1949

I wouldn’t count on that. A number of previous systems have sold out instantly and been in short supply for months after launch.

Obviously nobody knows for sure how much supply and demand there will be for this compared to previous launches, but I’d put my money on scarcity. The current generation went for 7 years, so people are probably more ready to upgrade than they would have been a couple years ago. And there definitely seems to be boosted demand for entertainment electronics from the pandemic.

1950

The resellers mostly. They’re going to be out in force to try and get these units and sell them at extraordinary prices for the holidays.

1951

For every one bought on the same credit card they should add $50…

1952

I imagine you’ll be able to get one this year without much of a problem. You might have to get a “bundle” though. Like Sam’s Club and Costco usually make a bundle with an extra controller, and those are usually the least predatory bundles. Gamespot and others might have a bundle with Godfall or Spider-man or some such thing that you might not necessarily want.

1953

Thanks all. With work and family stuff, haven’t been paying attention to the pre-order madness so hopefully there’ll be enough! Need my upgraded Demon’s Souls in 2020.

1954

Dunno why they would expect more. The 825GB is unformatted space just like any HD that’s listed. Format + system OS etc. and that’s sounds about right what you would be left with.

1955

They’re swapping the x and circle buttons in Japan for PS5. That’s potentially awesome for us here in the West. Kind of sucks for Japanese players. But if that means they’ll start to get used to this way, then maybe Nintendo will do it as well?

1956

Perhaps even more confusingly, the Japanese versions of PS5 games will still use the previous definitions of X and Circle, separate and contradictory to the PS5 hardware itself.

???

1957

Developers can code their games to have the buttons do whatever they want. So I would read this as saying that some developers will stick with the old setup, either because they didn’t know about the change in time to adjust it, or just because they prefer it or think audiences will prefer it. I would hope that at as time goes on, developers will either convert to the system-level definitions, or at least offer an option for it.

Which is kind of a crappy way to go about it, honestly. They should have just announced well in advance that they were ripping the bandaid off and standardizing across all regions.

1958

Oh. So you think the change was announced after the development of these earlier games. That does suck. It just seems like it should be consistent for the players, no matter what they do. You kind of get into the groove of things. I know the consoles like to flash buttons at you now and then, MHW does that, but I kind of just know after awhile because they’re samish.

1959

That’s how I would read it, yeah. It’s going to be an annoyance for some people to get used to no matter what, and I do get the argument that it’s more intuitive to think of “X” as “no”.

But after the very first couple of hours using the system, muscle memory is more based around physical location than symbol. If I were in charge I probably would have swapped the buttons around, had a blue circle meaning “yes” on the bottom, and a red X meaning “no” on the right side.

1960

Oh god, that would be much worse. I don’t actually care too much if the bottom button or the right button is OK or cancel… it would take literal years to deprogram my brain from pressing the bottom button when “X” pops up on the screen. (Xinput has been standard on PC for what, 15 years? And any time there is an issue with responsive controller symbols with a Steam game, which is thankfully not often any more, I still get frustrated very easily. Though Nintendo is still actively a thing rather than a clean switch, to be fair.)

1961

It was amusing watching a bunch of the expats in Japan melting down on Twitter over the change this weekend. It’s an adjustment everyone else in the world has managed to deal with going back and forth between Nintendo and non-Nintendo devices for decades.

1962

It’s honestly the part about getting a Nintendo Switch that I’m dreading the most. I know I’ll get one eventually and that I’m too old to easily switch back and forth anymore. In my younger days it wouldn’t have been a problem.

1963

Well they’re experiencing an actual change which is hard to do if you’ve been playing since the beginning.

I’ll sit over here while everyone accepts that it’s a Cross button and not an X button at all. Or… you know, everyone will just keep calling it a cross because that’s what we’ve been doing for decades.

1964

Actually, this is one area where Nintendo turned out to be surprisingly accommodating. You can remap button assignments at the system level, so I have mine set up to swap X <> Y and A <> B. This way they match the Xbox controller layout, which I’m used to from PC, including having the bottom button be confirm and the right button be cancel.

Much easier on my muscle memory this way, though still a bit annoying in that they insist on nagging me on every startup to make sure I’m aware that the controls are remapped.

1965

Oh wow, I would have never expected this from Nintendo. That sounds perfect.

1966

Yeah, remapping any Switch controller at the system level is a pretty recent change, and it’s one I took advantage of immediately, even though there was a period of unlearning with games like Splatoon 2. Now all I have to worry about is muscle memory when playing my 3DS.

1967

Wow indeed. I didn’t know Nintendo did that either. Great on them.

1968

You can completely remap the PS4 controller at the system level, too. If this carries forward to the PS5 it will truly be a moot point.