Technology

Thos is far from a Nintendo exclusive problem.

It is the way entire industries are going (and have neen going for decades).

It's only strong consumer protection laws that stand in their way.

They’d rather incur the costs of running two assemblies side by side, than simply give everyone access to a means of easily repair their switch.

I guarantee you they've made the calculation and found that the cost is well offset by the profits gained from the inability of other markets to repair their owned switches.

In the EU bottle caps have to be attached to the bottle so they stay together when thrown away. Everyone working in recycling and especially people working in stuff like river cleanups praise how this is a gigantic improvement. It is universally a good thing.

Even Coca Cola used it in advertising to sell how environmentally friendly they are (by not breaking the law). However they are only doing it in countries where it is legally required and nowhere else.

Even apple went world wide when Europe forced them into C

Complain to your fascist government. lol good luck.

But what if it goes wrong, and the parasites vacate our area, leaving room for vibrant innovative new companies to thrive?!

I can be mad at both. B

Id assume bots are being used to show outrage about them changing it in the EU unlike here. Theres no downside to an upgrade like this.

I have never and will never pay for a Nintendo product because of shit like this. Doesn't mean you can't play Nintendo games though 🏴‍☠️

Fuck Nintendo.

Being anti consumer is more profitable than making 2 product lines. Remember if you live in other countries not in EU you are inferior because Nintendo just told you so.

Seriously, just do the right thing. Goddamn

It's the Apple approach: Implement consumer-friendly policies only in regions that require it by law. Apple mostly do it with software though, for example only allowing third-party app stores in EU and Japan.

Plenty of US companies do something similar with subscriptions too. California mandates that any subscription you create online must also be cancellable online, and so some companies (like New York Times, SiriusXM, gyms) only show their simple online cancelation flow to Californians. Everyone else must jump through hoops like use live chat, call them, cancel in person, etc.

The midlife revision will probably just have a user-replaceable battery for all regions to simplify things.

Then again, it’s Nintendo.

Not just spite. It also proves they profit more from proprietary repairs than it costs to maintain both production lines.

Apple did this exact thing on iPhone and 3rd party stores so I would be surprised if this wasn't already baked into the firmware on the Switch.

I went PC-only several years ago and haven't looked back.

I'm done with consoles. That does mean missing out on some games, but interesting games are already coming out faster than I can play them.

I thought EU legislation would make better stuff in the EU and it has.

It does it's just Nintendo going out of their way to be awkward even to their own detriment.

Look at Apple, everyone gets USB-C iPhones now they could have made a USB-C version for the European market and a mag-safe port for other markets but that would have meant two different power boards and different body designs but each market which wasn't worth it. Nintendo however have decided to actually put the cost into making two different body moulds and two different circuit boards one for non-replaceable batteries and one for replaceable batteries.

Nintendo have been anti-consumer for a long time but I'm surprised that they're willing to waste money on it.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you can’t replace batteries on most modern portable computing devices these days.

Probably because of Mario and Zelda. Which is 100% legit.

I - way back when - bought a Switch 1 because it played a bunch of the games that I could easily involve my kids/family in, and can come the times I've used it on battery with one hand.

However, that was also before the Steam Deck became a thing and haven't really given Nintendo my patronage since.

The Deck also has an internal-only battery but replacing that at least is fairly straightforward (I have not needed to do so but was in the area when upgrading the storage card).

We'll be able to torrent all those "exclusives" in one or two years. No need to give Nintendo any money for being scumbags.

Because only the EU is legally requiring it

Because they only are doing the minimum needed changes to align with the law. Other countries don't have the law, so they don't do it there. Same game as with Apple.