Nintendo Is Testing Your Patience, And Also Your Intelligence

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So, just a few days ago, it was announced that the Switch 2 will be nearly 500 dollars. This still pales in comparison to what it costs to have a whole entire PC, but hold up a second. Not only will the console cost you 500 dollars, but the digital edition of games will be 80 dollars, and the physical copies wil be 90 USD, on a case-by-case basis (apparently). As we all know, the last studio that did something like this, caused a cascade that made nearly every new title 70 bucks. But, there’s something all of them are ignoring.

It’s quickly becoming apparent that owning a PC or a console is something only people with extra, or lots of money will be doing, in the extreme near future. Especially if Nintendo is successful in pushing standard edition games to 80 and 90 dollars. As if we’re all made of money while the economy is tanking far past the toilet, and into hell itself.

But, I remember a time when I used to buy multiple games per month. Now I buy a single game every couple months, or maybe two if I’m feeling like I don’t care. Maybe more if they go on sale at steep discounts.

This isn’t how it used to be.

But, I wanted to talk less about the rising prices of games without any thought for the people who buy them (because who cares if we price out an entire class of people from an art form), and more about the thing that all of these studios and publishers are ignoring.

You can play perfectly fun, good, and highly detailed games on your phone, and … for free.

That’s right.

We’re no longer in the era of Candy Crush being a staple of mobile gaming.

You can play Call of Duty on your phone, without spending a single dime. Which is hilarious. The studio that brought you microtransaction-shooter-hell, that releases with a new title every 6 months at 70 to 100 bucks, also gave you a way to play the same exact thing, for free, on your phone.

Not only that, but you can play a game that’s basically a copy-paste of Breath of the Wild, for FREE (Genshin Impact).

Don’t like either of those?

Phones got Minecraft, also. And it’s free.

Or maybe you’d prefer Runescape.

No? How about the entire native Warframe experience?

Or even PUBG!

The thing is, I think a lot of these studios are banking on the idea that most gamers (see: people who play games) don’t take phone gaming seriously. But, why shouldn’t they?

You can whip out a cheap adapter, and plug an HDMI cable into a 200 dollar Android, and play on your TV, with a wireless controller.

Or, you know, you can just … hold your phone, and play while laying down, on your back, in your comfy bed, and pop off forty straight kills in a CoD team deathmatch.

But hey.

Hey.

Maybe you would prefer to spend 150 dollars on the next Call of Duty title for your 700 dollar console. Or your 2000 dollar PC.

Is it time to take mobile gaming seriously?

Bro, most of us are already taking it seriously.