My Brutally Honest Thoughts on the Switch 2…

Summary

In this video, "My Brutally Honest Thoughts on the Switch 2," creator Virtual Residence steps outside their usual thematic focus to share personal reflections on the latest Nintendo Direct. Despite a few disappointments, such as the underwhelming performance of the camera game chat and concerns over pricing for GameCube game access, the creator expresses overall excitement for new releases like 'Dusk Bloods' from FromSoft and the 3D transformation of Donkey Kong. However, concerns arise regarding the pricing of the Switch 2's accessories and games, with Joy-Con costs and the $80 price tag for Mario Kart standing out. The video critiques Nintendo's pricing strategy, the potential for increased microtransactions, and the implications for the gaming industry, urging a thoughtful discourse among viewers.

Highlights

• Nintendo Direct features and game announcements generate mixed reactions. 🎥
• 'Dusk Bloods' stands out with its mature themes in collaboration with FromSoft. 🌌
• Joy-Cons' high pricing and performance issues cause concern. 🎮
• The fun transition of Donkey Kong into a 3D platformer excites fans. 🐒
• Concerns about the long-term implications of rising game prices and potential microtransactions. 💸

Key Takeaways

• Virtual Residence breaks tradition by sharing thoughts on the Nintendo Direct instead of horror games. 🎮
• 'Dusk Bloods' emerges as an exciting unexpected collaboration between Nintendo and FromSoft. 😲
• Criticism directed at Nintendo for potentially high accessory and game prices, emphasizing costly Joy-Cons and game price spikes. 💰
• Notable enthusiasm for the introduction of 3D elements in familiar franchises like Donkey Kong. 🐵
• Cautionary views on the expansive use of microtransactions and potential industry impacts. 🚨

Overview

Virtual Residence takes a detour from horror game content to discuss the latest Nintendo Direct, highlighting both excitement and concerns about new game releases and console pricing. The creator shares an enthusiastic reaction to titles like 'Dusk Bloods' while acknowledging grievances over the presentation quality of certain aspects, like the camera game chat's laggy appearance.😲

While pleased with the introduction of GameCube games, there's disappointment over their limited purchase options through the Nintendo Switch online platform. The price points for accessories like Joy-Cons and game titles like the new Mario Kart also draw criticism for being potentially prohibitive, raising questions about Nintendo's pricing strategy. 💰

Virtual Residence voices a broader concern about the future of gaming, particularly with rising costs and reliance on microtransactions. This broader discourse encourages viewers to engage thoughtfully with the content, respecting diverse perspectives while reflecting on industry trends that may influence gaming accessibility and enjoyment. 🚨

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Personal Context The chapter opens with the content creator addressing their audience, noting a departure from their usual content which focusses on horror themed video games. This time, the creator is sharing personal reflections and thoughts about recent events involving Nintendo. They express their deep personal passion for video games beyond their typical content scope.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Initial Reactions to Nintendo Direct The chapter discusses the initial reactions to a Nintendo Direct presentation. The speaker expresses disappointment with the quality of a camera game chat feature, noting it appears to run at a low frame rate, reminiscent of outdated technology from the 1990s. Despite the criticism, there's a note of appreciation for the company's honesty in presenting the feature as it truly is, without embellishment.
• 01:00 - 01:30: GameCube Games and Dusk Bloods Announcement The chapter discusses the announcement of GameCube games coming to the Nintendo Switch. The narrator expresses mixed feelings, as these games are only available through Nintendo Switch Online with Expansion Packs and not for direct purchase. Despite some grievances, they are mostly excited about the development. An additional highlight mentioned in the chapter is the game 'Dusk Bloods,' an exclusive From Software game. While not a direct sequel to Bloodborne, it bears a stylistic resemblance to it.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Surprise Collaboration and Donkey Kong Bonanza The chapter discusses a surprising collaboration between Nintendo and FromSoft to create a mature, horror-adjacent video game, which is unusual for Nintendo. It highlights the unexpectedness of seeing Nintendo venture into elements common in horror video games.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Metroid Prime 4 and Third-party Support The chapter discusses the anticipation and expectations for Metroid Prime 4, specifically its performance upgrades on the anticipated Nintendo Switch 2, projecting enhanced graphics and smoother gameplay at 4K 60 FPS when docked. The chapter also touches on previous successful 3D translations of classic side-scrolling series by Nintendo, indicating a high level of trust in their ability to continue this trend.
• 02:30 - 03:00: New Mario Kart Excitement The chapter titled 'New Mario Kart Excitement' discusses the visual impact of the remastered game. The graphics of Mario Kart are praised for their quality, even when compared to games on more powerful hardware. There's also excitement about the support for third-party games on the Switch. Despite being a fan of physical game collections, the concept of lending digital game cards to family or friends is acknowledged as appealing. However, the primary excitement revolves around the possibilities entailed by this new Mario Kart edition.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Welcome Tour Announcement Concerns The chapter discusses the mixed excitement around a new Mario Kart game announcement. While the open-world format and changing weather are mentioned, they are not seen as revolutionary elements since similar features existed in prior games. The main excitement stems from owning and experiencing a new Mario Kart game after the extended period since Mario Kart 8, despite the new features not being groundbreaking.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Console and Accessory Pricing Concerns The chapter discusses the personal experiences of the narrator with Nintendo consoles, particularly focusing on the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. The narrator highlights the significance of playing these consoles with family, emphasizing how video games, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, have become a bonding activity across generations. The chapter reflects on nostalgic family gaming moments, drawing parallels between the narrator's childhood experiences with the Wii and their current experiences sharing similar moments with their own family.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Game Pricing Frustrations The chapter titled 'Game Pricing Frustrations' discusses the emotional and familial connections gamers have towards games and franchises, particularly focusing on Nintendo. The speaker reflects on Nintendo's awareness of these connections and expresses surprise over a pricing decision. When Nintendo announced a game called 'Welcome Tour,' the speaker found it underwhelming compared to other games like 'Astrobot.' Despite acknowledging the system's cool functions, the speaker questions why 'Welcome Tour' would require a paid download, highlighting frustration with game pricing strategies.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Comparing Game Value and Development Costs The chapter discusses concerns about game pricing and development costs, using Astrobot as an example, which is perceived as a $60 experience despite unspecified pricing. It highlights the apprehension around Nintendo's withholding of launch prices for the base console and its bundle with Mario Kart during a release announcement, which seemed unusual given that other dates and information were provided.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Nintendo's Profit and Pricing Strategy This chapter discusses Nintendo's pricing strategy, focusing on the console and accessories costs. Despite expectations, the console price was around $400 to $500, aligning with predictions. However, the notable cost increase in accessories is highlighted, with extra JoyCons priced at $90. For a family of four, the expenditure before tax can reach approximately $600, emphasizing a significant investment in gaming hardware.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Impact of Increasing Prices on Consumers The chapter discusses the impact of increasing prices on consumers, using the example of Mario Kart and its controllers. The Joy-Cons for the game are noted to be expensive and of poor quality due to issues like stick drifting. The hope is expressed for the introduction of Hall effect joysticks to improve quality. It is highlighted that, previously, consumers had the option to buy more affordable third-party controllers, which is a significant point considering the rising prices.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Conclusion and Call for Respectful Discussion The chapter discusses the potential inclusion of a proprietary connector on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. This detail raises concerns about the availability of third-party Joy-Cons. While the author expresses disappointment over the expected price increases for the console and its accessories, they note it isn't overly surprising. A particular point of concern is the pricing of the games, details of which seem to have been discovered with some surprise.

My Brutally Honest Thoughts on the Switch 2… Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so I just wanted to start out by saying this isn't my normal type of content if you're new here I usually make videos on horror themed video games and like essay style content that is not what this is today this is uh me kind of expressing my own feelings and thoughts around what has gone on recently with Nintendo because at the end of the day even though I love making YouTube videos in the essay format around horror games I'm a gamer at the end of the day i love video games in general and you know I was really excited when I was watching
• 00:30 - 01:00 the Nintendo Direct there were some things I was a little less than impressed with such as the camera game chat looking like it runs maybe at 10 frames a second i'm pretty sure in like 2010 when I had like a beige computer tower from the '9s it could run YouTube better than that absolute trash at least they were forthcoming and didn't show something that wasn't true it looks like it's going to be a little bit laggy and they were upfront about that they didn't pretend that it looked better than it
• 01:00 - 01:30 did uh I love that they're bringing GameCube games i let down by the fact that you couldn't just purchase them they're tied to the Nintendo Switch online with the expansion packs however despite the few things that I had grievances with I came away from the experience pretty excited for the most part with some of my highlights being Dusk Bloods which is an exclusive From Soft game that while not a direct sequel to Bloodborne stylistically it does look very similar i also think what got me so
• 01:30 - 02:00 excited about that announcement in particular is that it was just truly an unexpected surprise to see Nintendo and FromSoft come together to make both a mature and somewhat horror adjacent game with many elements that you would find in horror video games which just is not super common when it comes to Nintendo of course another one of the really greatl looking games was Donkey Kong Bonanza getting the 3D platformer treatment i very much love the 2.5D
• 02:00 - 02:30 Donkey Kong games that came out on the Wii and Wii U um and I have no doubt that this will make a really fun 3D translation of a classic sidescrolling series that Nintendo has proven they can do time and time again metroid Prime 4 was already looking really great on the original Nintendo Switch and I can really only imagine that it will look super crisp and clean on the Nintendo Switch 2 running at 4K 60 frames per second when docked especially considering that Metroid Prime
• 02:30 - 03:00 Remastered honestly looked so amazing not just for Switch hardware but just compared to any graphical fidelity of games on much more powerful hardware i was also excited to see a massive amount of support for third-party games and even despite me being an avid physical collector when possible the idea of digital game cards being loaned out to family or friends was actually a pretty cool idea transparently though the most exciting thing for me was the prospect
• 03:00 - 03:30 of finally having a new Mario Kart game after 11 years of Mario Kart 8 hey Nintendo let me fix this for you now I'm not here to gush about the new Mario Kart's open world or the changing weather all of which is cool but this was literally in games prior to even the Wii U launching so it's cool but not like crazy exciting but what's more exciting to me about having a new Mario Kart is that I purchased Mario Kart 8 on
• 03:30 - 04:00 Wii U at launch and my girlfriend and I would constantly play it together this girl later became my wife and the mother of my twin daughters then when we got a Nintendo Switch and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe it quickly became like our favorite go-to family game when they were learning how to play video games with us honestly very similar to myself and my own parents when the Wii was massive and we used to play Mario Kart on it together the reality is that I'm not the only person with these types of stories
• 04:00 - 04:30 or emotional familial connection to these games and franchises and unfortunately for all of us Nintendo absolutely knows that so something that struck me as odd is of course when they announced Welcome Tour and the entire time I'm just thinking this doesn't look very fun when you compare it to packing games like Astrobot but it's fine just to see like I guess the cool functions of the system and what it can do then immediately wondering why in the hell would this be a paid download this
• 04:30 - 05:00 costing any money makes Astrobot look like a $60 experience don't worry we'll get back to that however the next red flag was Nintendo not revealing the launch prices of the base console or the bundle with Mario Kart it just kind of felt odd to leave this out considering that we had a pre-order date a launch date and then dates for upcoming games that would come out post launch so just really strange for them to omit this fact now it wasn't long after the Direct
• 05:00 - 05:30 that the information of the conso's prices dropped and I had personally guessed that it would be between $4 to $500 so really the console price didn't bother me that much but then I started to look at the accessories and each one was just more expensive than last generation i mean $90 for extra JoyCons so for people in a similar situation to mine a family of four is spending right around $600 before tax to get a console
• 05:30 - 06:00 Mario Kart and enough controllers for everyone in your family to play the game together i mean Joy-Cons are literally already super expensive and quite frankly they are trash controllers because they have awful stick drifting and I mean I'm not sure if they've announced it yet but hopefully they have Hall effect joysticks because yeah this is just ridiculous i mean one of the more positive elements of the original Switch and the garbage Joy-Cons is that you could at least buy third party ones so that way you didn't spend as much but the reason I mentioned that is because
• 06:00 - 06:30 it at the bare minimum looks like there's going to be a proprietary connector on the Nintendo Switch 2 so I'm not even sure if there will be third-party Joy-Cons ever available so while I'm not exactly thrilled with the console pricing it wasn't really outside of the expectations of what I had and I have disappointment around the accessories but once again it's just not overly surprising that they would raise the prices of of that as well however when I found out the game prices I
• 06:30 - 07:00 literally got so angry for a multitude of reasons that I will explain so first off Mario Kart is $80 at the base cost now I'm not exactly understanding if the physical versions cost more than digital i know that there's been some talk or rumors about it but so far I've both seen and heard that there at least could be a $10 differential between physical and digital copies regardless if that's true or not $80 is insane now before the
• 07:00 - 07:30 Nintendo Defenders come in to justify the prices please just hear me out with a few of these details well first off a majority of AAA games nowadays whether they are singleplayer or online have some form of microtransactions or DLC this arguably makes them much more money than just raising the box price of the game but it also makes the games inherently more expensive to the consumer after they have bought in and reached the sunk cost fallacy and while Nintendo doesn't exactly have any like
• 07:30 - 08:00 super massive live service games on the Switch that bring in constant revenue they do have a mediocre paid online service that you must have to play Splatoon 2 and 3 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and any other game with online components mario Kart 8 in particular despite being called the Deluxe Edition did have more tracks released as paid content and the Splatoon series has also had paid DLC so they are generating way more revenue past the box price even if it may not be
• 08:00 - 08:30 the same insane degree as say Activision Blizzard with Call of Duty or other games i'm just going to predict that this will likely be Nintendo's generation to do this kind of stuff and I'll be completely honest in saying that Mario Kart World really has the hallmarks of what could become a cash cow live service game now I've heard some people say that this $80 price won't be terrible if they end up releasing new tracks and content for free and they may end up doing that but
• 08:30 - 09:00 I guarantee you that if that happens there will absolutely be microtransactions of some kind within this game now while I can appreciate that not all games will cost a full $80 there is no real reason that they've given as to why there's this price differential between the different games and really now that I think about it even me saying that I appreciate that is like telling Nintendo thank you for their reachound while they're plunging into my backside without even the
• 09:00 - 09:30 courtesy of spitting first and I understand Nintendo fans will cling to the fact that development costs for games have risen and of course they have i completely understand that however Nintendo on average have lower game development costs than other companies i mean let's take Spider-Man 2 and Mario Kart World for instance both are openw world games albeit in very different styles and gameplay one though has a well-written and long story a massive open world with crazy amounts of
• 09:30 - 10:00 graphical detail different missions to do and cost $10 less than a game with no story good but considerably less graphical fidelity and one that you have to pay an online service fee to get truly the most out of the experience now while you may think it's unfair to compare the two games two companies etc you really need to think about it nintendo doesn't have to pay a writing team to craft a story for honestly a majority of their games and while I love the graphics and style of say like
• 10:00 - 10:30 Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom Mario Kart Worlds and many other Nintendo games they simply are not to the caliber of the other AAA games that currently are on the market now this doesn't bother me at all i don't mind graphics being like of lesser graphical fidelity but rather once again it's something that will inherently cost less to develop due to not having the insane scope of detail so there's just less development time on those graphical
• 10:30 - 11:00 assets now while I do love the graphical style of many of their games as of late they're equally many just they're so lackluster stylistically not bad per se just super bland like Princess Peach the modern Mario Party games Kirby and Pokemon excluding Arus Nintendo has the ability to make gorgeous games whether that be raw graphical fidelity or aesthetically beautiful but more and more it just feels like they turn out
• 11:00 - 11:30 these soulless games void of artistically interesting visuals like they've done in the past now I'm going to make this so much worse for everyone else because I'm going to prove why they really don't need to raise the prices of their games let's take a look at Nintendo's top selling Switch games the example that I've brought forward is Tears of the Kingdom which is likely Nintendo's highest costing game to develop and while we don't know the exact cost to produce it it's estimated somewhere between 150 to $300 million
• 11:30 - 12:00 for the lower to higher estimated costs this game is in the lower portion of that top 10 with around 22 million units shipped and this was Nintendo's first game to have actually costed that $70 price tag now when you calculate that price tag by the number of units shipped then take away the $300 million production cost Nintendo still made a astounding $1.39 billion on that one game once again that game is at the
• 12:00 - 12:30 lower end of the top selling list and it's using the higher estimated production cost now I just want you to imagine that scaling across every one of those top 10 games in fact here I did it for you now Nintendo rarely if ever puts their games on sale with really the only ones I have ever seen being the Wii U re-releases that came to Switch or maybe like Super Mario RPG I've seen on sale quite a bit but for the most part they really don't reduce their game prices
• 12:30 - 13:00 and in fact the Switch 2 upgraded versions of Switch original games actually went up in price this is all on top of Nintendo in 2024 alone making $4 billion after all their expenses were paid and this is how the customer base gets treated when we make them $4 billion richer they raise the prices now I completely get that this may all just seem like whining about a hobby that increased by only roughly $10 to $20 a
• 13:00 - 13:30 game but the worst part is that this will likely just set a standard for more companies to do the exact same thing giving us more microtransactions higher game cost and honestly not doing really anything to justify it other than that they can do it because others have and it was successful even beyond the things that I've mentioned today I'm not even going to get into things like the game keys that will just simply unlock the digital download and 20 years from now when
• 13:30 - 14:00 Switch Online is gone you won't even be able to play the game it'll be completely worthless to you yeah i mean even beyond all that there's the current situation with the United States and Nintendo pulling pre-orders to assess the market cost of the insane tariffs issued to other countries so at this point it's very likely that the Nintendo Switch 2 will cost even more than what they announced now that part's not on them however I would really recommend
• 14:00 - 14:30 them to make a very important choice at this moment they either hire the cost of the entry into the new console and lower the cost of the software or keep the price of the console the same and then continue to charge a premium for games to make up the loss of the consoles no matter which way you slice it this all just really sucks for the general consumer and likely all of what's happening will just increase the velocity towards a gaming crash which I
• 14:30 - 15:00 personally really do believe is on the horizon as more people are hardly able to afford the necessities of life let alone pay the exuberant cost of entry into modern gaming so at the end of the day buy a Switch 2 don't buy it i really don't care because it honestly likely won't change the outcome of really anything that's going on within the gaming landscape but all I ask is that if you end up commenting down below just try to be respectful to both each other and hopefully me as well i didn't really
• 15:00 - 15:30 want to make this video overly political because I really hate what kind of division that that can end up bringing about rather I just really wanted to make this video to make sure everyone remembers that we all have buttholes buttholes that prior to tariffs Nintendo was 100% pounding