I think it has more to do with them advertising it as a grab and go system, but the console itself has a low battery life so the last thing you want to do is draw power from it while you’re out and about for your controllers.
ooh nice!
That is 160 dollars of controller right there.
So? That’s the way it goes. I spent more than that several times, on Xbox 360 controllers, then on Xbox One controllers, and again on Wii controllers (Wii motes and then again for the gamepads for Smash Bros and Mario Kart) to play with my kids.
I did that on 360 controllers and Wii controllers. So this time I learned my lesson. I didn’t buy any extra controllers yet for Xbox One or PS4. And I’m set on waiting until I absolutely 100% need to. When I need to play multiplayer, I tell my brother to bring his controller from Oregon with him, or the one living in KC, I tell him to bring his controller that came with his Xbox One.
When my nieces and nephews want to play a game on the PS4 multiplayer, I say, sorry, there’s no way I’m buying a second controller. When they point out that the L1 button sticks and doesn’t press in properly on the PS4 controller, I tell them sorry, there’s no way I’m buying a second controller.
He. I certainly understand where you are coming from.
I have 4 kids and we play games together (multiplayer or split screen) quite a bit. It’s part of our weekend unwind family time. So, in my case, it’s pretty much an unavoidable cost when getting a new console.
Having a Nintendo console without at least 2 controllers would seem odd to me. They’re known for local MP.
Isn’t that exactly the point of the Switch controller? That it breaks into two controllers for local multiplayer?
Not if we’re saying the two together are more like the pro or full console controller… if’s that the case to do two player on games the can use a full controller set-up, you need two sets.
I guess. Each of those joy cons are tiny though, and not fully featured buttons wise. I think you would need an extra set of joycons or pro controller for a second player for most games. Sure you can play super mario 3d world with a wii-mote only, but why would you? So much better 2 player with the tablet/pro controller combo. You’ll want a second “full” controller Which is 70-80 dollars. I need a second controller for my ps4, it is 50 bucks, they usually run 10 bucks under MSRP. That is a chunk of change, but nothing crazy, whatever. I think that the split joycons is a fun little thing for portability and multiplayer on the go, but couch co-op would want the full experience.
For the Switch, you pay 80 bucks for a second set of joycons, you need something to charge those. You basically have to buy the 30 dollar charging grip, otherwise you only have one spot to charge the joy-cons. 110 dollars there. Or you could get a pro controller, that uses a usb cable to charge, that is cheap and easy 70 dollars.
Still miles more expensive than ps4/xbone.
There are a lot of open questions here. Let’s take Mario Kart 8 as an example:
- Does it support four-player splitscreen?
- Does it support 4 full controllers? If I bought three additional Pro Controllers, would those even work on the system?
- How are additional controllers recognized? If I have a Pro controller two Joycons (I mean two pairs of Joycon L/R…ugh this terminology is going to get confusing), and I break one of the Joycons up, will it automatically recognize them as separate controllers? What if I break both of them? Which controllers get priority?
As I see it, the comparison between PS4 and Switch controllers setups would be:
PS4: Pay $50 extra for a second controller, and you can have two-player co-op with a full controller.
Switch (choice 1): Pay $70 for a Pro Controller, and you can have two-player co-op with a full controller, or three-player co-op with one full controller and two half-controllers.
Switch (choice 2): Pay $110 ($80 plus $30 for the charging dock) for a second Joycon, and you can have two-player co-op with a full controller, or four-player co-op with four half-controllers.
The Switch (choice 2) option costs as much as two PS4 controllers, but gives you more flexbility if you occasionally have four-player co-op sessions. Kind of a tradeoff though, and it requires two or more people being okay using the tiny Joycon L/R controllers.
Remind me which local two-player games shown so far require two pro controllers, or 4 joy-cons?
Yeah I don’t see a huge need for multiple sets of Joy-cons yet either. Maybe someday (Smash Brothers?) but it doesn’t look like something most people need to budget for at launch.
Bomberman R for the Switch!
They really need to specify a lot of the details about how (and which) controllers are supported, and what games have local co-op versus online play. For example, Splatoon 2 shows “No. of Players: up to 8 players”, which doesn’t really help. Is that one player per system, with eight systems playing locally? Two players per system, with four systems total? Eight players online? So vague!
Mario Kart 8 says local wireless is 8 (assume 8 systems), 4 Local in TV Mode, but then int says up to 12… so I assume the 12 is online which it doesn’t really say that there is an online, but I imagine it must be.
I would assume (hope?) that you can have 8 players with 4 systems in split-screen mode with half-controllers, just based on the fact that you can play with two players in split-screen mode. Completely a guess though.
Oh that could work. I can’t imagine looking at that tiny screen like that. I mean I do it with a 3DS and my phone but it’s pretty close to my face, no one else has to look at it. I can see where having 4 systems, 4 joy con combos, and 8 players could be ideal.
Sigh. I guess I should just finally give up on Nintendo ever doing anything that reminds me of being a kid again. None of the excitement of any of the early systems. Just another day-late-and-a-dollar-too-expensive system. Great. :/