"I bet this is about the Nintendo Switch OLED."
Yes, you're correct.
So Nintendo finally unveiled the New Nintendo Switch, or the Super Nintendo Switch, or the Nintendo Switch Pro, or the ... whatever names were being passed around. Except, it wasn't. The only thing the rumor mill got right was the 7 inch OLED screen, built-in LAN adapter and the wider stand. The LAN adapter and stand should have been something included with the original Switch in my opinion, and I'd even argue Nintendo should have gone with OLED from the very start, but we all know Nintendo makes their hardware as cheap as they can and they just upgrade it later. To say this particular model is what it is is no surprise, but it's also clearly disappointing.
I'm not exactly sure where the power upgrade rumors came from. Maybe whoever got the word on the screens thought this would just be the next step, or maybe Nintendo is planning for a more powerful Switch next year. Considering Sony and MS did mid-generation refreshes after three and four years respectively, and Nintendo has refreshed the 3DS with the New 3DS, it was only logical to assume that the next Switch would be a more powerful version. I mean, the Switch is more than four years old now. Even the most die-hard fans can at least admit the hardware is getting long in the tooth.
So, we're not getting a better processor. We're not getting 4K output. We're not getting DLSS or any other bells and whistles, just what's going to be a beautiful 7 inch OLED screen. This means Age of Calamity is still going to stutter like crazy. Wolfenstein 2 will still look terrible in TV mode. We won't get a lot of games that should be running in 60 FPS on handheld. Nope, just a better screen. Oh yeah, and for 50 dollars more. Yep, it will retail for 350 dollars on October 8th. This is great for people who don't currently own a Switch, as they can spend a little extra money and get a much better screen. To be honest, I think a good number of original Switch owners will probably take the dive and upgrade on this model to not only get the better screen, but the better battery life. Not me, though. I didn't get the V2. I didn't get the Lite (as there's just no reason aside from saving a hundred bucks to buy that mistake), and I certainly won't get this one. Although there is a slight tug in me to buy it for the OLED screen, it's just not going to be worth it for me when Age of Calamity will still run like complete crap. That's not what I want to pay Nintendo extra money for.
We're disappointed, and this keeps happening, so who's at fault? I don't think any one person is to blame. You could say the biggest culprit is games media as they get wind of anything they think will get clicks and run with it. You could blame the companies for being so secretive and never confirming or denying anything. We can even blame ourselves for thinking that the rumors were going to be true knowing that there's a long history of rumors surrounding Nintendo products that many times don't turn out to be true. It's just we've been waiting a long time for a more powerful Switch, so much so that we started assuming that no denying rumors was the same as confirming them.
But we need to not just stop hyping up Nintendo, but just hype all around. Sony and Microsoft have fallen to this numerous times. Every new system Sony preps they routinely oversell. The PS2 having Toy Story graphics, remember that? The Killzone 2 demo anyone? MS hyping up the Xbox One's TV and Kinect features? Halo Infinite at launch for Xbox Series S|X? And it's not even just the platform holders, but publishers in general. I can't count the amount of times publishers have upsold games only for them to underperform, nor do I want to spend the time to list them and bloat this blog, but when I talk about a hyped game disappointing people, the first game that should come to everyone's minds is Cyberpunk 2077. That was probably the biggest mess of a game since No Man's Sky, but what's concerning is that even after watching that game crash and burn, people are just not learning. They're STILL hyping themselves up for new releases such as Elden Ring and Starfield. Gamers are still getting pissed at delays, and it's a double-edged sword. The game comes out rushed, they'll complain about it being bad. It gets delayed, they'll complain about not being able to play it now.
It's frustrating to see my community act this way, but I won't speak holier than thou, because I've acted this way myself. Some of my gamer friends witnessed me losing it when Animal Crossing: New Horizons got delayed. That was a huge blow to me, because it actually affected my plans for that year as I just bought my mom a Switch in order to play with her. It was one of the few times where me wanting a game so badly turned into an unreasonable need, but after a couple of days, I mellowed out and to be honest, the silver lining was the game coming out at the onset of the COVID shutdowns, which saved millions of people's sanity.
How do we deal with this, then? How can we change our thinking and stop setting ourselves up for disappointment? Well, first rule would be to stop listening to games media. Read the articles and watch the YouTube videos to get informed, but stop buying into opinions of whether or not things will be real. Wait for official confirmation from the companies, and DON'T accept "neither confirm nor deny" as actual confirmation. Second rule would be - and this is a tough one for many - to be happy with what you have. I've been loving my Switch so far, and yeah, I could use a new screen, but I've really had no problems with the screen I have now. What I really wanted was more power so graphics on the screen could look better, so this makes it easier for me to say no to this new model. But, many gamers are just going to throw away (not literally) the current hardware because they just have to keep upgrading; nothing is ever good enough for them. This is a huge ongoing problem in the cellphone industry.
You should also try to understand the concept of not needing to restrict yourself to only playing new games. There are tens of thousands of games out there worth your time, so when a game you're hyping yourself up for gets delayed, take a deep breath, and go find a game you wanted to play six months ago, a year, two years ago, and go play it. Also, if a highly anticipated game finally came out and isn't hitting the mark, don't feel obligated to still play it just because you've been waiting so long for it. That's not justification to play an average game, and that's why I'm still going to wait on Biomutant, I want them to work a little bit more on patching the game and since I've been waiting as long as I have, I can wait a little more for a PS5 version.
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