darkSpyro

Video right here if you want to check for yourself.
*0:25-Minecraft Story Mode being ported.
*0:33-Rayman Legends being ported, which was actually confirmed and given an interview.
*0:35-Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 being ported.
*0:44-Far Cry Primal being ported.
*0:53-What looks to be a new Mii based party game.
*1:14-Minecraft itself being ported, which is pretty big.
*1:17-Some new game about a boy and a fox, was probably announced before but I don't know what it is.
*1:20-What appears to be a new F-Zero game.

As a European, the price of the console itself isn't even the issue for me. €330 (rounding up the additional cent for simplicity sake) is a bit high, but it's still cheaper than what I expected. And I think the hardware has a lot of cool features, so at first glance, it's certainly more appealing than say, a similarly priced tablet.

The issue is the cost to actually get any fun out of the system or use a lot of it's intended features. And this is an issue prevalent in all regions. For the purpose of the example, I'm using BotW as my game reference since it's obviously the game most people are excited about, and it's personally the game I would go for if I got a Switch at launch. Other games might be cheaper though I doubt anyone is gonna buy only 1-2 Switch at launch. Also, while GameStop does tend to charge a little more for games anyway, I'm using their site because that's where most consumers in Ireland buy their games, and they tend to have the best stock.

There's no pack-in game (as of current knowledge), so you're paying an additional €70 for a game to play on your new system. We're now at €400, which is the same price as a PS4 Pro (I'm using it for comparison as it is Sony's most recent system and the fact it comes with no game too makes it a fairer comparison).

But let's say you want to buy BotW digitally. In fact, let's assume you want to go all digital like I know some people want to do. AAA games on the eShop will most likely cost €60 like on the Wii U (BotW at retail is the same price on both systems so I assume they're keeping the same prices as Wii U games across the board), so we're at €390 for Switch + BotW. But wait, the Switch only has 32 GB of memory, and BotW is over 10 GB. Without even factoring in the Switch's OS taking up a bit of memory, and the possibility of another 5 GB day one update like on Wii U, you've already used up almost a third of your system's memory on one game. Since AAA, 3D Wii U games tended to be at least 5 GB, I'm going to use that as the bare minimum for AAA, 3D Switch games. Which means you'd only be able to get another four of those kinds of games on the system before you need to buy a microSD card. For a serviceable size of 128 GB, you're basically forking out yet another €70 (at a reduced price, mind you - it's normally €97). So we're now at €460.

Now let's say you want to buy a second pair of Joy-con for multiplayer in Nintendo's more gimmicky games like Arms, and a Pro Controller for multiplayer in more fleshed out games like a shooter or something (one Joy-con won't suffice for those as it lacks a second stick and a lot less buttons). These have both been said to be $70 each by Nintendo, which is about €65 when directly converted. So €130 in total for both of those. Added to our previous total, and it's now €590.

By the way, I bought a 49" 4K-HDR Smart TV for Christmas. It's considered to be at the higher end of mid-range 4K TVs. It was €520 (reduced sale price as far as I'm aware, but still).

Now we got to sort out online play. Yes, there's a free trial for the first few months, but that isn't per customer, it's just a specific period Nintendo is making free. Everyone is going to have to pay for it eventually, and late buyers don't avail of it. The subscription is going to be $5 a month, which is $60 for a year (the longest PS Plus subscription package Sony offers is about the same). I'll say it will be €50 over here for a year, as that is what a year of PS Plus is over here. We're now at €640 for our total.

This is not even going into the fact that PS Plus offers way more perks than Nintendo's measly "rent a NES/SNES game for a month". There's also the fact you don't ACTUALLY need a PS Plus subscription to play all PS4 games online, but only the ones that use Sony's PS4 servers. Some games, like LittleBigPlanet 3 and Journey don't use Sony's PS4 servers, and you can play online in them, with other players, for free. Granted, Nintendo might adopt this policy, it's too early to say either way though (and IMO MK8 Deluxe should have free online since the original game did too and worked well enough).

So €640 for the Switch, a meaty AAA game at launch, merely serviceable storage for games and DLC, future-proofing yourself for potential multiplayer games (note how I didn't even factor in the cost of the multiplayer games themselves), and a year of a very basic online subscription package from a company that has still yet to prove they can offer decent online infrastructure (Sony at least proved they could on PS3, PSP and Vita before charging on PS4, so it was an easier sell when they started charging).

If I went into the features you get with various PS4 bundles and how you get so much more for much less, I would be here all day, but the bottom line is, to even get the most BASIC of features ready on the Switch, you have to pay so much extra money. More than Sony's most expensive SKU (which is the most expensive SKU in gaming right now), and more than a number of 4K TVs.

Oh, and an extra Switch dock is $90 if you want one, so that's another €85, give or take. It's not really that necessary but Nintendo has kinda been touting it as a significant benefit of the system - being able to hook it up to different TVs by just placing the tablet in another dock that's set up the one time.

And voice chat and parental controls and the like seem to require a smartphone. Most people will already have one, but if you don't, well........

TL;DR the Switch is terrible value. Between this and stuff like Super Mario Run being €10 because of the brand alone, Nintendo have to be the most egotistical company when it comes to how they price their stuff.

Also just as an extra note, Arms is €75 at GameStop (MORE THAN BOTW WHAT????), and 1-2 Switch is €50. If you want them as multiplayer games at launch window for using the extra controllers you might pick, that's a lot more money.

Again, they will be a little cheaper elsewhere, but no more than €10 cheaper so it's not much of a difference to the overall point.