I was waiting for confirmation of the price to get a Steam Deck as well. Nintendo was fine as a cheaper side console, but I don’t need 2 $500-ish walled garden consoles.

I noticed that Tomodachii was announced for the Switch with a 2026 date. So there will at least be some games still made for it next year as well. A 150 million install base is nothing to sneeze at!

I mean, I’ve been using a Switch to play games portably so far. A Steam Deck will be a revelation by comparison.

Then why does the rest of the world, who don’t have tariffs on Japan, have to pay those prices as well?

Okay, but why are they charging $80 for a digital game, which tariffs don’t apply to?

It’s pretty much a guarantee that 3D Marios and Zeldas will be $80.

Consumers also had more buying power back then, so converting the currency doesn’t tell the whole story.

Just like how online play was originally free on the Switch 1.

Their games are usually top notch and their hardware is usually more cheaply priced. Not this time.

They’re thrusting themselves back into directly competing with Sony and MS with those prices. Bold move in this economy, but they’ll probably do fine. I don’t expect nearly as many Switch 2s sold compared to the original, though.

I just hope Tomodachii 2 is available on Switch 1

It is, it was announced for the OG Switch.

A $400 2 year old console that I can sideload games onto, yes. Nintendo’s strength has been “weaker hardware, cheaper price” since the Wii. Now they want to price themselves alongside Sony and Microsoft? No thanks.

Nintendo’s pricing themselves with the big boys again, let’s see how they do!

I think game key cards are for games that don’t fit on a regular game card. So like what happened before with some Switch games, but more transparent about which ones don’t have the full game on them.

It is quite a shift from how Nintendo’s been doing things since the Wii. They were always the weaker hardware at a lower price guys, so this is quite a change in their philosophy. I saw you said as much in another comment. They’ll be competing more directly with Sony and Microsoft than they have since the Gamecube. I’ll be interested to see how selling at top dollar does for them in the particularly unstable global market we have now.

How open a platform is is high on the list of how I measure the value of hardware, but not how the general population does. I played my launch Switch way, way more after I jailbroke it. I was originally going to wait until the Switch 2 came out, but Nintendo pissed me off with their Yuzu crap last year. For most people that just wanna play games with less hassle, the Switch 2 compares much more favorably.

The Steam Deck is significantly cheaper when you take 🏴‍☠️ into account. Having cheaper hardware made having to deal with Nintendo’s walled garden worth it in the past. Plus the fact that there wasn’t anything else like the Switch when it launched.

Most importantly for someone with limited funds like me, you can sideload games onto it.

I wouldn’t expect a decent emulator for this thing any time soon.

Hopefully they’ll be releasing games for both Switch and Switch 2 for a while like what happened with PS4/PS5. I know the flagship games will be 2 only, but other 3rd party stuff.