire industries are going (and have been going for decades).

It's only strong consumer protection laws that stand in their way.

They’d rather incur the costs of running two assemblies side by side, than simply give everyone access to a means of easily repair their switch.

I guarantee you they've made the calculation and found that the cost is well offset by the profits gained from the inability of other markets to repair their owned switches.

Yes. And it's extra dumb, because Nintendo is already the only ones not selling the console at close to cost in order to move more games.

In hindsight, the breaking joycons look less like an accident and more like a plan.

Seriously, just do the right thing. Goddamn

I have never and will never pay for a Nintendo product because of shit like this. Doesn't mean you can't play Nintendo games though 🏴‍☠️

Fuck Nintendo.

The midlife revision will probably just have a user-replaceable battery for all regions to simplify things.

Then again, it’s Nintendo.

It's the Apple approach: Implement consumer-friendly policies only in regions that require it by law. Apple mostly do it with software though, for example only allowing third-party app stores in EU and Japan.

Plenty of US companies do something similar with subscriptions too. California mandates that any subscription you create online must also be cancellable online, and so some companies (like New York Times, SiriusXM, gyms) only show their simple online cancelation flow to Californians. Everyone else must jump through hoops like use live chat, call them, cancel in person, etc.

Not just spite. It also proves they profit more from proprietary repairs than it costs to maintain both production lines.

Being anti consumer is more profitable than making 2 product lines. Remember if you live in other countries not in EU you are inferior because Nintendo just told you so.

Well, Sega did the same with the Megadrive and the various shapes of the cartridges to prevent you from playing games that came from another country (but yes, Nintendo did the same with the Super Nintendo).

But what if it goes wrong, and the parasites vacate our area, leaving room for vibrant innovative new companies to thrive?!

It’s not user replaceable but it’s not actually that hard to replace it, so this basically just takes work away from all those little repair shops. Still good for customers but probably not much of a difference for Nintendo.

Apple did this exact thing on iPhone and 3rd party stores so I would be surprised if this wasn't already baked into the firmware on the Switch.

It does it's just Nintendo going out of their way to be awkward even to their own detriment.

Look at Apple, everyone gets USB-C iPhones now they could have made a USB-C version for the European market and a mag-safe port for other markets but that would have meant two different power boards and different body designs but each market which wasn't worth it. Nintendo however have decided to actually put the cost into making two different body moulds and two different circuit boards one for non-replaceable batteries and one for replaceable batteries.

Nintendo have been anti-consumer for a long time but I'm surprised that they're willing to waste money on it.

I mean the main point right now is to make stuff better for ourselves but there are examples of others benefitting from our legislation like the case of usb-c. Individual governments also help, like germany spending money on linux development and adopting it on government system in certain states.

It's only making it more expensive for themselves. They want to have two production lines for two separate models... Well that effects their profit margin.

The other two markets are too big to include and not profit from the resulting issues.
You juat have to make it unprofitable enough for two models to coexist to make them just fold and only make one.

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I love Nintendo. I've bought every single one of their consoles. I am skipping the Switch 2 though.

I feel like giving someone a Switch 2 is a bit like a white elephant. I can't say that I'm a fan of what's happening lately. It's a shame because the industry is where it is because of them. It's a shame they can't treat their customers a little better.

Last Nintendo console I’ll ever buy is a used New Nintendo 3DS XL which I’ve modded with Homebrew and all that and loaded with emulators with tons of ROMs. It’s a fantastic piracy machine that runs NES, SNES, SMS, GEN/SMD, N64, PSX, GB, GBC, GBA, DS, DSi, and 3DS games!

The incentive to buy one comes from the expectation it‘ll be even more expensive this time next year. Not sure it‘s working, though.

It's more likely to go up in price for the foreseeable future.

They need to drop the prices of the games too

They don't need to drop prices though - they sell plenty of them at the current prices.

Also, all consumer electronics are going up in price due to the component (RAM, GPU, SSD) shortages, which are happening because the majority of new stock is being sold to AI companies.

The joycons are egregiously priced. Doing any sort of fix on them is a massive pain in the arse. I hadn't used my Switch in a while, it was packed away in its (official) carrying case, inside a box that's kept in a decent environment. The joysticks had melted.

I bought replacement joysticks, with hall effect sensors, for €15. Two batteries for €10. Pain in the arse to replace, but it's possible. The new joysticks even have exchangeable caps so if they melt again for some reason, you can just pop them off.

Nintendo intentionally designs things to be shit, so you can buy new joycons at insane prices. It's why they also offer them in limited collections and whatnot.

Most of my DnD table is a die hard Nintendo Fan. They shit on palworld saying its copying pokemon, they buy every console and pokemon game, it's kinda crazy to see. I feel like it's half nostalgia and half some sort of parasocial relationship where they see Nintendo as a friend.

I went PC-only several years ago and haven't looked back.

I'm done with consoles. That does mean missing out on some games, but interesting games are already coming out faster than I can play them.

It's because Nintendo executives don't really understand the Western world.

Apparently Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America are constantly at loggerheads with Nintendo of Japan over their various brain dead, ultimately self-defeating, schemes.

For starters I cannot imagine that having two product lines with minor differences can be economically viable, and secondly what's the point in pissing your customer base off? There is zero logic behind this decision.

I can be mad at both. B

Id assume bots are being used to show outrage about them changing it in the EU unlike here. Theres no downside to an upgrade like this.

i wonder if it was always like this or this is a recent thing

We'll be able to torrent all those "exclusives" in one or two years. No need to give Nintendo any money for being scumbags.