Actually maybe not the worst idea ever?
Any system used to spy on users’ daily activities and preferentially rewards people that are predetermined to have the greatest chance to make the most profit of off, seems like a fucking awful and disturbingly distopian idea.
This stops most scalping though so using voluntary metrics to prioritise some seems like a reasonable trade-off. This suggests scarcity but it’d be weird since they launch mid-year. I guess they’re trying to FOMO their fans.
“Reasonable trade-off” is all too often just a baby step to something so much worse.
Perhaps this really is just Nintendo solving the scalping problem, but it sets the foundation for policies, technology, and cultural apathy that can be even farther weaponized against people and used to manipulate how people spend money. Stuff like this is dangerous as fuck, now more than ever.
Often in lower league football (soccer?), if there’s huge game (cup match against bigger opponent, playoff etc), tickets are prioritised for those who have been to more regular games. Makes sense, the more committed fans get priority and avoids scalping.
This just seems like the same thing to me
“Spying” implies the user doesn’t know about it.
Virtually every platform collects this information, partly as a service to the user, so I don’t think it’s completely ridiculous.
One thing I do appreciate about Nintendo is that it works completely offline so if you don’t want them to have any info about you, you can keep it.
Idky you got downvoted, you are correct.
These metrics are very much public, sometimes bragworthy/touted, and yes while technically a little creepy it does effectively deal with the scalper problem.
I hate shit that must connect to servers & cannot be played offline. As Louis Rossmann says, this begs the question – do you even own what you bought & paid for? Or is it a license they can take away next time you come online?
I love Nintendo, I also have so many fucking gripes about Nintendo, but that’s not one of their flaws. I have always been able to play all their stuff offline with no problems whatsoever. 🙂 That should be the norm, but it isn’t, and Nintendo is exceptional in this regard.
My friends can all see how much I’ve played my Steam games and I don’t see anyone complaining about that.
Steam isn’t currently trying to use your playtime as a way to determine what you can and cannot buy
Bro you can still buy the switch 2 if you’ve never had the first one, I promise
For now perhaps
I don’t find this half as dystopian as pretty much anything else going on in the world right now, tbh.
All these distopian things aren’t nearly as disconnected as you might think
I think it’s brilliant. Good luck spoofing my 1,200 hours of Mario Kart and 1,000 hours of Splatoon scalpers!
This is not what Nintendo claims on their website
Sign in with your Nintendo Account and register your interest in purchasing a Nintendo Switch™ 2 system and select accessories from the official My Nintendo Store. We’ll be in touch with an invitation email once it’s your turn to shop.
Open to Nintendo Account holders in the U.S. and Canada, who are at least 18 years old. If you are eligible, an invitation email will be sent to the email address associated with your Nintendo Account when it is your time to purchase. The invitation will be valid for 72 hours. Invitation emails will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis to registrants who have purchased a Nintendo Switch Online membership with a minimum of 12 months of paid membership and a minimum of 50 total gameplay hours, as of April 2, 2025. Once invitation emails have been sent to all registrants meeting the priority criteria, invitations will be sent to remaining eligible registrants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Invitations are non-transferable and will be sent to the email address associated with the Nintendo Account that registered interest in purchasing Nintendo Switch 2. Optional accessories will be available to purchase alongside your system. For system and each accessory, limit one purchase per eligible Nintendo Account during the invitation period.
So it looks like you need a Nintendo account (obviously), be at least 18yo, have purchased a Nintendo Switch Online membership (minimum 12 months), and have 50hrs total gameplay as of today. I don’t know if that gameplay is 50hrs total or online only. It’s first come first serve.
The title is misleading. The requirements are different in the UK.This is what they claim in UK:
Has spent a certain amount of time playing purchased/paid Nintendo Switch games, prioritising those with more playtime.
Over time, the selection criteria thresholds may be lowered and more people could be invited to pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2 console. Throughout, we will remain focussed on prioritising the most dedicated Nintendo Switch players (while stocks last).
Oh so the wording is different in the UK. I’ll have to edit my post.
Maybe the 50hrs is just to weed out scalpers attempting to make new accounts to buy multiple.
50hours of gameplay over the lifetime of a console is not that much. I have like 200 hours in BOTW alone.
Yeah curious about the 50 hours as well. I definitely don’t have 50 hours this year, or even in the last twelve months. Overall I for sure do.
Yeah I put in some hours with Echos of Wisdom but I don’t play online much. Probably gonna change that by spectating Smash Bros when I’m supposed to be working.
Oh how is that I really wanted to buy it and never got around io the title.
It’s OK. Mostly solving puzzles and collecting echoes. I like the art style but it feels like the Link’s Awakening port so it feels like a port when it isn’t.
I’m not angry about this- it seems it’ll cut down on the initial scalping.
Getting the consoles into the eager hands of people that actually play them & don’t sell for profit. 🙂
I read somewhere else some games would be $90, no thanks. I was weighing Switch 2 or Deck, ended up with deck. No regrets.
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I consider myself a patient gamer now. I just wait till most my purchases are on sale.
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Had a switch lite, looking at the deck. Steam store beats everything.
I have had switch 1 since launch & had fun on it I won’t lie. I also agree with you on Steam.
I got it during my stay at a remote mountain region, bad connectivity and unreliable electricity. Switch was my savior, but as soon as I got back it became obvious other platforms are usually better for the same game.
Don’t give Nintendo more money for their lackluster crap.
If you can’t help yourself, at least wait for the inevitable OLED model.
wait it doesn’t have OLED? so it’s worse?!
Nope. It’s apparently going to be LCD. Based on recent handheld cycles, they’ll just re-release in a few years with OLED as the major excuse for it. No real upgrade other than that.
They claim it’s “better” cause the new one is 1080p instead of 720p. Whoopdeedoo.
I’ve also always known OLEDs to supposedly be more power efficient than LCDs, so a battery life downgrade in a way.
This is dystopian, if true. This type of data should be kept private, on the console itself, for the use of the user only.
If you have your profile set to Public your hours have always been there.
Steam is part social network, so it’s expected. The play time is clearly counted, and you can choose to hide it. Steam does not count your offline hours.
From the 15 minutes I’ve played Switch, it did not obviously: record playtime, phone home, or give any option to be online/offline.
Click on your user icon in the top left of the home menu to find your profile. It’s pretty much the same as Steam in this regard.
Do you use Steam?
Not an unreasonable way to handle it, but this does effectively confirm that shortages are going to be hell.
Thought that was an onion type of article at first, lol.
In Germany, you can just pre order the system from the large retailers right now. Even before you can on Nintendos own website.
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Don’t think so, they say you can have it delivered or pick it up in a store on the 5th of June, the official release date
I’d rather buy Legion Go S or Steam Deck over this.
Yeah, but i haven’t connected mine to the internet since a few months after its release.
I used my own console certificate to authenticate pirated game downloads straight off Nintendo servers while it was still possible. I don’t think I can receive official updates anymore. So probably no tracked time here either ;)
I like Nintendo stuff but Nintendo doesn’t have an official distributor here so I’ll probably buy it like a sane person, in a store.
Ghost store still works the last time I checked… At 500 USD and $80 games, and “physical games” that are just keys, pirate the fuck out of everything Nintendo. Especially, after they went after legal emulators.
I’m using Ghost e-shop out of necessity these days but it sucks compared to shops we had. I’ll probably buy games on Switch 2 normally. With Switch 1 I couldn’t afford games for some time but I’m much better now. I feel like digital library sharing and lending are a way to make those prices more acceptable.
That is unless a jailbreak comes out and my ADHD goblin makes me mess with my console and I get banned again. Then I’ll be back to my weird philosophy of buying games on a platform with least amount of cut and pirating them everywhere else.
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Who cares for the hype train?
This is more like a hype wagon, really.
Guess this sucks for little Timmy who never played video games before and wants a Switch 2.
This has signs of the classic Nintendo artificially manufactured shortage.
With how badly this thing is going to be scalped making sure people who play Nintendo get their hands on it is fine. I agree sucks for little Timmy, sucks less for little Timmy if they all get bought up by some guy who reposts them on eBay for triple the price.
He will have it by Christmas, maybe even before school starts.
It’s such a a shame there’s no other way to play such great games as Mario Kart, Breath of the Wild, or Tears of the Kingdom any other way until then.
I don’t understand why anyone wants one of these.
