I am trying to choose between buying a Nintendo Switch or a Nintendo DS.
This may not be the perfect community to ask - but I can’t think of any better place.
The reason for my question: I don’t want to own obsolete hardware in 10 years. Lately most games seem to depend on a “phone home” feature, which is not really an issue for my pc because it is always connected, but a console is something I want to play always and everywhere.
I already did some searching and found that games can be played offline fine (most of them, some exceptions are there like Multiplayer and Mortal Kombat), but:
- There is something like the paid Nintendo Online Account. I am not planning on having a paid account. How much of the system depends on the account?
- Can I have progression in a game (let’s say: one of the Zelda franchise) and will my Wife and Kids all have their own progression, without having to pay for X accounts?
- People who own a Switch, let’s take this to extremes, do you feel like in 20 years from now you can still do the same things on your hardware as you can do now? (No multiplayer is fine)
Also, feel free to rant about “paying is not owning”, the state of the gaming industry is horrible.
edit: Thank you all for the comments! I don’t post a lot, so it was kinda overwhelming :)
For clarity:
- I meant I want to “buy for life” (not really “life”, but, if the hardware survives you can play on pre-internet consoles forever - you can even buy more games if you can find them)
- I want to buy a physical copy of the games, not download them
I’ve decided to go with the Nintendo DS for now (I have a DSi - this week I bought a couple of games, 2nd hand). Reasons:
- I already had it
- Joycons on switch. Multiple people mentioned having problems with them. I don’t count on being able to buy them new in 10 years, meaning they will have to last.
Again: thank you all for the useful input!
Digitizer issues are usually from getting the wrong digitizer. They are programmed differently for the HAC-001(-01) (v2 classic switch) vs the HAC-001 (v1 classic switch).
More specifically the game card reader board that the digitizer plugs into needs to match. So make sure you buy your digitizer to match the game card reader version, or buy a game card reader to go with it (you can get them for ~$14). Unfortunately many digitizer sellers on eBay don’t say which model it is designed for.
Alternatively you can mix and match those versions if you have an unpatched/modded switch. Just launch Hekate, go to tools and run the digitizer calibration.
I haven’t repaired too many switches but the first time it happened to me I had a spare v2 game card reader and that fixed it immediately. Second time I used the Hekate method and that worked just as well
I used to work at a tech repair company. I’ve probably repaired close to 50 switches. Even without replacing the digitizer just replacing the LCD and not even messing with the smaller PCB for the digitizer just unplugging the ribbon cable and plugging it back in would sometimes mess with the digitizer. I didn’t realize that Hekate had a digitizer calibration but if I ever feel like picking up my modded switch again, I’ll keep it in mind. Personally I’m not a fan of the console.