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Fails of 2022: the Nintendo Switch really showed its age

Fails of 2022: the Nintendo Switch really showed its age

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We’ve had five years of great games and sluggish performance. Nintendo’s console is pulling in the opposite direction of its software, which is bigger and better than ever before.

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Micha Huigen / The Verge

The Nintendo Switch’s lousy performance is as enduring as the console itself. Grainy, stuttery graphics are synonymous with playing games on the 2017 system, which hasn’t gotten a spec upgrade to boost how games look and run. And in the five-plus years since the Switch was released, remarking on disappointing visuals has been a fixture in our reviews of the console’s best games

The Switch’s hardware is pulling in the opposite direction of Nintendo’s modern software, which is bigger, better, and more ambitious in scope than ever before. And yet, its strategy of supporting a low-powered device that gets slowly updated is no different for the Switch than it was for Nintendo’s previous consoles. This long-tail strategy has been successful for Nintendo financially, especially so for the Switch, which is one of its best-selling consoles ever. But we’re past due for an updated model.

The Breath of the Wild revealed all that the Switch was capable of — and not capable of

After five years, it’s time for a more powerful Switch that can erase some of these past and future issues with a faster chipset capable of displaying games in 4K. There have been rumors of such a device, and its launch was reportedly postponed due to the chip shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. All that we’ve gotten is an underwhelming Switch OLED that has a better, slightly bigger OLED screen with similar internal specs and little else to tempt current owners. 

Continuing to sell the Nintendo Switch with its current specs is one of the biggest tech blunders of 2022 — not least because Nintendo’s inaction let other devices steal a sliver of the spotlight. 

The rear of the Nintendo Switch OLED, highlighting the improved kickstand.
The Switch OLED brought some welcome improvements, like a better kickstand and a more contrast-rich OLED screen.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

One of them is Valve’s Steam Deck. It’s not a meaningful competitor in terms of sales volume (the Switch is over 100 million strong globally), but Valve proved what more is possible in a modern handheld. Its custom AMD hardware can run many demanding PC games with respectable performance, and its $399 cost is competitive with the much less powerful Nintendo Switch.

The Steam Deck is an alluring device, not just because of its power. Buying one immediately rewired my brain to seek out the often-cheaper Steam version of games rather than the Switch version that, for a few years, I’d typically default to buying for on-the-go gaming. There’s an implicit guarantee that the Deck will run games better, and like the Switch, it can be docked to display on your TV. 

However, the Deck isn’t faultless. Compatibility issues mean that many Steam games may not work as intended (or at all). And its bulky design is far less bag-friendly. But for some Switch owners, including myself, it’s hard to resist the Deck, which has provided many of the benefits that I wanted from a Switch Pro. 

A Steam Deck on a white and orange background.
While not as portable as the Switch, Valve’s Steam Deck is more powerful and not much more expensive.
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

However, there will always be reasons for me to come back to the Switch — namely, to play its exclusive games from Nintendo and to get my fill of retro SNES games. So it’s not leaving my entertainment center. But there’s a backlog of exclusives that I want to play, but, perhaps nonsensically, I refuse to buy them until Nintendo releases a faster Switch. I’m going to buy the heck out of the Switch Pro — when it finally shows up.

If there was ever a perfect time to launch a meaningful hardware update to the Switch (aside from any time in the last two years), it’d be on May 12th, 2023, the day when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will release. It’s the follow-up to the 2017 launch title The Breath of the Wild, a brilliant Zelda game that revealed all that the Switch was capable of — and not capable of — out of the gate. 

Nintendo has some work to do in reversing the stigma that its Switch equates to not-great performance in many games. I hope that the next iteration leans on Nvidia’s DLSS AI or AMD’s FSR upscaling techniques to make graphics look better while relieving some stress on the hardware. Regardless, I don’t think Nintendo can afford to stay still with hardware during 2023.

Today’s Storystream

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Jay Peters1:29 AM UTC
Meta could move on from its deal for Within because the FTC’s lawsuit is making it take too long.

“If this deal doesn’t close in a timely matter, we’ll probably just walk away,” Meta CTO Bosworth Andrew Bozworth said in court on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Meta’s acquisition of Supernatural developer Within was first announced in October 2021, but the FTC sued Meta over the deal in July.

It’s been a big day for Bosworth; this morning, he published a big blog post about the company’s vision for VR and AR.


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Emma RothDec 19
Apple’s latest AirTag update includes a helpful safety feature.

Now you can use precision finding along with an audible alert to help locate an unknown AirTag detected traveling with you. Apple rolled out these changes last month as part of its plans to address concerns about stalking, but only now posted the release notes to its site.


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Lucid just raised a cool $1.5 billion.

A massive chunk of the investment in the electric automaker came from the Saudi government, as CNBC points out. The company says it’ll use it for “general corporate purposes.”

That extra cash will likely be helpful as the company expands its automotive lineup with an SUV and even higher-end sedan trims. It also gives the company extra runway to ramp up production — Lucid says it’s on track to build around 6,000 to 7,000 cars this year, compared to its original estimate of 20,000.


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I’ll keep a dumb home, thanks.

Amazon’s iRobot has been recording its customers, including on the toilet:

iRobot—the world’s largest vendor of robotic vacuums, which Amazon recently acquired for $1.7 billion in a pending deal—confirmed that these images were captured by its Roombas in 2020. All of them came from “special development robots with hardware and software modifications that are not and never were present on iRobot consumer products for purchase,” the company said in a statement. They were given to “paid collectors and employees” who signed written agreements acknowledging that they were sending data streams, including video, back to the company for training purposes.

Anyway, those videos were then posted to Facebook by gig workers in Venezuela. Congrats on your luxury surveillance apparatus!


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Joke cryptocurrency worth more than actual crypto exchange.

Here’s one explanation as to why:

“Coinbase is tied to the fortunes of the broader crypto markets.” said Michael Safai, partner at crypto trading firm Dexterity Capital. “Dogecoin has no real connection to the macro, but instead is driven almost primarily by headlines and hype, retail investors seem to be hungry for one last pop.” 

Cool industry!


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Amazon and Netflix teamed up on a Glass Onion gimmick ahead of the movie’s streaming premiere.

The new Knives Out mystery movie from Rian Johnson, starring Daniel Craig, starts streaming Friday morning. As part of the run-up, the circumstances and challenges of our post-Golden Age streaming era are bringing together a couple of odd partners.

If you use Amazon’s Fire TV, it should have access to a “The Mysterious Case of the Stolen Fire TV Cube” promo, helpfully branded by both companies.

You could navigate your way through the interactive experience to find out who took the box and why (with optional clues provided at your request by Alexa), or you could just read Andrew Webster’s review and make your streaming plans for this weekend.


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Dyson vs. Shark.

Which hair styling gadget gives you the best curls? Victoria Song put Dyson’s original Airwrap (not the updated 2022 model) to the test against the Shark FlexStyle to see which one had the best results and to see how those held up checking in a few hours later,


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A million Starlink subscribers.

SpaceX has announced that its satellite internet service now has a million active subscribers. That’s a lot of people getting their internet from space.

It makes sense that the company hit the milestone this year — in the past 12 months it’s expanded its Starlink offerings, adding options for people with businesses, boats, planes, and RVs. All the extra subscribers do come at a cost though; the company recently announced that it’s adding data caps.


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Don’t throw out your old expired COVID-19 tests — check this site first.

My wife and I just rescued six perfectly good tests from the trash! Yes, many COVID-19 tests are effective longer than pharma companies originally wrote, and you can easily find the new date by looking up your test and its Lot Code at the FDA.

Also: you can now get another free 4-pack from the US government.


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FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly agreeing to be extradited to the US.

According to the New York Times, a local lawyer in the Bahamas for FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that against “the strongest possible legal advice,” SBF is ready to voluntarily agree to extradition to the United States.

SBF had reportedly been ready to contest his extradition; even today, it was reported that he wanted to read the indictment before agreeing to extradition.

In the US, he is set to face a long list of criminal and civil charges covering fraud, money laundering, and more.


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Why we still believe in reality.

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We’re hiring a Senior Editor for Tech & Policy!

Tech policy nerds, please apply. I’m extremely proud of The Verge’s policy coverage over the past decade, which has led to lots of citations in Congress and real change in the tech industry. If you’re interested in leading policy coverage at The Verge, please apply:


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Getting the point across to Wikipedia might require an assist from the media.

Emily St. John Mandel wanted Slate to know one thing: that she’s divorced.

It’s not that it’s a particularly recent development, or that she wants everyone to know that she’s single and ready to mingle. It’s actually because she couldn’t get Wikipedia to stop saying she was married — an editor said she didn’t have a strong enough citation.

St. John Mandel’s Wikipedia page now says she’s divorced, citing the slate article.


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The Verge
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I love this guide by Allison Johnson for people like me — I’ve been using the dbrand leather skin on my iPhone in lieu of a case for about a year and I’ll never go back.