Sorry folks - even I am baffled at the fact that this series is on its fifth post. Please bear with me (or stop reading. I won’t be offended).
This post is basically about costs. For most consoles, the table stakes to play are the cost of the console and maybe the price of a game. The Switch complicates this math a bit, and it is worth discussing.
Cost of Games
What I thought then - The games are way too expensive
What I think now - Nintendo’s games are way too expensive, but other publishers do alright
When the Switch first came out, physical games were not cheap. Some studios alleged that the culprit was the cost of the game cartridges themselves. Whatever the reason, I thought it was a problem considering how much of the Switch’s game lineup relied (and still relies) on re-releases of old games. Titles that sold for ten bucks or less on Steam or the Playstation Store were going for $40 or more on the Switch. It felt absurd.
Of course, the other wrinkle was the fact that, as usual, Nintendo’s own games rarely go on sale, and rarely receive permanent price drops. From a distance, in the early days it looked like building a hearty Switch library would not be cheap.
Nowadays, the situation is much better. Nintendo’s games are still not cheap, but every other publisher has frequent sales in the eShop, with prices comparable to Steam and other storefronts. Even physical games from non-Nintendo publishers frequently get steep discounts.
Basically, if you pay attention to a site like the nintendoswitchdeals subreddit, you can get as much bang for your buck as you can on any other console or storefront.
Total Cost of Ownership
What I thought then - The Switch “_needs_” a whole lot of pricey accessories
What I think now - The Switch “needs” a few accessories, but you do not have to spend much anymore
You technically do not need any accessories in order to use the Switch. However, I assert that there are a handful of accessories that are, for all intense and purposes, “necessary”. That list includes the following:
- A screen protector (to prevent the dock from causing scratches)
- A carrying case (if you are at all interested in taking it out of the house)
- A USB-C charging cable (see reason as why you need the case)
On top of that, there are some that I consider “nice to haves”. You (or at least I) could probably go on forever without any of these if you had to, but they smooth out some of the rough edges and flaws and make the experience that much better. In this list I include the following:
- A power bank for charging while on-the-go
- A charging stand
- A Pro controller
At the time of the Switch’s launch, none of this stuff was cheap. Even if you only bought the things on the “must have” list, you were looking at spending at least the cost of a new game (or more!). As for the items in the “nice to have” list, you could easily spend over $100 if you wanted them all. Ultimately, depending on what accessories you wanted or needed, it wasn’t hard to spend more buying the Switch and kitting it out than you would to buy an Xbox or a PS4.
Thankfully, here in the year 2020, the prices of the “necessary” accessories have dropped dramatically. I was able to find a charging cable and a screen protector at Five Below for five dollars each. I got an official “deluxe” carrying case for $13. This basically boiled down to about twelve dollars in accessories one month, and twelve dollars the next month. That is much more palatable than having to punt on a getting new game just so you can keep your device safe.
As for the “nice to haves”, those unfortunately cost about the same as they did in 2017. This would piss me off if the “necessary” addons were also still pricey, but since they are not, I can accept that this second category are basically luxury items that are best to acquire slowly, if at all.