I love the Nintendo Switch. It is honestly one of my favorite game systems in the past 20 years, with the GameBoy Advance being a close contender for third and the Playstation 2 being at the very top. That said its competitor systems, the XBox One, Playtstation 4, and yes the ever present PC , just present a stronger option for higher fidelity gaming. Do not get me wrong, the reason to own a Switch is obvious (Nintendo first party titles and being able to take the games in handheld mode). Whenever I travel, I also have my Switch in tow because it is just AWESOME to have a well supported console that fits so easily in my carry-on bag (I'm aware of the Vita, but Sony is not).
All this praise is to point out that perhaps we, as consumers, may want to really consider our purchases of the lower quality ports on the Nintendo Switch. Examples include:
- Doom (2016): Lower textures quality, lower framerate, lower draw distance, longer load times
- Wolfenstien II: The New Colossus: Same issues as Doom. Engadget review for details. Along with it being the same price as a brand new game (still $60 brand new on Amazon as of this writing, and the game is 10 months old overall).
- Dead Cells: Not only is the Steam version cheaper by $15 (Steam: $19.99, Switch: $34.99) but the developers have openly said the Switch version has some performance issues that cause the game to drop frames. Kotaku story for details.
When I talk about this concern with some of my friends, I tend to get the same line of "well you at least get to play X game on the go! That must be worth it to some people". To that I say, this is a poor excuse. If the Switch version of a game is not only poorer in performance, but also markedly more expensive, then you, as a consumer are being "sold a worst product at a higher price". There is no contesting that statement. Yes, it is a portable version of that game, but at the cost of everything else. I do not want the portability of the Switch to become a new "fad" to die out like motion controls, but if we as consumers keep supporting overpriced and worse versions of the exact same game, then we are actively hurting the viability of the Switch. I, for one, am closing my wallet to inferior ports for Switch, since I want it to succeed on the merit of being a good console, not just a portable one.
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