Nintendo's Japanese Switch Repair Service Terminated

[T0@st]

Nintendo of Japan has announced that its extended warranty service for the popular Switch console will be ending effective August 31, and customers will not be able to amend their ¥200 (~$1.40) monthly / ¥2000 (~$14) annual subscriptions beyond July 14. The "Wide Care" initiative was launched last July, as a collaboration with Aeon Japan—granting owners of Switch consoles, outside legal warranty, an allowance of six repairs (maximum) and two full unit replacements. No official reason for the termination was provided, which is surprising given that the Switch has sold 29 million units in the region. Naturally not all of the customer base is signed up with Wide Care, but the timing could suggest that Nintendo is adjusting its priorities and making way for the next generation model.

A Wide Care-style service was not made available to customers outside of Nintendo's native base of operation, but the Switch's Joy-Con controllers have gained a lot of attention over the console's lifespan due to analog stick drifting issues. The fragile nature of these modular attachments has resulted in plenty of negative feedback from the userbase, and Nintendo has been pressured by watchdogs and petitions to provide comprehensive and out-of-warranty repair services in certain regions, with their new-ish scheme slowly expanding across Europe.



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[sephiroth117]

They are slowly preparing for the Switch 2 maybe

it will be paramount to use hall-effect sensors IMO.

For the SoC at least Ampere with DLSS and for the screen it’d be great to keep 720p oled as it’s a good compromise on both the framerate and battery but with a 75-90Hz refresh rate maybe at least.

i don’t know if a 1080p is useful for a 6-7 inch Nintendo console

time will tell

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

They are slowly preparing for the Switch 2 maybe

it will be paramount to use hall-effect sensors IMO.

For the SoC at least Ampere with DLSS and for the screen it’d be great to keep 720p oled as it’s a good compromise on both the framerate and battery but with a 75-90Hz refresh rate maybe at least.

i don’t know if a 1080p is useful for a 6-7 inch Nintendo console

time will tell

My guess is they will go to 1080p for the internal, since the price difference will be zilch, and keep 1080p external. Maybe allow 1440p docked depending on the SOC.

 

[LabRat 891]

They are slowly preparing for the Switch 2 maybe

it will be paramount to use hall-effect sensors IMO.

For the SoC at least Ampere with DLSS and for the screen it’d be great to keep 720p oled as it’s a good compromise on both the framerate and battery but with a 75-90Hz refresh rate maybe at least.

i don’t know if a 1080p is useful for a 6-7 inch Nintendo console

time will tell

My guess is they will go to 1080p for the internal, since the price difference will be zilch, and keep 1080p external. Maybe allow 1440p docked depending on the SOC.

What does nVidia even offer these days for an ARM-GPU SoC? I thought they more/less left that market.

Knowing Nintendo's past, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same/lightly-revised SoC that's in the current-production Switches.
(*looks contemptibly back at Gamecube-Wii-WiiU, DS-DSlite-DSi, etc.*)

 

[tabascosauz]

What does nVidia even offer these days for an ARM-GPU SoC? I thought they more/less left that market.

Knowing Nintendo's past, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same/lightly-revised SoC that's in the current-production Switches.
(*looks contemptibly back at Gamecube-Wii-WiiU, DS-DSlite-DSi, etc.*)

They didn't exactly leave the market, but they've been heavily marketed for automotive almost exclusively for a long time. The GPU arches are still the regular Nvidia fare though, which I guess is where the DLSS comment comes from.

I'd imagine the custom CPUs that Nvidia uses in its SoCs prevents more widespread adoption in consumer devices.

 

[dragontamer5788]

it will be paramount to use hall-effect sensors IMO.

Not necessarily. PS5 doesn't use hall-effect sticks IIRC, and only the XBox Elite (top-end most expensive) controller uses hall effect sensors.

$70 for a pair of joycons is rather expensive, but there are a lot of goodies on them overall. I think Nintendo's approach of random goodies matches their "fun" marketing scheme, rather than the more-expensive / elitist kind of marketing Microsoft (or Sony) goes for.

That cardboard game that messed with the Joycons was pretty fun, for example. I'd rather have Nintendo focus on what they're good at, rather than pretending to be what they're not.

 

[kondamin]

That was An interesting program, price is right too.

 

[AusWolf]

They are slowly preparing for the Switch 2 maybe

I still don't like this. Just because a new model is coming, they shouldn't abandon support on the old one. Imagine if car manufacturers did the same.

 

[sephiroth117]

What does nVidia even offer these days for an ARM-GPU SoC? I thought they more/less left that market.

Knowing Nintendo's past, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same/lightly-revised SoC that's in the current-production Switches.
(*looks contemptibly back at Gamecube-Wii-WiiU, DS-DSlite-DSi, etc.*)

Back in 2015, Nintendo were failing with their wiiU, they decide to rush the development of a next-gen console merging the portable and home consoles streams into one.
At that moment, they take off-the-shelves Tegra X1+.

Now, the console is 125M+ units sold..so believe me, if there's no offers for a Tegra this day ,Nvidia is going to make one only for it: it's their only solace in the console market and a very lucrative one !
And think about Nintendo using DLSS, which is heavily rumoured, that would in turn, drive support for those Nvidia technologies in engines and games that didn't really use them.

To answer your question however, rumours point toward a modified Nvidia T239, as with everything Nintendo, time will tell

 

[ixi]

I do hope nintendo will move away from nvidia. If they will be with nvidia again - it means AGAIN weak hardware which costs alot and in the end customers get bashed in the head.

But most likely of their eco it won't happen :{

 

[TheDeeGee]

I do hope nintendo will move away from nvidia. If they will be with nvidia again - it means AGAIN weak hardware which costs alot and in the end customers get bashed in the head.

But most likely of their eco it won't happen :{

Nvidia weak hardware? They have the fastest GPU on the planet.

 

[vmarv]

I do hope nintendo will move away from nvidia. If they will be with nvidia again - it means AGAIN weak hardware which costs alot and in the end customers get bashed in the head.

But most likely of their eco it won't happen :{

How's that? Nvidia would do the chip according to the specs requested by Nintendo. If they want a very powrful chip, then Nvidia will design a complete new chip, that then they will sold to other companies too, not only to Nintendo.
We all know that Nintendo never cared of the performance war in the console segment: they care about games and try to innovate in the way the player can interact with them.
The new Switch will keep the hybrid nature of the current gen (that is the reason of its huge success) and improve in performance and reliability (the drift problem costed them some billion in repairs and replacements).
I'm expecting minimum a 7" screen with a 1080p resolution and 4K in the docked mode. Maybe won't be squared like the current version, but with the joycons a bit larger and more comfortable.
Would be a great design feature being able to remove them from the Switch and attach them directly to each other, instead of having to attach them to a controller shaped base, like it is in the current version. This would be faster and could also reduce the costs, because there would be one piece less to produce and ship (packaging size and weight affects costs).

I don't know, I have a great idea also for the dock: if Mr. Nintendo (whoever is nowadays) wants it, I could join their development division and make them richer with my brilliant suggestions, in exchange of a couple millions and a free Switch 2. It's your call, boss.
I wonder if they forced to harakiri the engineer who designed the joycons sticks.

 

[Bomby569]

Nvidia weak hardware? They have the fastest GPU on the planet.

that's an ARM APU by nvidia, it's different from the gpu's we know and buy.

 

[AusWolf]

that's an ARM APU by nvidia, it's different from the gpu's we know and buy.

That's one thing. The other thing is, it's basically a GT 1030 equivalent in a handheld device, which was pretty impressive back then, but not so impressive now with the Steam Deck out and all.

They still shouldn't cancel repair support, though, imo.

 

[friocasa]

As the hardware ages, the chance of failure increases and the program's profits diminish.

Plus the Switch 2 is around the corner, as a company Nintendo want you to buy the new one, and new games, and pay for new online services... not extend the old hardware's life

 

[AusWolf]

As the hardware ages, the chance of failure increases and the program's profits diminish.

Plus the Switch 2 is around the corner, as a company Nintendo want you to buy the new one, and new games, and pay for new online services... not extend the old hardware's life

I see the company point, but it's sooo anti-consumer! Or am I the only one who wants to use stuff as long as possible and not buy the next shiny new thing every year?

 

[vmarv]

I see the company point, but it's sooo anti-consumer! Or am I the only one who wants to use stuff as long as possible and not buy the next shiny new thing every year?

If you consider that tablets and smartphones are designed in a way that they can't be upgraded or repaired by the customer, it's clear that the companies who made them don't give a flying fak about us.
They want you to buy the next shiny new thing every year.
In this case we can't complain with Nintendo, because they provided a support service way beyond the warranty that covered the device. I don't think other companies did something like this. The customers who will buy a current gen Switch will be covered by the legal warranty anyway, so they will still get repairs and replacements even after the new model will be released.

As for the hardware specs of the new Switch, I hope that the thing will be powerful at least as a PS4, because that way it would be a terrific emulation machine once hacked.
And of course would convince game developers to make games for it.
They need a big jump ahead. But Nintendo has been delusional so many times on this regard. If I remember well the Gamecube was the last machine that was more powerful than the competitors.