Heeeeeey
ChikoLad
. You miss me?
I've been away for more than three whole hours, but I've been busy.
And I'd like to have a friendly word with you.
I didn't say the problems were on par with the Xbox 360 (you're talking to someone who went through three Xbox 360 models in the launch window), I just said it's the most problem ridden console since the Xbox 360.
You might well be correct. PS4 and Xbox One have long ironed out their manufacturing process, and frankly I had a hard time finding any data at all on their failure rates. It seems to be hovering under 1% for each console. The 3DS is similarly quiet.
Really I'd like to find some comprehensive data on each regarding this, but all I can find is old info. We'll talk about that in a minute. Anyway, if those failure rates can be assumed to at least be statistically minimal, that's baller as hell. With 1.5 million consoles sold so far, Switch has to keep its failure rate under 15,000 units to match its competition numerically.
Now for the rest, point by point.
I haven't heard of Wii U's, 3DS's, PS3's, PS4's, Vita's, or Xbox One's with:
Wait for it.
-Warping due to cooling issues
Me neither, because most consoles have large areas to disperse the heat and significantly more potent cooling systems. Mobile device design limits either; most of the time the device must be passively cooled as there's just no space for a fan, and teardowns of the Switch show it's no exception.
Despite this, we currently only have two reported cases of warping out of 1.5 million sold. Let's account for unreported problems, though - scale that number up by
five orders of magnitude, and you will barely raise over a 1.3% failure rate.
And if you had 20,000 users with warped Switches, you
wouldn't have
multiple outlets
sourcing the
same two users on the same Reddit thread.
So maybe this isn't
typically an issue and multiple outlets saw some sweet, sweet clickbait opportunity on a slow news day. We'll see as time continues.
In the meantime,
how about we have a look at some other types of failure, from last gen? Because I've been sitting on that for several paragraphs now, it's time to have a look.
You'll probably note that this has nothing to do with the Switch. It mostly has to do with the Xbox 360,
and how the Red Ring of Death was an internal overheating issue.
Our brave Redditors are getting ahead on the curved screen trend, but they're
not actually being impacted by the overheating as of yet.
Certainly not the kind of impact you'd feel if, say, your CPU or GPU started to melt its sauter off the board because you squeezed too many components into a slim box without considering heat dispersion. Because you got mocked for being a big ugly box last generation. And ended up shelling out for RRoD repairs for the next three years like Hell's own alimony.
And forced a lad from Anytown, USA to buy at least two of the doomed things (I presume the third Xbox 360 was an S model, which fixed the engineering flaws, or maybe you sent your third 360 Original Recipe in after they'd discovered tne fix and swapped to less toasty chipsets).
Heavens no. Nothing like that.
-Melting SD cards that could potentially be used with other devices
Ah, you must mean SanDisk's.
I bought one, actually. SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD (SDSDQUAN-200G-G4A). The card refused to format or be read in any device I put it in, and overheated both in the Switch and in multiple other devices and adapters (pour one out for my work laptop's USB port, and the brave micro reader that was in it - or don't, I caught it in time and both are fine) within minutes of putting power to it. I already have an open RMA about the issue with Sandisk, and they'll be sending me a replacement out as soon as I can get them the original in.
Personally I suspect the manufacturing tolerances weren't properly calibrated, and they nudged two connections just a wee bit close on the inside of that tiny-ass chip, causing a short. But take that with all the world's salt, because I am
not SanDisk.
As far as I know, Samsung hasn't publicly owned up to the matter, but they certainly made my RMA snappy. No questions asked, here's your label. Odd for a ~$70 piece of hardware.
The reason this is getting tied to the Switch is because it was the first device that nearly
required a truly, truly massive microSD card, and was highly visible to the public (SLR cameras). Most phones get by on 32 or 64 GB. Sure, SanDisk had a bit of a goof with those back in 2013, but these days all I really hear about are the 128 GB cards and up.
Can't even hate on SanDisk too much - I am a man of many SD cards, and the known-functional 32GB I've thrown in the Switch as a control doesn't seem to be giving me any grief itself. It could be exclusive to high-volume cards, or it could be something like the Switch overheating in the dock, as above. I'll stress test the console by running around in Korok Forest for a bit and get back with you.
Anecdotal? Certainly. I welcome more comprehensive data on the matter.
-Having widespread controller syncing issues (yes, that one was confirmed to be a widespread issue that Nintendo had to patch out of the system)
No, that was a smaller-scale issue related to thin shielding on the antenna for the left joycon. They fixed it with a piece of foam to bolster the shielding.
No, really.
Sounds dumb, but having repaired more than my fair share of electronics I thought it was clever. Feel free to ask me what miracles I'd work with hot glue in your laptops at Geek Squad.
-Having what is supposed to be the main selling point of the system cause scratches on the system, basically necessitating the need for yet another accessory in a system that already requires extra purchases
The docking issues do give me pause. In my experience I haven't seen any real damage, but with the teardown information I've seen, and especially after the video I linked earlier this morning, I'm willing to concede it's a major concern going forward. I don't expect it to disappear anytime soon either - even if Ninty decided to upgrade their hardware later on, I doubt they'd swap out the Switch's plastic screen for a mobile-device-grade glass one based on the exorbitant price jump alone.
Now if you consider it a mobile device in any capacity, screen protection should well be mandatory for it. I have never owned a phone, tablet, or handheld that didn't have a screen protector on it, nor has anyone I've known that's given a damn about their device. But modern devices are pretty tough in their own right, and that requirement is lessening a bit. Not a lot, just a bit. Gorilla glass is good at scratch resistance, not impact resistance, and dropping a phone from several feet onto concrete is still hazard enough to keep the phone case cottage industry going strong.
But the nail in the coffin on why I'm saying that perhaps we should suck up the $10 for a screen protector is that we're trading
scratch susceptibility for
the power to not break on damn near anything.
Regardless, the Switch still shouldn't face environmental hazards from its own first-party accessories. I hope it's addressed going forward.
-Cases of people having hours of save data lost because their system malfunctioning, requiring them to send their system to Nintendo for repairs...only for Nintendo to send the thing back with all of the save data wiped, because the units had to be replaced rather than repaired, and Switch save data is locked to the device and can't be backed up on external memory or cloud storage.
See,
they said that early on, but
then there was this story that broke.
I'm pretty sure they're covering their ass for something they ultimately want tied to your Nintendo Account rather than a media device. Idiotic as that may yet be - let us put it on an SD card, Ninty, for heaven's sake - it's a solution to the problem you're noting.
..And it's already expensive out of the gate for what's little it's offering (both in terms of launch window releases, and firmware features). While they've certainly had some issues here and there, it's been nothing close to how much the Switch has had so far. The console was clearly rushed, everything from the launch line-up, lack of basic features, and the issues it's having confirms that. To deny that would be delusional at this point.
Sure, it's basically a Zelda box right now. Welcome to the world of early adoption.
Is this a good time to bring up Knack?
There's really never a good time to bring up Knack.
Adorable, though. Look at that pinchable metal face.
Most consoles have ****ty, ****ty, ****ty release day lineups and ****ty, ****ty, ****ty feature sets. They're still figuring things out.
By that metric the Switch is a home ****ing run for BotW alone, even if that's all it has. The last time I can recall launch titles moving anything like this many units, you'd have to go back to the days of the Wii with Wii Sports, or the original Xbox with the original Halo.
But let's elaborate on that.
Go down this list and tell me how many PS4 and Xbox One games you see. Afterwards we can discuss how many systems Resogun (PS4, #9) and Killer Instinct (Xbox One, #24) might have moved. Or, even better, what launch titles they missed.
And then we can talk about who won the launch feature game this generation.
Sales numbers are another thing entirely, though. Switch has sold somewhere around 1.5 million units so far, in its first month. PS4 sold one million units at launch, and 4.2 million in roughly its first two months. But considering the demand, I'm willing to bet that owes more to Nintendo's under-manufacturing policy rather than animosity towards the Switch's offerings.
And no, it's not just "people want to hate". I'm getting this news from Nintendo fan sites.
Me too!
We're like some kind of weird-ass internet brothers.
I just can't bring myself to buy a first wave Switch model at this rate (though the lack of games and firmware features, in combination with me still having enough to play on other systems, were enough to convince me it would be bad to buy one at launch...also I couldn't afford it at the time because dentist bills so yeeeah).
Now you see, here's a reasonable set of -
I think I'd be much better off waiting for newer manufacturing waves that have a lower defect rate, so that's what I'm doing personally. And I think I have enough basis for that to be a valid approach.
Aaaaaahhhhhh, and you you blew it. So close, man, so close.
You should call it as you see it here, because these are both excellent concerns and perfectly valid reasons - you can't afford one right now and you have more than enough to do elsewhere. It's not justifying the investment over the investments you've already made.
That's fine. Totally fine. I got a credit card to pay off and a 500-deep Steam library whenever I get fully tired of BotW. And I'm even holding out if some of the offerings I'm seeing are really, really great. The PS4 is looking really,
really great right now. Now, when my credit card clears up, I get a little money in the bank, we'll totally talk a PS4, but until then I'm deciding to hold out, even though it's already an excellent option.
And maybe that's also how you feel about the Switch. So even saying, "But it has Breath of the Wild," I can still completely get behind you here.
If you
just want more out of your Switch right now than BotW, you're totally right to hold out. Don't sweat it, right call made. We get around the launch dates for MK8D, Splatoon 2, maybe even up through Mario Odyssey, that's a good time to reconsider. Might even see a good bundle deal near the holidays.
And if it's just never your thing until you see your own personal killer app - Smash perhaps - then that's fine too. I didn't touch Wii U until Smash dropped, or even the 3DS until Pokemon X and Y. I know exactly what that's like and that's perfectly fine.
But maybe let's not throw quite so much shade at a handful of random manufacturing defects that mostly find themselves highly publicized due to the Switch's popularity.
At least not without much more objective data.
Might make me start typing again.
