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Oh No, I Don’t Want a Switch 2
Nintendo’s worst business tendencies rise to the surface
Nintendo fully unveiled their Switch 2 hardware and launch lineup today, and the moment a wildly stupid webcam-on-a-stick appeared, my personal hype balloon popped.
I don’t at all like the pricing of the system for a number of reasons I’ll get into. The launch lineup holds only a couple of appealing titles to me, but they’re direct sequels or re-imaginings rather than new adventures. The next Donkey Kong game looks an awful lot like Sony’s Knack, which is strange. Oh, and a pile of Nintendo money might have basically delayed/prevented Elden Ring 2.
That’s weird, right?
I grew up playing Nintendo’s games and consoles, but I’m not quite a “believe everything they say and do” sort of fan boy. The company is one of the most intense, aggressive, litigious, nightmare business monsters in existence today. Sure they’ve got a stable of cute characters and iconic game franchises, but they also monetize and defend that stuff with a zeal that even Disney would be surprised by. They are completely ruthless and concerned with money, first and foremost, no matter what their slick exterior tries to tell you.
Never has that been more apparent than in all of these Switch 2 launch details. The base console will sell…