Nintendo Switch Lite’s lack of adaptability defeats the Switch’s purpose

The entire point of a Nintendo Switch is to switch between home and portable console play. The Nintendo Switch Lite shows a lack of faith in their own design philosophy.

[Gemmol]

no some people like to play handheld only, some like tv mode only......nintendo give you an option to save money if you prefer handheld only while still selling you the option to play on your tv and in handheld mode or table top mode with the original switch

whats wrong with giving people options

[badz149]

what option? the only ones with an option are those buying the original one. those paying less for this Lite are getting snubbed from many main features of the Switch, mainly the "switching" part of the system. the worse part, Nintendo is not going to give an option for Lite buyers to connect to the TV at all! what's up with that? no docking and not even HDMI out? and for games using the joycons...Nintendo says "HAHAHA tough luck! buy a separate joycons and their chargers too, you losers!"

[CBaoth]

what if I hated the joycons? What if I didn't care about the table top feature? Maybe I play all the time but not at home?

You keep bringing up scenarios where obviously that person should be directed to buy the original Switch. This new device isn't aimed at 90% of the N4G crowd. It's aimed at children, soccer moms, someone looking to buy a cheap second Switch. This item is gonna crush in Japan with Pokemon. All I seem to read on the net "I wanted a Switch Pro WAAAHHH". They point to the new 3DS as validation of their cries. I point to the latest Famitsu sales charts that shows the 2DS outselling the 3DS by a margin of 4:1.

[badz149]

@CBaoth

so...what you're saying is..."as long as the thing sells, it's ok for them to take away features"? got it

[TheFirstClassic]

If you want that stuff you pay an extra 100 for the regular switch. The 200 dollar switch is still a great handheld.

[Neonridr]

much like you can buy a PS4 Slim or Pro. You get more options with the higher end model, no?

[CBaoth]

no mon frere, I'm saying it makes sense for Ninty to release a handheld only model because the demographics they've targeted wouldn't buy a pro model. Stripping away features to reduce costs is certainly nothing new in the industry. Did you admonish Sony when they replaced hardware with software emulation on the 1st PS3 revision? How about when they completely removed BC with the second "slim"?

[conanlifts]

It's called choice. If you want to "switch " them don't buy this version. Pretty simple really.

[SpeedDemon]

If they had included all of that then why even make a lite version? The price and size of the system would be larger.

It's like some people can't comprehend that this system was made for a certain audiance, it's was never intended to appeal to people that game at home.

[PloxD00d]

Nintendo should rename the Switch Lite to the Un-Switchable lite

[spicelicka]

"Nintendo give you an option to save money if you prefer handheld only"

Uhh the way i see it Nintendo doesn't give you option to save money if you want a regular Switch, instead they give you less features if you want to save money. They're cleverly doing this instead of a price drop. Switch should be getting a price drop 2 years after release, its competitors can be bought for 2/3 of the price.

It's a good decision business wise, there's clearly demand for it, but as consumer I find it a little sleazy.

[rainslacker]

I guess some people in the media just can't grasp the fact that some people dont care about all those "purposeful" features that the original has. Some just want a portable system they can play games on. Switch Lite provides that at a cost savings. If one wants the other features, they'll buy the more expensive model.

Switch was a catchy name to market it off the features, but it's now what the system is known as. There is no point renaming it because people will recognize the switch name, and it'll play the switch games. Changing the name would be more confusing, and most people aren't buying it because of the switching features anyways. They're buying it for the game.

[VersusDMC]

And now we have a portable where we pay 60 bucks for new games. There was the excuse before that you could play the games on tv as well to justify the higher price... what's the reasoning now?

[badz149]

not just priced higher but also now stuck with the lowest settings.

[PloxD00d]

The Switch Lite is a joke there's no excuse why it cannot play home console games on an HDTV even the PSP-2000 from 2007 can play games on an HDTV.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

I don't think this person has any idea what they're talking about.

This is 100% a smart business decision because there are a significant amount of Switch players who only play portably and would want a smaller strictly portable device. This isn't a "lack of faith in their own design philosophy", that's completely not true. There's going to be a Switch Pro that has the same adaptability as the original Switch, which would mean two out of three available models are of that same "design philosophy." Why does one alternate model suddenly mean Nintendo is worried/doubting their original design choice? One look at Nintendo's portable history shows that they appeal to different markets with different models and they all fall under the same platform umbrella. The Switch is a console that's also portable, so it follows in the footsteps of the Game Boy/Game Boy Advance/DS/3DS in terms of updates/alternate models.

Also the article has errors, like for example "Sony and Nintendo are knocking on their door next holiday" when "their" refers to Nintendo. Sounds like this person had an idea for an article and instead of thinking about it, furiously typed to get it out for clicks/site traffic.

[FallenAngel1984]

“In order to properly play these games with a Nintendo Switch Lite, you need to buy separate Joy-Con controllers. Furthermore, you also need to buy the Joy-Con Grip to charge them, which pretty much erases the savings you would get from not buying the $299, adaptable original version.”

That just further ruins the entire point of this system if you’re playing games that require Joycons

[Doge]

...in reference to Pokemon Let's Go. A game that can be fully played in handheld mode...

[Neonridr]

lol, I would never play Let's Go using a single joy-con and doing that ridiculous throwing method. I play either with a pro controller when docked to the TV or in handheld mode with the joycons attached. "Proper" my ass..

[PhoenixUp]

It also makes Nintendo pricing all of their games at $60 even more egregious. Handheld games should be cheaper than console games, yet Nintendo themselves aren’t as flexible with pricing their games as most other publishers

[Neonridr]

Should PS4 Pro enhanced games cost more then, using your logic?

[nitus10]

The PS4pro can display in native 4K (depends on the game) while all PS4's support HDR providing the game supports this feature and will properly display this on a decent HDR 4K TV/monitor (mine does). Of course, the PS4pro is a better performing PS4 since it has an enhanced CPU, GPU and system bus.

In addition, most HDR 4K TV's or monitors (mine does) will upscale a none 4K (eg. SD and HD) signal to 4K (8K will do the same) while keeping the aspect ratio the same although some displays (most don't) allow the player to manually manipulate the aspect ratio however this is normally a compromise and IMHO (my HD TV can do this) can never get it fully right. "Letterboxing" is a "b**ch" although top an bottom is acceptable but left and right not so much. 😁

You can easily imagine the "s**t storm" if Sony decided to charge more for a PS4pro game compared to a standard PS4 game. In fact, we can go one step further. The PS5 is going to be "a beast" compared to the PS4 but it will be backwards compatible and it is possible if PC gaming is any indication that games produced for the PS5 will be playable on the PS4 but at a reduced performance. That is the same game but playable on a high-end (eg. PS5), medium-end (PS4pro) and low-end (eg. PS4) architecture.

[wwinterj]

The Switch isn't just a handheld though. The Switch Lite is. As far as I know they are not having exclusive games to the Lite thus they are changing the price of a console games for the games.

[gamer7804]

its basically the 2DS successor. I'd hope for a 150$ price point then I might get it, but honestly just waiting for the switch v2 thats more powerful and backwards compatible w/ the switch.

[wwinterj]

I'm waiting on a price drop for the Switch as having the option to play on a TV at home is appealing too. It might actually be more appealing to me than the handheld side of things.

[Melankolis]

I've been waiting for a Switch revision all this time. Hoping a better version.

The problem is i hate somewhat heavy portable (Switch) but i don't want to lose that TV mode feature (Switchless, er, Switch Lite). I haven't bought one yet, so, this is like "pick your poison" to me.

[Neonridr]

heavy? why does everyone act like this thing weighs as much as a brick. I have held the thing for hours at a time and never had any issues with weight.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Well then this isn't the product for you, simple as that.

[drunkenspy007]

Most people I know with the Switch use it handheld anyway. It doesn't have the same display output as the PS4 Pro or XB1X so it just looks better on the smaller screen.

[thejigisup]

I'm gonna wait for the switch heavy

[ShadowWolf712]

Idgaf about its original purpose, I want a handheld that doesn't die as fast as the Switch currently does.

That's all I use it for.