Comment by joenot443
1 day ago
The Switch 1 sold about 150m units, the Steam Deck’s sold 6m.
Internet nerds like us aren’t really Nintendo’s target market, I don’t think. Installing emulators or jailbreaking a system isn’t something most of their customer base would have the want or need to do, IMO.
Even some of us internet nerds are Nintendo fans who wouldn't go anywhere near emulating. Apart from any of the moral concerns, it's just such a worse experience: I want to use a touch screen, a portable device, a proper gamepad, etc. Nintendo has built up quite a considerable amount of goodwill since the 1980s, and the reward for that is a pretty loyal customer base.
I love Nintendo and have since the NES was released. Taking a day or 2 to set up an Ayn Thor w/ every game I've ever played from my childhood, the instruction manuals, and whatever other conveniences modern emulation affords really does beat trying to find the old hardware and games at a ridiculous premium. Also buying most all of the old stuff doesn't help Nintendo in any way so the 'morality' goes out the window. The setup IS a bit tedious but once it's done you rarely have to change anything.
I also own a Switch 1 w/ Breath of The Wild but I prefer to emulate it because you can increase the draw distance, get 60 FPS, add some HD textures [1], and fix some other issues that I had with the game because the Switch 1 was such terrible hardware. Even the Switch 2 version isn't nearly as good as the one you can get from emulating.
[1]https://youtu.be/YK2lkGsaoaw
Opposite for me. I pirated and emulated some switch games that I wouldn't have played on an actual device because I don't like handhelds and I hate playing games at 30 FPS and in low resolution. Any polish and intended experience goes out of the window when I'm constantly distracted by terrible framerate.
So, emulation on a Steam Deck!
But still, you have to set it up, so I get your point.
> I want to use a touch screen, a portable device, a proper gamepad, etc.
For what it's worth: you can use your ordinary Switch controllers on any PC just fine.
I have a Mac and every time I've tried it, it's been fraught with problems. I think it worked once; maybe I'll go back and see if I have more luck now <shrug>
1 reply →
So true. It's dangerous to form world views based on "What HN thinks". This is the best community on the Internet IMHO but we're a very tiny slice of the population. "Real people" tend to not behave like us.
I remember as a child many of my friends getting a PS1 specifically because you could chip it and burn games. Young people love piracy because they have no money to pay
I was one of them. Now I got a good salary I use it to actually buy games. So in a way piracy led me to keep up my game enjoyment into adulthood. Doesn’t make it legal of course but with a delayed effect the games industry is getting their money from me.
Same thing with GTA 6.
A tiny fraction of people might decide to go through hoops to pirate, but most will either play the normal way or do something else.
I had a thread disagreeing with me when i brought that up.
People will be playing it at release on PC, regardless if whether it's available or not
“People” return half eaten hamburgers to Costco to save a few bucks.
That’s still not what the typical person does
Has everyone forgotten the PSP already? When I was at school a lot of kids in my class(including myself) had one, and I don't recall anyone getting any actual games for it, I do remember the clerk at the store explaining to my parents that oh this console is very easy to hack and you can just download games online for it, which is exactly what everyone I knew did.
Which seems to be what everyone did everywhere, as the console sold very very well and the software for it sold poorly.
This is actually the Japanese experience too. Many Japanese ex-kids of PSP generation have the story of the guy from two classes over with a Pandora battery and the firmware stick usually in his school bag. But sound of UMD drives seeking was common too, and discs themselves aren't rare at all, so I think a lot of games did sell in the end?
Where'd you go to school? Bay Area? Those sound like smart kids.
For what it's worth, I also had a cracked PSP. I did the battery pack hack, it was gory and awesome. I'm guessing some of the later iterations got a little simpler? All software?
I wonder what % of kids today are using a modded Switch or rooted Android.
Once you had a modified battery, it was pretty easy to do more PSPs. I was able to purchase the battery later and just carry around the software on a memory card. Sold that as a service for a bit.
Yeah I think the Switch is popular with parents because it’s locked down and mostly just works.
Like if you want to do zero technical things and provide access to Minecraft without providing access to TikTok.
all it takes is 1 TikTok trend