@trashhalo This really feels like Microsoft's Google Assistant moment - taking a duplicative effort of something they already had, gassing it to high heaven and shoving it everywhere despite not being asked for or welcome.
Only time will tell if they will also follow Google's approach of it slowly languishing until it crumbles apart and they do the process all over again.
They will sell fine everywhere except the US. I don’t even want a switch2 because the bullshit Nintendo did with the virtual carts. God it’s a fucking PITA to even play my first gen switches because I have to be sure both consoles are powered on and connected to the Internet to “activate” the cart that was active on the other.
The US is the biggest market for all consoles and most AAA games are made there as well. If they suffer there enough, it will affect users of them everywhere eventually.
There’s a good chance I won’t be buying into the next console gen. Too damned expensive now for a walled garden. PC costs more up front, but there are much more affordable options for playing games on them.
Same. Waiting for Metroid Prime 4 to release so I can play it on my hacked Switch, then it’ll be no more new Nintendo games until/unless there’s a viable Switch 2 emulator someday.
The issue won’t be the tech, since it’s out of date, but defeating whatever security Nintendo baked in as well as managing to avoid their army of lawyers. There is certainly a lot of motivation for hackers to get one up and running, since their games are highly desirable and they’re a pretty hated company by the kinds of game preservationist types that would usually put in the work of making an emulator. I’m figuring it’ll be a while, but if not, great!
“Going to be”? I feel like this generation already failed at the starting line. I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC. The Switch 2 is running on several generations-old hardware so it’s already a non-starter. And Microsoft screwed up their naming convention so badly that I don’t even know what the latest Xbox is called.
Hell, this console generation is somehow already five years old, and I still don’t know anyone who actually owns one of these systems. Everyone I know is still using their PS4s, XBones, Switches, and gaming laptops with 10, 20, and 30 series Nvidia GPUs. Hell, I haven’t seen any hype for modern console gaming since the XBOX 360/PS3 era. No one cares about owning the latest and greatest gaming system anymore. Everyone’s happy with what they have.
The only one I know some people have is Switch2 from my friend group. And its mostly mario kart. They stopped playing after a bit so it will be interesting to see what will occur there.
Overall you dont buy the system for the system, usually you buy it for hte games. And like you said....if the games are not there (PS5 games vs say steam/pc) then people are not incentivized to get it.
I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC
The keyword here is “my”.
It’s not just the console generation that is suffering. PC gaming is dying too. Crypto dealer the first blow, now AI. I’m still running an RX580 that I bought for $180 back in 2019. I was planning on buying a 9700XT at launch this year. Still not a great value- an MSRP of $600. Adjusted for inflation that’s still ~2.6x the price and it’s not going to give me 2.6x the performance. But even then it was impossible to find a card for $600 - even months later the cheapest one on nowinstock is $700, and those are hard to find. That’s JUST the GPU - you still need another grand or more to build a decent PC around it. Even with this price increase, the base PS5 is $550.
I’m not trying to make this a console vs PC thing. They all suck right now. The only good values for gaming is on the fringes. The Steam Deck was an incredible value when it launched, and only looks better today. Other cheap, low-powered solutions like Chinese handhelds and android TV boxes loaded with pirated old ROM’s. Mini-PC’s that are good enough to handle 5-10 year old PC games… At 1080p or less with the settings turned down bit. Maybe an Xbox Series S might be a decent short-term value, especially if you are a person who loves game pass or just wants to play free games like Fortnight.
It’s looking bleak. Not just videogames but everything. Food, medicine, clothing, housing.
I mean, that’s just diving into the classic Console vs PC arguments that have been going on for years. My point is that it’s gotten worse for both. We can argue all day over which is the best way to go in 2025.
What I think we CAN say for sure is that buying any sort of gaming device in 2019 is better than any option in 2025. I’m using 2019 because that was the year I built my PC for $1k total, and that holiday season I bought my PS4 - a slim model that came bundled with Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and The Last of Us 2 all for $199.99. Either of those deals blow pretty much anything today out of the water.
I guess profits are up, the PS5 is selling well so far, and it looks like the Switch 2 is tentatively on place to be one of the better-selling units of all time. Maybe the average consumer just doesn’t care about the bang for their buck- they just want the new shiny thing.
Astro Bot. I’d argue it is a system seller. It’s as wonderful as Mario Odyssey was for the Switch 1, one of the greatest platforming adventure games I’ve ever played, has a breathtaking soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and art style, incredible dynamic controls especially with the PS5 haptics, and a top 10 game for me. I had so much fun playing both Astro Bot (paid) and Astro Bot’s Play Room (free game). This absolutely deserved game of the year, and I’m happy it won. Asobo (developer) showed their full passion and love for gaming in this gem, and to play it is well worth the price of a PS5 in my opinion. It’s that good. And I’ve been a PC and Nintendo gamer for a long time.
I hope it’ll come to PC one day so that others can experience it. PC won’t have the tantalising PS5 haptics that immerse you into the game (the incredible adaptive triggers as you’re climbing, as an example, or walking through grass in that game and feeling the gentle scintillating haptics in the controller), but regardless, it’s a magnificent game that I want everyone to experience. I can’t praise Astro Bot enough, it’s such a gem.
Wow thanks! Didn’t know that. I remember reading about it when it first came out and gamers didn’t have much compatibility and could only get standard vibration with Steam input, probably around when the console first came out. I now see there’s full support, and while most devs can use Steam input, there’s a new DSX version for PS5 that claims to support adaptive trigger haptics on Windows. I game on my PC with KBM and an Xbox Series controller though. I don’t know how well PS5 haptics will work on my Linux PC though.
In another post I wrote on this I encouraged the potential of 3rd party docks eventually happening
Thinking more on that I will say that nintendo probably did this because of third party docks damaging switches. I repaired a bunch of switches and a common issue I would see is a blown up pi3usb chip with often pcb damage leading to pin (iirc) 5. This was caused by cheap/shitty docks feeding too much power or incorrectly negotiating power delivery. It wasnt just like cheap AliExpress docks either, nyko, insignia(best buy), etc actual name brand docks would brick your switch.
Swapping the damaged chip for a good one would make the switch boot and work normally except it would only work in handheld mode. To work in dock mode you’d have to rebuild the damaged trace. Nintendo won’t do this; they would just replace the entire board, so to them this is a very costly repair (though tbf paying a tech labor to replace a chip and rebuild a trace is costly too as it’s much more skilled labor, requires more testing, and has a much higher potential for failure after repair)
That said I still think it’s a users right to use a third party dock if they so choose. Fuck nintendo. Though nyko should be on the hook to buy you a new switch if they design a piece of shit that wrecks your switch
Though nyko should be on the hook to buy you a new switch if they design a piece of shit that wrecks your switch
Nintendo also tried to lock down the Switch 1 docking, and 3rd party manufacturers had to hack together a workarounds. "When Nintendo released the original Switch in 2017, accessory makers similarly had to figure out how to crack Nintendo’s esoteric docking protocols, and some of them (Nyko) allegedly led to damaged handhelds."
I’d more blame that for causing the issues in the first place, if the Switch spoke standard USB-C, then all reputable docks would work with no weird hacks.
As we are all switching from Windows to Linux, I’m actually surprised Microsoft is doing this. I guess they really don’t want to be competitive in the consumer market anymore. I guess they are making enough money through military contracts now that they don’t need to cater to us.
We all? I mean, I have, but we represent single digit percentages of the market, which is why they keep shoving more bullshit into Windows that no one wants, because hardly anyone leaves Windows. The most that this affects Linux gamers is if you like their controllers or individual games that they publish, but that would be the same as on Windows as well.
We all, all of me. I don’t have to care about what others are buying, because Steam and Linux is an amazing gaming experience and they’re the ones missing out. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Truth. I swapped my laptop to linux a couple weeks ago, and then my ROG Ally, and next I’m putting linux on my gaming desktop. Just trying to decide on a distro for that one.
On my laptop I switched from Debian to Fedora and that had a distinct impact on gaming performance, though I think it had more to do with how I had it set up previously. For instance I used full disk encryption for Debian, but skipped that on Fedora, because it does seem to impact games noticeably.
But it also might be because Fedora is more bleeding edge, so the OS itself might actually play a role here.
On my desktop I’ve been running Bazzite and that’s been pretty great so far.
I have fedora on my laptop, and it seems to game fine. I do have full disk encryption on. Maybe if I turn that off I’ll get even better performance? I have Bazzite on the ROG ally and that is doing really good. I’m thinking about putting fedora on the desktop
IMO a device like this should be portable first, and that means a reasonable battery life, and generally a system trying to do more with less. Also $900-$1500 is a deal breaker for a lot of people.
As a dev who recently released a game for the system (on sale now - only $1!), I’m pretty excited to see what gets included! It sounds like it’ll be all new games
Ayy, Pomo Post is super cute! Cool to bump into a dev on Lemmy.
I love that the Playdate is inspiring people to make tools that are also beautiful and fun like a good toy. The whole system makes me just plain happy :)
Hello, thank you 👋 The niche toys are my favorite! Someone made an orrery app, which is like a solar system simulator. I have this year’s eclipse bookmarked because it’s neat
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