For me personally this isn't a big deal since charging the controllers seem easy enough and they have long battery life. But I think it's disappointing if the box contains a stupid piece of plastic that you're encouraged to simply replace with a version offering the proper functionality. It's inelegant and wasteful to ship something like that.
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Nintendo Switch doesn't come with Joy-Con charging grip
- Thread starter Conkerkid11
- Start date
I don't think the messaging is that 'off'. I think it's more that there is mounting evidence that the Switch is a 'bad value' but it seems to be interfering with some people's hype receptors.
Just to save everyone time having to wait for the slideshow:
I can't tell if the grip in that picture is transparent, as the charging grip is supposed to be. It SHOULD be.
has ANY outlet had hands-on with the regular grip?
TAS
Member
Do to realize how hypocritical you sound right now? If a similar 'issue' was brought up on a Sony/MS thread, the naysayers would be attacked like piranha on frog and the thread would most likely be locked. Stop pointing the finger at Nintendo fans for something that is prevalent on all sides.
Okami Haundo
Member
I have a theory for why they went with a non-charging Grip in the box. My thought is that they wanted to avoid confusion around USB-C. Putting a charging Grip in the box means they need to also include an extra USB-C cable to charge it with.
As the console itself can also charge via USB-C, they would then have to deal with one of two scenarios. Either try to explain to the consumer that the charging the console with that cord requires a certain amount of power not provided by "every" USB port, or include a USB outlet plug as well. I'm not sure what their margins are on the Switch, but I'd imagine then that including a Charge Grip, a USB-C cable, and a USB outlet plug would be enough for them to need to raise the retail price.
Not saying they couldn't have eaten the costs and provided one, but I can certainly see why they chose not to.
You can play on a TV while charging. For the first set of Cons that's imo a minor convenience, for further sets I'd really like to have that.
MrChowderClams
Member
I think this is more of an issue for enthusiasts like streamers and content producers who generally have longer play sessions. Being able to not worry about battery life at all would be a nice benefit right out of the box, and given that the status quo for most consoles is a chargeable controller, it seems like poor form that they're charging $30 for a charging grip.
My guess is that it'll also become a larger issue as time goes by and battery capacity on the switch controllers decreases. It also becomes a problem if you forget to charge your controller and it dies, and you're unable to continue playing on your television until you charge them up again, which might take a while. It's not a great experience out of the box for sure.
I'm sure it was totally altruistic and they were just avoiding confusion for the consumer, because consumers are idiots and despite usb C charging literally every other device they own, a charging grip would blow their fucking minds. For sure. It has absolutely nothing to do with added costs and being able to extract more money from the consumer. Nope. Totally innocent.
Steve Youngblood
Member
The easiest way to imagine this being a nuisance is to picture people that are going to primarily treat the console as a home console all or most of the time. They're never/rarely going to use it in tablet mode. They mainly just want to leave the Joy-Cons on the grip and treat it like a traditional controller. They don't want to transfer the Joy-Cons from the grip to the tablet on a regular basis.
Now, the JoyCon batteries have died. To continue playing, the only option is to attach them to the tablet. There is no way to charge them while playing the console in TV mode.
What I've described may not apply to you at all. That's the problem we see in terms of the divide with threads like these. For some people, this is a major nuisance. For others, it may be a problem you don't run into at all as you may regularly use the tablet mode and make a nightly habit of putting the Joy-Cons on the tablet and docking the tablet.
I suppose. I can't remember the last time I had to play a game with the controller plugged in though. At 20 hours battery life, I'm not seeing an issue here. I guess if you're doing a marathon for charity, it might be an issue? Otherwise, if you're playing 20 hours of games a day, you have bigger problems than battery life.
It didn't occur to me that someone wouldn't simply move the Joy Cons to the tablet at night. It seems to be a very simply process.
Oppo
Member
it's amazing to see such synergy with a tag quote
this does sort of feel like the Switch's version of "Wii U cannot connect more than 1 tablet controller" which didn't end up being a big deal, albeit for bad reasons (Nintendo never made the case for that interaction model IMO)
Steve Youngblood has the crux of it a few posts up. the 'empty' grip should never have even existed, or at least included the port as mentioned. A home-only or -primary player could easily go through multiple sessions with the controllers (long battery remember) and forget to charge them on session 3 or w/e. Which is a kind of unique situation for a home console, being "locked out" like that.
Okami Haundo
Member
Not entirely sure what you're so angry about, as I didn't try to make that argument at all. Read my post again and you'll see that I mentioned two scenarios, both of which present issues with how they would need to present and/or price the product. I made no mention of altruism or "doing the consumer a favor".
shadow2810
Member
Real question, has anyone tried to contact Nintendo to clarify this?
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Which many people will. It's mean to be used as a console, a portable or both. There's no right or wrong way to use the device. They've made it flexible to try to appeal to all those types of gamers. Not everyone has a use for portable gaming and/or just hate gaming on a small screen. Others don't even own tvs and have no use for the dock. Some will use it a ton both ways.
It's still not a big issue to me with the 20 battery life, and I'll want a Pro controller for a dpad for VC games and fighters anyway (sucks that's $70). But it is a minor annoyance to the console mode only player who doesn't want to buy a charging grip or pro controller as now they have to keep the dock accessible where they can easily get to it from above vs being able to stick it wherever in the shelving their tv stand/cabinet where the ugly dock is out of sight.
Plus moving the joycons back and forth just to charge is an annoyance vs just treating it like a regular controller and plugging into charge next to our DS4, wireless headsets and other gaming shit we have to keep charged. I have a charging set up right next to the recliner in my mancave. Much easier to just plug in a cable there than have to get up, take the tablet out of the dock (as my tv stand shelves are open on all sides but not a ton of vertical space) attach the joycons and put back on the dock to charge And then repeat the process in reverse next time I wanted to game. I'll get a pro controller so I'll just leave the joycons on, but that would drive me nuts personally, and probably will for a while as there haven't been preorders in the US for the Pro controller so it will probably be scarce for a while.
Mild annoyance at best, but still how much more can the grip with a USB port, some short wiring and charger contacts cost to manufacture? They really couldn't pack that in a $300 sku? Much less mark it up to $30 to buy separately?
Conkerkid11
Member
What needs clarifying?
If you buy a second set of joycons, do they come with the charging grip?
It's purely about making money. Presenting 'confusion' as an equally plausible reason seems insane to me.
Edit: Damn, sorry for the double post.
No. The charging grip is $30.
No? But then they can be charging on the tablet whilst you play on the TV. And no-one will ever do a 20 hour multiplayer session, so I'm not seeing an issue. Perhaps I've been conditioned by 3DS, Wii U tablet and DS4 charging docks, but the idea of attaching the Joy Cons to the tablet to charge when I've finished my gaming session seems totally natural to me.
TAS
Member
it's amazing to see such synergy with a tag quote
Cut me some slack..that tag was born from extreme frustration during the worst Nintendo onslaught in NeoGAF history. 😜
Edit: But in all seriousness..if the JoyCons only had 4-5 hours of battery life then I could definitely agree with the complaints. But a 20 hour battery life is generous and will be a non issue 99% of the time as long as you place the JoyCons back on the dock to recharge at the end of the day.
Ah. So it's perfectly reasonable to expect people to swap around their joycons on the base station regularly, or if a persons joycons die it's perfectly reasonable to expect them to play on a tablet for a while rather than on their tv?
Suppose you're a TV only gamer. If your Joycons are out of juice, with a charge grip, you can attach a usb cable to the grip and charge the joycons while continuing to play in TV mode.
With just the pack-in comfort grip, you wouldn't be able to do that. If you would like to continue playing, you would have to play in handheld mode with the Joycons attached and connect a usb cable to the system in order to charge the joycons and continue playing.
With 20 hours of battery life, if you remember to detach the Joycons from the grip and charge them up periodically, it shouldn't really be too big an issue though.
Okami Haundo
Member
How so? Companies like Nintendo obviously have an end goal of making money, but creating customer confusion does not aid them in that pursuit. Do you honestly believe that if Nintendo included a stand-alone USB-C cable in the box with Switch, that people would just think it was only for the charging Grip? That's the point I presented.
Switch's battery is big enough to demand a certain amount of power in order for it to charge. Therefore, you can't just plug a USB-C to USC-A cable into anything you want an expect it to charge. This is especially true if you plugged into a low-power plug while playing a demanding game like Zelda. So including just a USB-C cord would solve one issue (the OP topic) and present another (using that cable to charge the Switch in portable mode).
I presented a solution to this scenario in the form of Nintendo also providing an appropriate wall adapter for said cable, but that's an extra cost. As you explained above, Nintendo's pricing on accessories suggests they want a decent profit margin on accessories. So it would be unlikely for them to provide three more pieces of tech in the box without raising the MSRP. So that's where the idea of consumer confusion leads us, it is not a standalone excuse.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
I doubt it since those aren't available separately and are just being produced to be packed in.
They're also demoing games on TV, so better to have charger grips so they can plug in if doing long streams etc.
Yes.
Well, yeah, swapping charged Joy Cons for ones that are about to run out of battery seems totally reasonable to me. Obviously. And I don't believe a person's Joy Cons will run out of battery very often as long as you charge them overnight, or between sessions. But if they you are careless enough to have let that happen, then yeah, take it on the chin and use the tablet. What's the problem?
Well I'm sure that mentality will launch them back into og Wii status in no time.
So consumers are careless for not treating the Nintendo console differently than an Xbox or a PS4, but Nintendo isn't careless for offering a very limited charging solution out of the box?
shadow2810
Member
How to/available method to charge controllers. 16 pages in and someone is still confused.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Not everyone wants to keep the ugly ass dock readily accessible for quick switching. If they're playing it like a console why wouldn't they stick it in the shelving in their TV stand/cabinet where all their other consoles etc. are? Those tend to not have a lot of vertical room and most people's stands don't have room on top next to the tv to fit the dock. Thus it's a bit harder to get the tablet in and out or to pop the joy cons in and out vs. just plugging in to charge at the same place where they charge their DS4s and other gaming junk already.
Again, mild annoyance at best. But man, the defensiveness in these types of threads at least makes it easy to identify the fanboys who need to go on the good ole ignore list. Having to deal with the Nintendo community is the worst part of owning Nintendo hardware and playing their games. It tops even the companies shitty practices and baffling decisions.
what does this even mean?
Not specifically consumers. Anyone who wants to use their toys for long periods of time without taking measures to ensure there will be adequate battery life to do so beforehand could certainly be considered careless. Switch consumers who don't bother plugging their Joy Cons in after 20 hours of playtime would certainly fit into that category. It's no different from PS4 or Xbox. You still have to plug them in overnight to charge them. The only difference is that there are two of them. Fortunately, the tablet provides a very convenient charging dock, and the process is as basic as possible.
Okay, in this very specific situation, where you are hiding the console away in a unit, with no intention of ever using it as a handheld device, then yeah, I can see an issue.
Well, in such cases, you might get a charging grip which functions as a controller handle. So if you have more than 2 joycons, you might as well get one of these or a third party solution which will do the job at a much lower price.
I don't really expect my joycons to die on me, because I will just put them on the Switch while it's docked after my session. If everything fails, I would have to charge my Switch in Handheld Mode while playing on it, which is also not the worst thing in the world.
Btw: I'm still used to cable controllers. Recharging the Wiimote was a hazzle and with all those wireless controllers on every console, you would also be forced to go wired for some time for TV play if you forget to recharge it. Since controllers like the DS4 don't have a 20 hour battery life, it's much more inconvenient in that case. Before you burn through your joycons, you'll have to recharge 3-4 DS4 controllers.
So it's slightly inconvenient at best and they sell you something to get over that inconvenience if it bothers you. Sounds natural to me.
j0hnnix
Member
You make some valid points but completely erase those with an ignorant remark, calling someone careless for leaving a controller not charged over night is a bit much, since no one knows why they left it not charging, life gets in the way of Nintendo for some people. The whole practice Nintendo has come to is Nickel and Dime their user base.. This is not good and mostly for a product that doesn't have a robust library yet. I'm baffled.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
That's not the only difference at all. If a DS4 dies you can plug into the console or a usb charger with a USB micro cable and keep playing on the TV. The Xbox 1 controller you can just pop a new set of AA batteries in and keep playing on the TV.
Switch you can't keep playing on the TV if your only set of joy cons dies on you. You either have to just quit and put them on the docked tablet to charge. Or switch to portable mode and play with the tablet plugged into a usb charger. If you want to avoid that, you have to buy a $30 charger grip so you can plug in and keep playing like you can out of the box on the competition.
Again, mild annoyance and the 20 hour battery life makes it not that big a deal as long as one keeps their dock/tablet accessible and not stuck away in a TV cabinet). But still a difference, and one that some people are clearly annoyed by regardless of how hard some people have seeing it as an issue for anyone due to a combination of fanboyism and inability to envision situations other than their own.
I could see this being an inconvenience to me every one in a while just because of the way I play games. I get at most an hour a night to play and with the ps4 that means my controller lasts a whole week without needing to charge. I don't use sleep mode so on the 5th day I will usually get the low battery message and will just plug it in to play. It's simple and easy and doesn't require me to leave the console powered. I will probably do the same thing with the Switch. My eyesight isn't the best so playing tablet too long isn't super comfortable. So forgetting to charge them could easily happen and my solution is to just buy the pro controller and never use the joycon grip except for mp. I will I didn't have to pay the extra money right now but that's just an easier solution for my playstyle. I don't think this is some heinous crime or anything but it is a mild annoyance that is saving them a few dollars on the unit and making them money on the accessories.
Ace Harding
Member
I'm pretty disappointed by everything being revealed about the Switch. I was hoping to pick one up at launch and excited because the concept is kind of a perfect lifestyle fit for me.
But between having basically zero games at launch and several hardware issues like this one that seem like they could be fixed someday I think I'll wait for the inevitable (unless it completely bombs) Rev 2.0. Hopefully by then there's a big library of stuff I want to play.
But between having basically zero games at launch and several hardware issues like this one that seem like they could be fixed someday I think I'll wait for the inevitable (unless it completely bombs) Rev 2.0. Hopefully by then there's a big library of stuff I want to play.
catapult37
Member
Not enough for a thread but... do we have any reason to believe you can connect wii remotes to the switch for multiplayer?
SystemUser
Member
I feel like this exact scenario is going to happen to a lot of people on launch day. It launches on a Friday so many people will expect to stay up and play Zelda for hours. How much charge will the JoyCons have in the shipping consoles?
On launch night anyone that didn't buy extra controllers or a charging grip might be blocked after a few hours. It might be a non-issue if the shipped JoyCons have 50% power in them.
Somewhere on the Japanese site the weights are listed. The difference is 9 grams. That is not enough weight for a battery, but it is enough weight for a USB port.
no previous controllers will be supported according to Nintendo
No battery in the Charging Grip unless the battery weighs 9 grams. Also, no USB in the included grip.
Just to save everyone time having to wait for the slideshow:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/hardware/switch/
Benjamin1981
Member
All this fuss just so Nintendo can save 5 cent by not including a USB port in the regular grip. So anti consumer.
I can just tap my PS4 DS to PC (laptop so its close to me) with the cable that comes with console and continue playing while controller charges thru PC via cable that was included.
Can I do that with Joycon without paying extra?
If I get Switch it will be handled as console, not as go and grab it with you console. Thus Switch would be in dock all the time (but dock cant be above TV-stand, cause cats do drop things).
Putting Joycons to dock when its inside TV-stand shelf might be a problem cause one can only attach them above and I can't have so wide / high shelf's in TV-stand that it would be possible to do this.
So your non-issue is issue to others.
If the space in your TV cabinet is so limited that you can't insert the joycons from above you might want to put the dock in a horizontal position instead of a vertical one (if that's supported). Since the Switch's vents are on top of the console (vs on the back like on regular consoles) you might be running into airflow issues that could lead to overheating otherwise. Would also have the advantage of gamecards being easier to insert (also on top of the console) and you could slide the joycons in forward instead of downward.
Joelstinton14
Member
Well it is what i have to do with my PS4. I had to buy a separate controller due to the battery life and i have one on charge whilst i play with the other. I could buy a £30 charing dock, or buy a longer USB-C lead because the 3/4feet that comes supplied with the ps4 is way to short.
Considering the price of the joy cons, and how small they are, i would like to think people would look after them rather than leaving them around the house. Sure, people may drop them on the dock, but in reality, for most people you are getting 10 play sessions *2 hour a night* out of them before they need recharging.
amstradcpc
Member
I don´t know, till now setting it in horizontal has not been shown in any Nintendo communication. Don´t thinking in this possibility is really an oversight.
Iam hoping that it would be possible for horizontal, but haven't heard anything. Maybe some 3 party manufacturers will make different kinda of stands.