A reader reveals he’s never owned a Nintendo console before but is now planning to get a Switch 2 instead of a PlayStation 5.
These are strange times for just about everything at the moment and while it seems wrong to compare video games to serious world events it feels like the problems are all the same: an overall sense that everything’s going in the wrong direction and things we know to be good are being abandoned for no sensible reason.
I’ll keep my comments limited to video games though and say that I don’t like the direction Microsoft or Sony are going at the moment. Sony hasn’t done anything to show it’s given up on live service games (Sony hasn’t done anything, period, all year so far) and Microsoft is still running around like a headless chicken.
I don’t really care about Microsoft because I haven’t owned an Xbox console since the Xbox 360, but I really don’t like where they’re going with AI at the moment. Especially as we got that leak about Sony’s AI plans this week as well and, as usual, it was all just about doing artists out of their jobs. I don’t own a PlayStation 5 either, just a PlayStation 4, but I was considering getting one. But now I think I’ll just go with a Nintendo Switch 2 instead.
My filthy secret is that I have never owned a Nintendo console. I’ve had them in the house, when borrowing them or when people have brought round their portables, but for one reason or another I’ve never actually owned one. I did mean to get around to the Switch but obviously there’s no point doing that now, especially when the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.
I’m in my 40s now so I’m not Nintendo’s target audience, certainly not for things like Kirby and Animal Crossing and whatever (see, I know all the names!) but I am interested in trying Zelda and Metroid and maybe Fire Emblem. The good thing about having never had one of their consoles before is that I’ve got so much new stuff open to me, so I’m thinking that even if I don’t like a lot of it at least it’ll be fun finding out.
Also, there seems a good chance the Switch 2 is going to be able to play a lot of current and last gen games, so it’s not like I’d be stuck only with unfamiliar Nintendo franchises. We already know Microsoft is going to be all over it and if the console is going to be as big as people think I would imagine more or less every publisher will want to be involved.
I hear it might be expensive, but that’s okay because I’d put money aside for the PlayStation 5. I’m at a point where I want to see something different and I really liked Nintendo’s attitude to AI, where they just came out and said they’re not interested and they’re not going to do it.
Microsoft and Sony are so corporate nowadays, with not even an attempt to pretend they care about gaming, that it’s really putting me off. I know there’s plenty of good games on their systems, by people that do still care, but I can’t shake the feeling.
A change is as good as a rest they say, and since I don’t want to give up on gaming – and I certainly don’t want to get a PC – I’ll give the Switch 2 a go. I can’t imagine any way in which it would be worse than a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.
By reader Neosquash
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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