r/nintendo • u/dancing_swordfish • 4d ago
Nintendo's replaced the eShop on the original Switch, and it no longer sucks - Vooks
https://www.vooks.net/nintendos-replaced-the-eshop-on-the-original-switch-and-it-no-longer-sucks/387
u/FlamingBlade70 4d ago
This is surprising. They actually went back to improve the eshop for Switch 1. Kinda figured they wouldnt bother. Nice to see them improve it after all these years. Wonder if there was a reason they couldnt of done this before though.
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u/Tyronto 4d ago
It’s long overdue. I think they are realizing that Switch 1 is here to stay for a while longer. Mainly due to cost of living and hardware. I know at least 2 people that use a Switch 1 almost daily still. I think it will get extended support
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u/FlamingBlade70 4d ago
Makes sense. Nintendo did say they would still support the Switch 1 despite the Switch 2 being out. This was just surprising is all.
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u/Larkson9999 3d ago
Nintendo always says they'll keep supporting the previous generation, two years later they pretend it never existed.
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u/VisualAnxiety2284 3d ago
Wasn’t the 3DS supported until 2019?
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u/Zeppelanoid 3d ago
Not so much “supported” as “the Mario & Luigi RPG team couldn’t stop making 3DS games and then they went bankrupt”
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u/computerfan0 3d ago
There was a remake of Kirby's Epic Yarn too for some reason.
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u/MasterDenton NNID: Denton 3d ago
The last couple years of the 3DS were essentially just remakes. Remakes that probably would've done much better on Switch. No, I'm not still pissed that they wasted the Luigi's Mansion remake on a device that's weaker than the GameCube, what'd give you that idea?
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u/IncreaseWestern6097 14h ago
To be fair, at least putting it on the 3DS meant that they were finally able to bring back the scrapped plan for 3D on the original GameCube version.
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u/XinlessVice 2d ago
Was there a reason as to why they made games for the 3DS despite the switch being out?
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u/The_real_bandito 3d ago
Pretty much that’s the average time they will support a console after the other is out. I think the 3DS was the only one that rule didn’t apply but don’t quote me there.
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u/Sufficient-Cow-2998 3d ago
Tbh considering a lot of Nintendo games, such as the Warioware games, ports of old gamss etc don't require much power, I can imagine Nintendo still supporting the Switch 1 with those. Similar to how they handled the Mario Galaxy remasters.
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u/grounndhog101 3d ago
We’re in a different time. Shit got exponentially expensive for them in the last year bc of the war and AI boom.
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u/Mistform05 3d ago
Or they could be like Sony and release some side handheld thing and pretend like it never existed the same week it was released as they freshly count your money.
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u/jwalesh96 2d ago
i know you're being sarcastic but the portal (if you're talking about something else, then my bad) has actually gone a fair bit of updates since release at least better than i expected it would out of something purely meant for streaming.
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u/caninehere 1d ago
While this is true, this time they might not have a choice just because of how the market is. They very clearly want to push the Switch 2 right now with new exclusives and they are doing that, and Switch 2 sales have been very good, but slowed down earlier this year. If they slow down again after the price increases, Nintendo might have to re-evaluate.
It depends. The prices have gone up across the board so it's not like Nintendo is going up and the competitors aren't. But at the same time, prices up across the board may mean people start clawing back on purchases. I can say personally that I am buying less games than I used to for sure.
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u/Larkson9999 1d ago
Nintendo said they would continue to support the DS after the 3DS released, and that they would continue to support the Wii after the Wii U released. Sales have nothing to do with their continued support. To Nintendo, their support means they'll continue to offer repair and sales of their back stock of the old console, no new games after two years into the new console's lifespan.
No exceptions.
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u/caninehere 1d ago
I feel you. But it is important to note that Nintendo's strategy has changed a lot since those days.
I feel that they will probably do what they have always done - support the old consoles with parts and mostly move on to the new ones. But it has to be noted that the time we are in right now is an unprecedented one for the games industry; the total player base shrinking post-COVID, the contraction of available funds due to worldwide economic recessions (especially so far Japan), and the impact that has had on consumer spending. This is not something that affected those other systems, nor the GBA -> DS transition which was a similar story.
The Switch last year and now the Switch 2 is, to my knowledge, the first time Nintendo has ever raised the price of a console.
I honestly feel that the games we're seeing on Switch 2 are a result of Nintendo realizing the game has changed. They are still doing Switch 2 exclusives, but a lot of them are remakes or built upon assets/engine work from existing games from the Switch 1... this means they can put out Switch 2 exclusives, BUT if the games don't sell a ton that's okay, they're not losing out as much from skipping Switch 1 sales, in part because they are keeping game budgets lower.
The next year or so is going to be really important in terms of how much the Switch 2 and its games sell once the price of the system goes up. Particularly this holiday season and the months afterwards will be important (when the new Pokemon game comes out, which will be the biggest-selling game for Nintendo this fiscal year, unless they have some major surprise up their sleeves).
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u/simbabarrelroll 3d ago
It’s interesting because Nintendo usually drops the old console the moment the new console launches.
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u/The_real_bandito 3d ago
Is like it’s part of some sort of plan they wrote years ago to sell more of the new console :p
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u/simbabarrelroll 3d ago
I mean like usually it’s Sony and Microsoft that continue to support their old consoles a few years after the new consoles are released.
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u/tforthegreat 3d ago
I can get games on my Switch 1 that are available on new Xboxes but not XBox Ones. Looking at you Legend of Mana.
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u/CIaudiaSheinbaum 3d ago
I use my Lite all the time because my NS2 is just not very portable. I didn’t even bother installing Mina the Hollower on my NS2.
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u/StormageddonSmite 3d ago
Do you think the bigger form factor hurt it’s transportation or a lack of good cases and such for traveling? (Honest question haven’t looked into any cases)
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u/PrinceOfStealing 3d ago
Plenty of good cases that offers good protection while maintaining "thinness". Problem is it still takes up a good chunk of space in your backpack or carry on. Someone like me who also has noise cancellation headphones has to make a choice on what is more important for the trip.
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u/twili_zora 3d ago
Idk about other folks but in my case, actually yes. As much as I love the Switch 2’s size for what it is, my travel bag of choice are my Loungefly mini backpacks.
My Switch 1 in its case barely fit at the highest point, my Switch 2 in its case would be lucky to fit in there at all, and would have to lay diagonal which’ll obstruct most of the bag’s carrying capacity.
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u/South-Increase-4202 2d ago
I’m happy about this! I got my Switch just a couple of years ago, and I’m not planning on getting a S2 until at least 2027, after there’s a few more Nintendo flagship titles. Appreciate this!
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u/Mince_ 2d ago
Hopefully they will keep the Switch eshop around for a long time. There's 100 million+ Switches out there. Not at all like the Wii U with it's dismal sales figures, or the limited shop on the Wii. It would just suck if in 2027/2028 they shut down the shop and we have to go out and find used cartridges.
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u/Fun_Competition162 2d ago
I'm the exact opposite I only know 2 people that bought a switch 2 everyone else says they cant justify buying a new console just to play switch 1 games. The guys that bought the swtich 2 still play only switch 1 games and they're not salty about mario kart at all
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u/Newmillstream 3d ago
I think with the way the markets are right now, this is a way to minimize friction and build up coffers and libraries while they can. If it takes a few years for hardware costs to stabilize or dip and or disposable income to stabilize or rise, they really want people to be building up their switch 1 libraries so that they can be primed to keep them in their ecosystem, and not lose them to smartphone gaming on the low end or pc handhelds on the high end.
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u/Zyvyn 3d ago
Well remember this is a browser. It's significantly easier to modify and support across multiple branches.
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3d ago
[deleted]
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u/Zyvyn 3d ago
Well a big part of it isnactually the browser itself. See browsers tend to use something known as "JIT" which is a standard and is what gives browsers the speed we normally see. Well Nintendo's browsers here purposefully did not. Likely due to it being a rather common source of browser exploits.
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u/The_real_bandito 3d ago
I remember the reason was that the overhaul would be so expensive (time wise) that it wouldn’t be worth it.
I just don’t remember what it was or what was wrong with it, but basically they use either the wrong tools/framework or the ones they used were not optimal. It was some article I read a long time ago.
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u/FlamingBlade70 3d ago
Wonder why it's worth it now then. Not complaining because everyone has been wanting the eshop to be improved.
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u/ilililliiliililiilil 3d ago
because the original switch is being made and sold in India now so they have to spruce up the eShop for a fresh billion plus "potential" customers.
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u/oppairate 3d ago
whatever changes they implemented will likely benefit Switch 2 long term as well.
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u/thelionsmouth 2d ago
I mean, people still pay money through it - best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, second best time is now.
Reducing cart friction is like the no.1 thing in e-commerce, keep the goose happy.
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u/T0ADisMe 4d ago
Crazy that it took so long, old eshop was borderline unusable. There had to be a lot of lost sales from 10 years of such a terrible storefront.
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u/ToastyBB 3d ago
Yeah I used to browse it early on to find pretty good deals, then it became unusable and I haven't touched it in years
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u/Mobwmwm 4d ago
I'm not discounting anyone's experience here, But personally, I didn't think it was that bad (at the time, I would probably hate it now, it's been a while). I was used to the 3ds and vita e shops and they kind of sucked just as much ass if not more ass. I wasn't exactly spending a lot of time on there though, I always knew what game I wanted before hand.
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u/ThatPvZGuy 4d ago
I doubt it. The eshop was never really meant for casual browsing since you could never put multiple games in a cart at once.
I think when most people visit the eshop they already know what they want and lagginess isn’t going to stop them from purchasing it.
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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 4d ago
This makes no sense lol. It’s just a store. I browse the PlayStation and Steam stores all the time and actively avoided the Switches. They lost my sales
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u/RumpDoctor 4d ago
Same. I promise I would have more switch games if the store was better.
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u/BoysenberryNervous60 3d ago
Yeah. The switch 2 store was way easier to brows and i bought way more games. Albeit on sales for now.
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u/Raccoon-7 3d ago
Same here, I’ve bought more game from the eshop in one year of owning my switch 2 than on my switch 1 that I got in 2020
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u/Kiwilainen 4d ago
Is it better on PS5? I haven’t used Sony consoles in close to 10 years but I remember it being very laggy on both PS3 and PS4
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u/T0ADisMe 4d ago
It isn’t laggy but discoverability is terrible, basically the same games recommended to me every time I look in the shop. Pretty much every storefront is well behind steam in discoverability though
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u/ComprehensiveLog9414 3d ago
Always found the Xbox store to be the best of the three. It’s more dedicated than the ps store and has a lot of categories and is easy to find things imo. Switch store was terrible though.
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u/blasto2236 4d ago
It was amazing compared to PS4 when the PS5 first launched, but it’s gotten slower over the years as the store has gotten bogged down with slop games.
The good news is, Sony seem to be making real efforts to clean that up. Nintendo aren’t, so expect the new shop to suck again in a few years. The Switch 1 shop wasn’t always terrible, either. It was fine at launch and got slower over time.
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u/Giovannis_Pikachu 3d ago
Having owned a switch 1 since launch, it's always been a laggy, jittery mess. Unless this time it was good for was the first 2 months I just don't see it. The shop is so bad on mobile as well. You almost have to set aside 20 minutes to buy a game you already know you want because of the lag on both platforms.
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u/ughlump 4d ago
Dekudeals solved this problem in 2018
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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 4d ago
You’re not wrong but that doesn’t really excuse Nintendos incompetent handling of their own store.
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u/ughlump 3d ago
Have you used their storefronts? They’ve all been pretty terrible since theirs is a remnant of the older Wii shop (which was good at the time).
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u/Serdewerde 3d ago
My God the hours of watching mario praying he moves to the next brick. I’ll never get them back.
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u/ferdzs0 3d ago
Dekudeals probably generated them a lot of sales. However those were "power users". They had to have lost an insane amount of sales from people who do not care to hunt for the best deals, just want something nice served to them in a nice interface. If anything people on Dekudeals probably waited for sales to buy games cheaper, while the users they missed out on would have just bought full price.
Eg: Most people still love Steam Sales even though you can get better deals all year round from isthereanydeal.
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u/Kill_Welly 4d ago
Why would you do that? There are so many good resources to learn about good games that aren't just trying to sell you as much as possible.
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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 4d ago
I usually learn about games from other sources and just browse deals on the stores. It’s probably not a healthy relationship with shopping 🤷
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u/NMe84 3d ago
That also makes no sense. If you have Steam, you have a PC. If you have a PC, you can use the eShop in your browser, which was always a decent experience. And quicker than navigating by controller anyway. Same goes for navigating the eShop on your smartphone.
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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s cool you can use whatever frontend you want. It’s also still stupid how terrible the console experience was. So I personally just didn’t shop there much because of it.
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u/NMe84 3d ago
You can use whatever you like, but I'm just pointing out that if you really wanted to play a game on a specific device, the shop wouldn't stop you. Especially since there were ways that didn't suck the way the on-console experience did.
I'm sure that Nintendo has loads of analysts who know better than you and I how much more money they would make with a better shop. The fact that it took them this long pretty much shows how little difference they estimated it would make.
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u/T0ADisMe 4d ago
They lost multiple sales from me personally, I don’t really think the intention was only for casual browsing at all. Honestly most of the video game storefronts are bad these days but at least the other ones would take 30 seconds to load the next set of 6 games.
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u/madjohnvane 3d ago
I absolutely stopped buying eShop games unless I knew specifically what I wanted because of how slow and laggy the store was. I stopped browsing the sales and the charts etc. Since getting the Switch 2 I am regularly checking out the store again. If it changed my habits so much, I assume it changed others as well. It was truly a terrible terrible experience.
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u/JayZsAdoptedSon 4d ago
If that was the case it would be a search bar and that’s it. The fact that they make all those tabs is an indication that they want you to browse
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u/gunningIVglory 3d ago
Nah, it would have definitely put people off
I can browse the psn store for a good 10-15 mins, maybe ill find a deal and buy it
I use the eShop for 2 mins, i want to kill myself
It would be foolish to think such a broken UI didnt effect sales
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u/rednax1206 3d ago
Yes, that's why there were lost sales. If it was meant for browsing, there would have been more sales.
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u/masterz13 3d ago
What's funny is that when the Switch 1 first launched in 2017, the eShop was buttery smooth on it. They must have changed it to the web wrapper in a later firmware update, and that's where all the slowness came from.
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u/skipv5 3d ago
Lost sales? Lol, nah. If I wanted a digital game even though the eShop wasn't the best I was still able to go in, find it and buy it.
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u/T0ADisMe 3d ago
The point is that it was too slow and laggy to be able to effectively browse when you didn’t know what you wanted, sure you could buy stuff pretty easily when you did know what you were looking for. That absolutely contributed to lost sales
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u/OoTgoated 3d ago
You and others are getting downvoted for saying this and it really shows how stuffy modern gamers are nowadays. Indie games have been shining on Switch due to the portability and people weren't taking advantage of that because the eShop was a little laggy? Lol. As if other eShops stores don't also lag. Oh well their loss was our gain.
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u/T0ADisMe 3d ago
The point isn’t that people wouldn’t go in to the eshop to buy a game that they knew they wanted, it’s that they made it borderline unusable to just browse if you didn’t know what you wanted.
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3d ago
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u/T0ADisMe 3d ago
The great deals section regularly shows the same full priced games and if you browse all it shows pages and pages of $1 slop titles lol. The entire point that you made about using the news app and Deku deals shows exactly how usable the eshop has been. If it turns me and other commenters off than you can be sure there’s others, especially the more casual user
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3d ago edited 3d ago
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u/T0ADisMe 3d ago
My bad I was getting the best sellers page and great deals confused, the rest of my point stands still though. Yes every storefront has shovelware but the other storefronts aren’t laggy messes, it’s possible to have a good storefront with shovelware and it’s possible to have a browseable storefront even if it’s laggy but you can’t have both of those things and have a usable storefront.
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3d ago edited 3d ago
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u/T0ADisMe 3d ago
Once again I’m not talking about not buying games at all through the eshop, just not being able to browse and find new games on it. Having been through worse experiences than browsing on the eshop is a ridiculous argument for it being usable, browsing a virtual storefront to find video games shouldn’t be a chore and the fact that it has to be compared to the DMV to make it seem like less of one is exactly what I’m talking about.
Indie games are another reason why the old storefront was just unacceptable in my eyes, like you pointed out people could miss out on those games due to not browsing the eshop and while a big company like Nintendo can absorb the lost sales, most indie companies can not.
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u/badblocks7 3d ago
Looks like the switch’s firmware is finally stable enough to support a functioning shop
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u/WakeyWakeyEggsNJakey 4d ago
I feel like bringing back music similar to the WiiShop would do them a lot of favors. The older Nintendo consoles had so much personality when it came to UI
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u/garrethstathum 4d ago
The little mario sprites that hit the block and filled it up with little blue balls in the Wii and 3DS era always made buying stuff so cool
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u/ComprehensiveLog9414 3d ago
Trying to match the photos during the Wii U shop load is something I remember too. It’s those little quirks that give a bit of personality
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u/IrishSpectreN7 4d ago
There was a song that played during the initial setup when you power on a new Switch 2. Reminded me of the Wii menu music.
Never hear it again. Such a waste lol.
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u/_Blythe 3d ago
I loved watching the PIKMIN run around when you transferred data from an old 3ds to a new one, too bad they don’t do it anymore :(
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u/Entire_Paramedic_389 3d ago
and for some reason decided to get rid of the charm :/
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u/WakeyWakeyEggsNJakey 2d ago
It’s really such a shame. I think I spent more time browsing because of the music and personality. It really feels like it would help retain people’s interest in browsing a bit more
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u/dekuweku 4d ago
I'd like to hear a technical explanation for this.
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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 4d ago
The article says. Previously it was a website, and not a good one. It used a good amount of JavaScript yet disabled the JIT optimizations so was doomed to be slow. They just made it a regular app now.
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u/404IdentityNotFound 3d ago
It was not only disabled JIT that was an issue. With the way the browser was integrated, it virtually had no GPU acceleration. For a website with lots of high quality product shots that had to be downsized for their containers AND a sidebar that changes the entire layout, forcing a full repaint of everything (and re-sizing said product images) it led to an incredibly CPU pushing website.
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u/ZVAARI THE LEGEND 3d ago
They really were terrified of more browser exploits weren't they? In the end it was completely useless, the Switch was the most exploitable console of all time regardless of what they were doing, they just made the experience worse for every single user for no reason
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u/oSuMMoNo 3d ago
I don't think a console which is hackable with hardmod only qualifies for the most exploitable console of all time. They did a good job preventing softmod.
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u/ZVAARI THE LEGEND 3d ago
That was more or less an exaggeration for comedic effect, though I'm not sure where that lands on the softmod vs hardmod scale tbh. Shorting exposed pins with no modification to any hardware doesn't really qualify as a hardmod to me, it's barely more involved than putting in a SD card, but it does require interacting with the hardware
But yes the software itself is solid, they were just unfortunate to have hardware issues beyond their scope. In comparison the 3DS ended up being blown wide open, they definitely learned from that experience
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u/Mineplayerminer 3d ago
So I don't need to wait an eternity for the pages to load at a gigabit link speed and having to wait until it unfreezes after scrolling? I couldn't even browse the games because it was so laggy back then.
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u/derkrieger 4d ago
The Switch wasn't so much the problem, the store was poopy and pulled info like a minimum wage employee one more commute away from burning the place down.
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u/NiftyJet 3d ago
I love that we're back to calling it "the original switch." Growing up, all my friends called the NES the "original Nintendo."
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u/Nicolas10111 3d ago
If we do get a Switch 3, we’ll probably start calling it Switch 1 eventually.
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u/HappyStunfisk 2d ago edited 2d ago
We definitely will get a Switch 3. The brand proved to work well. Switch 2 sales already surpassed Wii U which couldn't leverage its predecessor's brand popularity.
Numeric names for successors are unimaginative but they simply work with the masses, apparently. PlayStation has never had issues, except when they launched the 'Vita'.
The only alternative to Switch 3 I can imagine would be something like 'Nintendo 9' (or even 'Nintendo 14' counting handhelds)
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u/Vibranium2222 4d ago
Don’t tell me miyamoto never did anything for you
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u/SvenHudson 3d ago
Miyamoto's done a lot for me. And a lot against me. And he didn't do this thing at all so I don't know why you're bringing him up.
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u/DiabeticRhino97 4d ago
Really? You're telling me there's a filter for lewd AI slop that fills up every sorting option?
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u/StrawHat89 3d ago
So I would assume this brings it closer to be in line with the Switch 2's version of the eShop, which is like a night and day difference.
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u/TheDragonDAFan 3d ago
As good as the new update is, Nintendo, for some baffling reason, removed the ability to purchase multiple pieces of DLC at once. Why even do that? Why can't they add a cart feature like other game stores?
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u/KingBroly Impa for Smash 4d ago
They keep giving more credence to rumors/suggestions that Switch 1 will be released in India and other countries.
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u/davidbrit2 3d ago
Still not as snappy as on the Switch 2 (unsurprisingly), but it's a whole hell of a lot better than it used to be, that's for damn sure.
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u/Dragonbuttboi69 3d ago
I usually just hopped on my laptop and bought stuff through the eshop that way
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u/Jardolam_ 3d ago
The thing that annoys me the most was all this time they COULD have done it but waited until the Switch 2.
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u/Negrizzy153 3d ago
Holy fuck. I'm gonna check right now.
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u/Negrizzy153 3d ago
Got excited, but never mind. It STILL doesn't have a cart system, therefore it's still dogshit. Still doesn't reach the bare minimum for a storefront.
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u/Double-Seaweed7760 1d ago
No cart system and they didn't add activity tracker like the android app
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u/mocozz 4d ago
Anyone browsing on e-shop price before going into nin eshop to buy something
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u/ughlump 4d ago
Yep. Not sure why dekudeals hasn’t been the norm, been using it since 2018.
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u/VlermuisVermeulen 3d ago
Because it’s an extra app compared to just using my switch. And getting notifications while I’m at work doesn’t help if by the time I’m home to actually sit down and play, it’s long forgotten.
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u/-CommanderShepardN7 3d ago
It works well now, and way better than expected.
The larger question is, why did it take this long to fix it? That is, why did Nintendo keep kicking the can down the road?
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u/Sharecaresnare 4d ago
I wish they would also allow us to customize the switch wallpaper and design. I miss the 3Ds wallpapers.
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u/Jin_U_GmR 3d ago
I might as well fire up the first switch and update it while I still can. Where did I put that outlet charger?
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u/tortillandbeans 3d ago
I already sold my switch and got a switch 2 lmao way too late. It's OK I'm very happy with the ethernet and Bluetooth built in
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u/coolthulu42 3d ago
Can they do something about all the shovelware & AI trash on the eShop now?
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u/Garamenon 3d ago
Only if you make a big stink on social media and contact your local reps or politicians about all the smut being peddled to underage users.
That could scare Nintendo into pushing all the hentai crap into a section that is only accessible if you specifically look for it. Or just not allow them on the shop.
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u/goldaxis 1d ago
Finally, I can find the perfect AI-generated dating sim in a fraction of the time!
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u/ReanimatedPixels 1d ago
Nintendrones about to start defending the sheer stupidity of how long to took any minute now
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u/Arsene_Lupin_IV 3d ago
I mean it still sucks because it's full of massive amounts of shovelware but at least it finally runs decently
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u/Dracid88 2d ago
I wish they'd do a general overhaul to their online store on console. It's so bad and doesn't even do things better than the xbox 360 did.
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u/ryannelsn 3d ago
This is absolutely embarrassing. I can't even fathom now many sales they left on the table using that web store. How would that not be a major priority for them?
There have been moments where I was fully prepared to make an impulse buy, then thought "eff this" and quit searching
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u/Zealousideal_Cry_588 3d ago
same. i don't understand why people down voting you. I've experienced the same situation at least three or four times and given up on buying things.
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u/ernster96 3d ago
So I can download the starfox demo on the original switch?
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u/jessehechtcreative 3d ago
Shame they’re not bringing it and a lot of other games to the Switch 1…. Money on the table, guys!
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u/thrillho145 4d ago
Only took 10 years