Nintendo Switch

[rgraves]

2 minutes ago, Pavey said:

Changing the subject, has anyone's Switch been bricked by using a 3rd party dock like the ones a few of us picked up on Ebay, or is it just the Nyko that supposedly did that?

 

I've got an M002 - but I've not had cause to use it since the firmware upgrade...I'd love to hear from anyone else that has.....

[Pavey]

Ha ha, same. I was hoping you would tell me all was ok!

[StephenM]

To revive that all-time classic discussion about joy con problems; is it only the left one with known issues? My right one seems to be randomly losing its connection recently and I'm wondering if I need to take Nintendo's online advice of 'Basically move everything you own to a separate house to the Switch' or whether it might be faulty? 

 

 

[Stanley]

3 minutes ago, StephenM said:

To revive that all-time classic discussion about joy con problems; is it only the left one with known issues? My right one seems to be randomly losing its connection recently and I'm wondering if I need to take Nintendo's online advice of 'Basically move everything you own to a separate house to the Switch' or whether it might be faulty? 

 

 

Faulty. It's only the left one which had widespread issues.

[rgraves]

3 minutes ago, Pavey said:

Ha ha, same. I was hoping you would tell me all was ok!

 

I'm sure I read that the issue was actually with the power supply - if you're using an official power supply, you should have no problems still.

 

Why don't you try and it and let us know...

[JPickford]

Hang on the 18 quid option is just for one person not the entire console?   They can double fuck off.

[Xevious]

1 hour ago, Strafe said:

The separate app for voice chat is so ridiculous. Why are they doing it this way? What possible reason could they have?

 

Pure speculation, but:

• It makes it easy to have a party chat system that goes between games, which isn't reliant on a large overhead OS that can slow down the console
• It means that you could talk to each other even when playing single-player or offline games
• It takes the voice bandwidth off the Switch's online connection, making the latter more stable - and that's particularly important for WiFi or even LTE tethered use
• It can use the smartphone processor for more advance compression and synchronisation without impacting on Switch performance
• It saves battery life on the Switch

Lots of home consoles do all this themselves but it's built into the OS and can slow stuff down - you can get around this partially by giving the machine more power.  On the Switch that would cut battery life.

 

Disclaimer: I've not used the Switch online app.

[rgraves]

13 minutes ago, JPickford said:

Hang on the 18 quid option is just for one person not the entire console?   They can double fuck off.

 

It's for one account. If you only want the one account to go online on a Switch it'll do fine. Think of it as a discounted option if you just want a single user. If you want more than one account to go online, then you'll need the family plan (which allows up to 8 accounts online on one or multiple devices). Or you could pull together 7 friends and split the cost of a family plan even - then it's potentially just £4 each for the year.

 

I think for stuff like MK8, one account will still be fine in terms of allowing multiplayer (because the others are just guests in that session). But it will be an issue for single-save stuff like Splatoon 2.

[JPickford]

6 minutes ago, rgraves said:

 

It's for one account. If you only want the one account to go online on a Switch it'll do fine. If you want more than one account to go online, then you'll need the family plan (which allows up to 8 accounts online on one or multiple devices).

 

I think for stuff like MK8, one account will still be fine in terms of allowing multiplayer (because the others are just guests in that session). But it will be an issue for single-save stuff like Splatoon 2.

 

The ONLY thing I'm remotely bothered about is the backing up of saves.   There are 4 of us using the console.  18 quid was already too much for something that should be free.  Now I find I have to pay double.

[SozzlyJoe]

Good old Nintendo. They'll not make you pay for bugger all twice, they'll give you a deep discount on the 2nd lot of bugger all.

 

I'm just salty because I know I am going to have to pay for this for my kid as he loves Splatoon and Minecraft. His console would become deeply disappointing overnight otherwise. Which then, due to Ninty's sudden embracing of multiple accounts per system, I would then have to pay even more to play myself - which I am not doing. So I guess that's the end of Nintendo online for me. (Will leaderboards still work?)

[Flub]

If Nintendo plans this to be partially a Neflix style subscription for their back catalogue you just know they're going to Nintendo it up in some way. They'll probably rotate out the games people really like and leave shit like Ice Climber in there forever.

 

Can I just buy the ones I want pls?

[rgraves]

I honestly don't get the arguments on pricing - it's 1/3 or at worst around 1/2 the cost of the other platforms. It's not free anymore (which sucks), but they've always been clear it was coming - I don't think anyone could have been reasonably expecting cheaper?

 

And don't forget, you don't have to buy a full year either - you can just pick up a single month for £3:50 if needed (I wonder if you could do that every so often just to create a point-in-time 'save' backup vault as such?).

 

My bet, some big games like Smash Bros will include a 1 or 3 month code in the box as well.

[The Mighty Ash]

9 minutes ago, rgraves said:

I honestly don't get the arguments on pricing - it's 1/3 or at worst around 1/2 the cost of the other platforms. It's not free anymore (which sucks), but they've always been clear it was coming - I don't think anyone could have been reasonably expecting cheaper?

 

If they have to charge, I would prefer they charge more and made it a decent offering.

 

They missed a trick by not keeping a free option. Why not just have a service like game pass on Xbox for retro stuff and charge for that?

 

 

 

[Xevious]

8 minutes ago, rgraves said:

I honestly don't get the arguments on pricing - it's 1/3 or at worst around 1/2 the cost of the other platforms. It's not free anymore (which sucks), but they've always been clear it was coming - I don't think anyone could have been reasonably expecting cheaper?

 

How is it a third of the price?  Xbox Live Gold is £40 a year, PS+ is £50, and they are both frequently available cheaper.

[rgraves]

1 minute ago, The Mighty Ash said:

I would prefer they charge more and made it a decent offering.

 

And there's the rub - people want different things and it was going to be impossible to please everyone. I'd certainly be a lot less happy if it was £60 just so it could cover additional stuff I'll hardly ever use.

[JPickford]

7 minutes ago, rgraves said:

I honestly don't get the arguments on pricing - it's 1/3 or at worst around 1/2 the cost of the other platforms. It's not free anymore (which sucks), but they've always been clear it was coming - I don't think anyone could have been reasonably expecting cheaper?

 

 

I couldn't give a toss about what others are charging.   How is that relevant?   I'm interested in what I get for my (theoretical) money.   And for me this is incredibly poor value.

I paid for PS+ for a while because there were loads of good free games bundled.   That's not a factor here.

[The Mighty Ash]

20 Nes games is not the incentive that they think it is.

[rgraves]

Just now, Xevious said:

 

How is it a third of the price?  Xbox Live Gold is £40 a year, PS+ is £50.

 

It's £18. So £4 off being 1/3 of £50. I was running fast and easy with rounding.

[DC Lemon]

It would help if they could get Konami on board. Track & Field leaderboards would be fire. Online mutilpayer Blades of Steel would be inferno.

[GokouD]

1 hour ago, JPickford said:

It's poor value IMO.  I'm not paying 20quid a year to protect my saves.   That should be free anyhow.   I don't give a shit about NES games I've already played and I don't use online enough to pay money for it.   The whole thing is a downgrade to the switch (no more occasional online games for me).

To be honest, when you're taking about £20 (or even £35) a year, I can't really see the point in moaning about it. I probably loose more money down the back of the sofa in a year. Complaining about it being so unfair and how you can't play online anymore is just cutting off your nose to spite your face. You remind me of my brother, we went to Barcelona a few years ago and on the first day bought drinks at a cafe on the Ramblas. When it came time to pay he found out that his sangria cost 8 euros and he was so outraged that he didn't want to spend anything else the whole time, and basically ruined the trip for himself. Sure, it's a rip, but who really cares? Suck it up and pay the £20 quid, in the grand scheme of things you won't even notice it's gone and you can carry on enjoying your Switch. My brother thought he'd scored some big moral victory over the bars of Barcelona, but do you think they noticed or cared? All he did was make himself miserable. Nintendo don't care if you personally pay up or not, they know 90% of people will, so why spoil things for yourself?

[JPickford]

Its not 18 quid it's 32 quid to protect all saves on the machine.

[JPickford]

1 minute ago, GokouD said:

To be honest, when you're taking about £20 (or even £35) a year, I can't really see the point in moaning about it. I probably loose more money down the back of the sofa in a year. 

 

Well done for having lots of spare money.

[rgraves]

2 minutes ago, JPickford said:

 

I couldn't give a toss about what others are charging.   How is that relevant?   I'm interested in what I get for my (theoretical) money.   And for me this is incredibly poor value.

I paid for PS+ for a while because there were loads of good free games bundled.   That's not a factor here.

 

I hear you - let's not forget I was on here shouting I wanted it to stay free! I'd rather it stay as it is, I'm with you totally.

 

That said, we knew a fee was coming - so £20-30 is about the best I think we could hope for. The value statement will differ from person to person. I don't really care about saves, or about shite NES stuff. I do care about playing Splatoon online, so I'll easily get the value there. I absolutely appreciate it'll be different for everyone.

[rgraves]

3 minutes ago, JPickford said:

Its not 18 quid it's 32 quid to protect all saves on the machine.

 

And on up to 7 other machines. I appreciate your specific case doesn't use that so it's no value to you, but that's where the value of that plan is really - if your kids each had their own unit (which is what Nintendo want to promote), you'd be looking at £30 to cover all of them and then it suddenly goes the other way.

[Corranga]

55 minutes ago, rgraves said:

 

I've got an M002 - but I've not had cause to use it since the firmware upgrade...I'd love to hear from anyone else that has.....

 

Also not tried it since the great mongering (perhaps). Why do you think using an official charger makes a difference?

[JPickford]

1 minute ago, rgraves said:

 

And on up to 7 other machines. I appreciate your specific case doesn't use that so it's no value to you, but that's where the value of that plan is really - if your kids each had their own unit (which is what Nintendo want to promote), you'd be looking at £30 to cover all of them and then it suddenly goes the other way.

 

That's a comfort.  Thanks.

[Mitchell]

2 hours ago, deKay said:

 

Age is correct and she's over 7 (although wasn't when I set it up).

 

Set both PS4 accounts to 'Primary'.  Then both can use PS Plus perks.

 

(Settings) > [Account Management] > [Activate as Your Primary PS4] > [Activate].

[rgraves]

3 minutes ago, JPickford said:

That's a comfort. Thanks.

 

I can see where you are coming from. If I were you, I'd not be opting in. I hope, in the future, they add more games that do make it worthwhile for you. Or, like me, you get hooked on something like Splatoon - and then you'd consider giving even a limb to keep it going 

[rgraves]

3 minutes ago, Freeman said:

Also not tried it since the great mongering (perhaps). Why do you think using an official charger makes a difference?

 

I'm sure I remember reading it somewhere - something to do with them not quite 100% following the standard or something.

[Stanley]

10 minutes ago, rgraves said:

 

And on up to 7 other machines. I appreciate your specific case doesn't use that so it's no value to you, but that's where the value of that plan is really - if your kids each had their own unit (which is what Nintendo want to promote), you'd be looking at £30 to cover all of them and then it suddenly goes the other way.

It covers other machines? I didn't realise that. Does that mean you could have a game downloaded on more than one machine with the same profiles on them?